Curious Kids was a programme of 12 free creative workshops for children aged 6-11 years old which ran between October and December 2024.
The workshops provided exciting creative activities ranging from t-shirt printing to woodworking, willow weaving to stocking sewing, while providing a warm space with snacks and hot drinks to welcome children and parents into. By offering non-standard art activities, we expanded children’s creative horizons beyond the school curriculum, exposing them to a wide range of art and craft techniques which they could pursue later in life.
The programme began with a Nature Printing workshop, during which the children learned how to print using recycled polystyrene with Brighton-based artist Zamzo, making images inspired by their favourite objects from nature.
The next workshop was run by artist Nalo Solo as an accompaniment to their exhibition ‘Black In Real Life’. During this workshop the children and their grown-ups engaged in a judgement-free and age-appropriate discussion about what Black Joy means and how to be a good ally to the Black and POC community, while creating a collaborative banner with a range of mixed-media materials.
This was followed by two workshops which celebrated the changing seasons through the traditional craft of willow weaving. During the first of these workshops the children learned how to make woven stars and fish using locally sourced willow, while the second workshop taught the children how to use foraged leaves, ivy cuttings and other foliage to decorate autumnal willow wreaths.
Next came a Tote Printing workshop, where the children designed and printed their very own tote bag using a heat press machine, which was followed by a T-Shirt Printing workshop during which the children used leaves, flowers and cut-out shapes to print their favourite imagery onto a t-shirt.
For the sixth workshop in the series, the children were encouraged to bring along an item of clothing that needed mending, and they were taught basic stitches to gain confidence with hand-sewing and learn how to fix holes or rips in fabric.
The next exciting workshop, run by Brighton-based woodworking collective Cahoots, gave the children the opportunity to build and decorate their very own plant and flower presses. With the greenery provided, the children practiced pressing leaves and flowers, before bringing their presses home to preserve their own finds in the future.
This was followed by a stocking-making workshop where the children could practice their hand-sewing skills to create a festive stocking using a variety of fabric and patterns.
November brought with it Remembrance Day for Lost Species and to honour this we ran a screen-printing workshop during which the children cut out shapes inspired by their favourite animals, both extinct and alive, to screen-print onto fabric.
This was followed by a Foil Art workshop ran by local artist Saj Fareed where the children learned how to take everyday foil oven trays and transform them into shimmering stained-glass effect works inspired by nature.
For our final Curious Kids workshop, we encouraged the children to look forward into next year and all the joys it might bring by making 2025 calendars. Using ONCA’s vast collection of environmental magazines along with paints and other art materials, the children created 12 pieces of expressive original artwork each – one for each month of the coming year.
The workshops provided vital opportunities for social connections and creative play, crucial for childhood development and positive wellbeing, while reducing barriers to accessing art. Many of the participants told us that free after-school activities are hard to come by locally, and parents expressed that the Curious Kids programme had a positive impact on their ability to provide activities and entertainment for their children in the colder winter months. We made a conscious effort to reach out to children of low-income families – those who are most affected by the cost-of-living crisis – and many of the participants attended several of the workshops.
We would like to express our deepest thanks to the UK government and Brighton & Hove City Council through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, who provided funding for these workshops.
This project was managed and facilitated by Ishtar Parrish Wain, with support from Izzy Pearce and Susuana Amoah. Sophia Kemp, Zamy Camus-Doughan, Saj Fareed, Laila Laurel and Robbie Crace each facilitated a brilliant workshop in this programme. With thanks to our volunteers for their facilitation support with the project.
Photos: Pheobe Wingrove