Mess Room Creatives
A series of creative, adult, art workshops spanning 12 weeks, with scheduled group visits and guided tours to cultural and heritage sites across the Medway Towns
MESS ROOM Creatives is a new visual arts programme for Medway residents, offering creative opportunities to local adults. Over 12 weeks our participants will visit The Royal Engineers Museum, The Guildhall Museum and Rochester Cathedral. Led by different artists groups will be inspired by guided tours and create a series of work that will be showcased in a public exhibition.
“It feels good to just be doing. We get so caught up in life, I’ve got a moment ‘to do’ just for me”Mess Room Creatives Participant
The Royal Engineers Museum
The group kicked off with a visit to the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham, starting with a guided tour around the Museum to gather inspiration for their first project with Artist Marissa Mardon working with themes of camouflage and hiding objects within Art.
Across the four workshops, the group members beginning to work on their own camouflaged creations. Using printed photographs taken from objects and items that inspired them during the tour, and under the guidance of Artist, Marissa Mardon, they began to use tracing paper, coloured pencils and pens to begin producing their own camouflaged and distorted creations.
We were lucky to have a surprise visit from one of the Royal Engineers who popped in to say hello and after seeing the group's camouflaged creations happily chatted with them about modern day camouflage and multi-terrain patterns, even taking the time to pose for photos for the group.
During the final workshop our Artists finalised their camouflaged creations and began to consider how their work might be presented when exhibited at the end of the project. Photographer Gary Weston also attended the session to capture each Artist with their final pieces standing next to the objects in the museum that inspired them.
A great big thank you to Marissa for being our first MESS ROOM Creatives lead Artist and to the Royal Engineers Museum for being such wonderful hosts.
“You think you can't do the creative activities at the start, but this has really built my confidence, working in stages, and learning from the artists and other participants. The medals on display at the RE Museum inspired me to look at my own family's history”Mess Room Creatives Participant
guildhall Museum
The second phase of MESS ROOM Creatives began with a visit to the Guildhall Museum in Rochester with Artist and Contemporary Jeweller, Dan Russell.
The group were treated to a talk from the Guildhall Museum’s Educational Officer Dr Jeremy Clarke and were offered the opportunity to handle the Museum’s collection of Victorian era jewellery from deep within their archives to aid them with their project ideas. The group were encouraged to draw and collage objects they could use as inspiration for this series of workshops .
Back in the MESS ROOM, Dan taught the group two ways of making cameos inspired by the Victorian era jewellery, using layered foam or using foil, PVA glue and tissue paper which formed the basis to creating their own wearable Victorian inspired jewellery.
The group began to resolve their ideas working on settings for their cameos whilst other members worked on adding fine details or planning whether their creations would become brooches, neckpieces, or pendants.
A massive thank you goes out to The Guildhall Museum Team for being our hosts for the day and for providing our Artists with this wonderful opportunity to experience this collection of works which are otherwise not available to the public.
“It has been a pleasure to work with the MESS ROOM, it has a very friendly atmosphere. I was not confident with my abilities and it has helped me to be more positive and to give new things a go”Mess Room Creatives Participant
rochester cathedral
The final phase of MESS ROOM Creatives, led by Artist Tina Ryan, began with a fun and informative tour by Learning Officer to the Cathedral, Alison Day, whilst searching for patterns in the architecture of the Cathedral to inspire them for the project.
The group then went on to begin making printing blocks with Tina based around their architectural inspirations.
As the sessions continued, our members started to work on their final, larger scale printing blocks, inspired by architectural patterns from around the Cathedral and some of the group completed their final printing blocks and were able to make their first prints from them using paper, silver foil, or gold card.
During the final workshop with Artist Tina Ryan at Rochester Cathedral the group finalised their creations. Photographer Gary Weston also attended the session to capture each Artist with their final pieces standing next to the patterns in the Cathedral that inspired them.
Once again a great big thank you goes out to Tina for being our final MESS ROOM Creatives lead Artist this season and also to Rochester Cathedral for being such wonderful hosts.
“I have really enjoyed this and love taking part in anything that gets me out of the house. I don't like spending time on my own at home, and this has given me the opportunity to have some new ideas to work with”Mess Room Creatives Participant
mess room creatives exhibitions
The final work created by our MESS ROOM Creatives members is now exhibiting at each location - click below to find out more
Thank you to Medway Council for allocating us funds for MESS ROOM Creatives through the UK government’s Shared Prosperity Fund #UKSPF
