'Find the Joy in Making' at Queens Park Arts Centre

Queens Park Arts Centre is launching a brand new schools art project, funded by a Rothschild Foundation Impact Grant.

‘Finding the Joy in Making’ will see Queens Park working alongside five Buckinghamshire schools and Waddesdon Manor to help hundreds of young artists between the ages of four and nine create their own artwork inspired by the Chiltern Hills.

Students will work with interdisciplinary artist Pippa North on a unique diorama inspired by the Chilterns, focusing on artistic skills including pottery, watercolour painting and felting.

They will also get to visit Waddesdon Manor, and see their work form part of a very special exhibition at Queens Park Arts Centre this summer.

“I’m so pleased the Rothschild Foundation is supporting our outreach work this year,” says Sarah Lewis, Queens Park’s Artistic Director. “The children involved will have a fantastic time making and creating artwork under the expert guidance of Pippa, as well as enjoying a day at Waddesdon.”

“I hope they’ll feel a great sense of pride and achievement when their work is exhibited at Queens Park in the summer. It’s a perfect celebration of the creativity of young people as part of the Centre’s 40th Anniversary celebration in 2020.”

Building on the Centre’s WanderHouse Outreach Project, which launched in 2013 and has seen Pippa lead collaborative art and craft projects in a diverse range of schools and community settings, ‘Finding the Joy in Making’ will continue Queens Park’s association with Aylesbury Vale Academy Primary School, as well as making new links with Green Ridge, Longwick and Hughenden Primary Schools and Marsworth Infant School.

“The aim of this project is to provide a fun and creative way of introducing the idea of resilience and creative making using sustainable resources,” says Pippa, who has more than twenty years’ experience leading such projects.

“I’m really looking forward to working with all of the children, and introducing them to a variety of beautiful, sensorial materials.”

Leona Forsyth from the Rothschild Foundation, who are funding the project, says “I am delighted that we will be supporting Queens Park’s education programme and working together this year”.

For more information about the ‘Finding the Joy in Making’ project, visit Queens Park Arts Centre’s website – www.qpc.org