Here at Brooklyn Studios we are all committed to inclusion and participation.
We believe that opportunites to explore the creative arts should be part of everyone’s life regardless of age or ability and we want to create links within our community to make this possible.
Since first opening our doors in July 2009 we have been developing community projects that are an important element of our creative activities as a group and we hope you enjoy finding out about some of them here.
Chernobyl Children’s Project 2011
On 7th August 2011 we held another very successful activity day in the Brooklyn gallery and studios for a group of ten children from Belarus and various of their helpers and friends. The young people had the opportunity to try out a wide variety of activities including cartoon drawing, jewellery making, T shirt and bag painting and of course drumming in the basement!
It was a great day and the youngsters had plenty of nice things to take home to their families as well as happy memories of a fun day in (rainy) Hebden Bridge.
Knit and Natter Sessions at Mytholm Meadows
Interest in our art exhibitions at Mytholm Meadows, the local Extra Care Complex, has resulted in Brooklyn artists Annie Lawson and Sue Mitchell contributing their skills to the Thursday Knit and Natter sessions for tenants. Annie has some of her beautiful rug wall hangings on display and these have been much admired. Annie kindly offered to help tenants learn some techniques for making rugs and their enthusiasm has resulted in Annie becoming an artistic advisor to the Thursday group.
Encouraged by the Mytholm Meadows Support Assistant Pauline Walker, who set up the group , and Scheme Manager Neil Mallinson, tenants are enjoying having a go and finding fun in doing something different. The idea is to create a wall-hanging for the communal lounge in memory of the tenants’ late friend Jean. Jean’s family have provided funds for creative activities using textiles.
Both Annie and Sue are finding the Thursday sessions very interesting as they themselves learn from the residents about working in the former textile industry in the Calder Valley.
Picture Lending Service
We love having visitors to our ground-floor gallery but appreciate that not everyone is as mobile as they would wish. Since one of our aims is to bring original art into everyday living, we have chosen Mytholm Meadows, in Church Lane, Hebden Bridge, which is an extra-care housing scheme managed by Pennine Housing, to pilot our picture lending service enabling more people to enjoy our art works.
Residents Mary Robbins, Marian Cameron and Doreen Haigh with Brooklyners and Caroline
We lend a varied selection of 2D works for temporary display in the public corridors and shared rooms and the pictures are changed at quarterly intervals.
Chernobyl Children’s Project
We are supporting the charity Chernobyl Children’s Project (UK) which provides month long recuperative summer holidays in the UK for about 250 children from Belarus who have cancer or are in remission from it. The children’s health has been compromised by the continuing problems associated with radioactivity from the disastrous nuclear accident at the Chernobyl reactor in 1986.
On 8th August 2010 we had a fantastic day providing artistic and musical activities for a group of around 10 Belarussian children, their doctor and an interpreter plus 4 children from the host families.
We are grateful to the generosity of the Bearder Charity for providing a grant to purchase art materials for use during the day, to the Hebden Bridge Co-Op for providing healthy food and to Tangerine Confectionery for the sweets.
Anyone interested in learning more about the Chernobyl charity can visit their web site at http://www.chernobyl-children.org.uk/ The local group in our area is West Pennine.
