Sculpture Saturdays Family Workshops
Sculpture Saturdays, our programme for families to make and play together, is back!
We have a series of exciting artist-led workshops running throughout the summer, from carnival headdress making to experimenting with ancient indigo dyeing techniques.
We will be running 2 workshops each Saturday for 4 families at a time so, when you book, you can choose either morning or afternoon. One booking is for one family group. The workshops are designed for primary school aged children and their families but are open to all.
The workshops will be led by various artists, some of whom will be presenting their work as part of this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival. All our workshops will take place in the Outdoor Learning Studio, situated in the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop Courtyard. The area is covered but please remember to come dressed for the weather.
You can read more about each individual workshop below. They are free, but donations are welcome – please book through Eventbrite. Spaces are limited.
During your visit to ESW you can also see artists’ works on show. Calum Craik’s exhibition is presented in our street view gallery on Hawthornvale, and from 28 July to 28 August Ashanti Harris’ work will be presented within our Courtyard and Beacon Tower. On Saturdays 30 July and 13 and 27 August there will be a performance related to Harris’ project at 1 – 1.30pm. Both artists’ projects and the Sculpture Saturdays programme are part of Edinburgh Art Festival. There is also a café at ESW if you would like to visit before or after your workshop.
The Courtyard is an accessible environment with dedicated facilities. If you would like to read more access info or see details of how to get to ESW, including low carbon options, please go to our Visit Us page.
Found Object Sculpture with Calum Craik
Saturday 23 July
11am-12.30pm or 2pm-3.30pm
Book now for Found Object Sculpture with Calum Craik
Calum Craik’s exhibition, Psycho Capital, can be seen in the Hawthornvale Space at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, and uses discarded materials and everyday items to understand how we work, live and experience our surroundings.
For this workshop we will be using everyday items and objects to create unusual sculptures. We will work with a variety of materials to make absurd and improvised structures. We will create new forms by contrasting textures, shapes and scale, allowing us to consider our social relationship with each other and with objects.
Calum Craik is an interdisciplinary artist and lecturer whose work examines labour, class and the environment.
http://calumcraik.com
Image Canary, Teapots, tea, rebar, invisible coal (2020). Courtesy of the artist.
Carnival Headdress Making with Ashanti Harris
Saturday 30 July
11am-12.30pm or 2pm-3.30pm
Book now for Carnival Headdress Making with Ashanti Harris
Carnival is a time when the world turns upside down! Kings become Beggars and Lions become Queens! Join Ashanti Harris in this workshop where we will be making carnival headdresses to transform you into something new for this day of disguise and masquerade!
Ashanti Harris is a multi-disciplinary artist and researcher based in Glasgow. Working with dance, performance, sculpture and installation, Ashanti’s work disrupts historical narratives and reimagines them from a Caribbean diasporic perspective. As part of her creative practice, she is co-director of the dance company Project X – platforming dance of the African and Caribbean diaspora in Scotland; and works collaboratively as part of the collective Glasgow Open Dance School (G.O.D.S) – facilitating experimental movement workshops and research groups.
There will be a performance as part of Dancing a Peripheral Quadrille, Ashanti’s Edinburgh Art Festival commission 1pm-1.30pm. Free and open to all.
Image Harris Family Photos from Guyana Carnival 1987-2013. Image courtesy of the artist.
Create and Inflate with Ashleen Lewis
Saturday 6 August
11am-12.30pm or 2pm-3.30pm
Book now for Create and Inflate with Ashleen Lewis
An inclusive creative art workshop for young people with additional support needs and their families/carers to create their own inflatable sculptures!
Participants and their families will learn how to construct and decorate their own inflatable sculptures. We will also collaborate on a larger scale sensory sculpture and interact with it.
Instruction cards with different shape construction ideas will be provided along with creative suggestions to help provide inspiration.
Ashleen Lewis is a Canadian Artist based in Edinburgh. Her practice focuses on exploring ways of connecting and creating inclusive creative space through her work with children and adults with Learning Disabilities, Autism and Dementia.
Image Courtesy of the artist.
Plaster Relief Sculptures with Ashanti Harris
Saturday 13 August
11am-12.30pm or 2pm-3.30pm
Book now for Plaster Relief Sculptures with Ashanti Harris
Transform everyday objects into futuristic fossils in this workshop with Ashanti Harris.
What objects could tell the story of your life? What traces will you leave behind? Each family will be invited to bring their own objects to the workshops and we will have a selection here which we will press into clay. These object impressions will then be transformed into your own relief plaster sculptures that tell the story of you!
Ashanti Harris is a multi-disciplinary artist and researcher based in Glasgow. Working with dance, performance, sculpture and installation, Ashanti’s work disrupts historical narratives and reimagines them from a Caribbean diasporic perspective. As part of her creative practice, she is co-director of the dance company Project X – platforming dance of the African and Caribbean diaspora in Scotland; and works collaboratively as part of the collective Glasgow Open Dance School (G.O.D.S) – facilitating experimental movement workshops and research groups.
There will be a performance as part of Dancing a Peripheral Quadrille, Ashanti’s Edinburgh Art Festival commission 1pm-1.30pm. Free and open to all.
Image Courtesy of the artist.
The Blue Miracle with Maarya Sharif
Saturday 20 August
11am-12.30pm or 2pm-3.30pm
Book now for The Blue Miracle with Maarya Sharif
Discover the magic of the ancient technique of indigo dyeing in this workshop led by Maarya Sharif. The Indigo plant has been used to dye natural fabrics for millennia and provides the distinctive blue colour often found on denim fabric. Families will learn about the dyeing process and explore the Japanese technique of Shibori using simple household objects to create intricate patterns.
Maarya Sharif is an artist, educator and outdoor practitioner. She combines practical arts & crafts skills with a deep sense of aesthetics and spiritual practice. As a medium, nature is often a key feature in her freelance work in which she invites participants to unearth their creativity primarily using natural materials.
https://www.instagram.com/maaryamakes/
Image Courtesy of the artist.
Talking Heads from Another World with Frieda Ford
Saturday 27 August
11am-12.30pm or 2pm-3.30pm
Book now for Talking Heads from Another world with Frieda Ford
How would you report from a universe where crabs rule the world, or we all lived in the sky? Who would live there? How would they get about? What would they wear?
Come along to create a parallel universe diorama with film artist Frieda Ford. Using cardboard boxes and collaging materials we will create miniature portals to other worlds where you can report directly from! There will be the option to experiment with green screening to transport yourself into your world!
If you have one, please bring a smartphone! We will be using an app called Chromavid to green screen.
Freida Ford has a socially engaged practice and works in film and costume, creating lurid and surreal visuals. She is on the EMBASSY Gallery committee and makes art with young people through ARTlink.
https://www.instagram.com/friedafordart/
Image Courtesy of the artist.
Punch & Jewellery with Jack Cheetham
Saturday 3 September
11am-12.30pm or 2pm-3.30pm
Book now for Punch & Jewellery with Jack Cheetham
Join artist Jack Cheetham to make some experimental string puppets and larger-than-life costume jewellery using a large array of materials in this hands-on session. Together we will explore and celebrate some of the weird and wonderful characters and objects that make up our world to make some new sculptural pals and magical adornments!
Jack Cheetham is a visual artist based in Glasgow. Jack facilitates collective making and workshops as a way to start conversations and collaboratively generate objects and ideas as a way of looking forward and imagining possible futures for our society and world.
Image Puppet workshop with P5 Trinity Primary with Jack Cheetham, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop (2019).
