MK Mini Makers
Original date 30/9/11
Mini Makers
Every Saturday
1-3pm / Free
For children ages 4+
and their families
MK Gallery introduces an exciting new service for visitors on Saturday 1 October 2011 when it launches Mini Makers, a regular art activity session for accompanied children ages 4+ and their families. Replacing the gallery’s Saturday Art Trolley drop-in sessions, Mini Makers offers young visitors a richer experience with the chance to explore art in all its forms through a selection of varied and creative, artist-led activities each week.
Drawing and mark-making techniques provide the focus for the first session, The Big Bug Draw, on Saturday 1 October. Artist Claire Ridgeway will encourage children to make soft pencil drawings capturing the movement of bugs, and to experiment with different mark making techniques, using processes such as scratching, cutting and rubbing on paper.
Popular MK story-teller Yaw Asiyama will lead children on an entertaining journey around the Anna Barriball exhibition on Saturday 15 October. Provided with sketch books, children will be encouraged to discover the exciting themes underlying the artists’ work by making their own art.
Cambridge based artist group Irregular Circle specialise in enabling adults and children to explore their creativity together. Taking inspiration from the Anna Barriball exhibition, their session Marks, Mazes and Maps on Saturday 22 October will invite families to work collaboratively to make quirky maps and maze books showing Milton Keynes in an unusual way.
Music and movement feature in a fun, physically active session called Mark Making led by Tara Williamson on Saturday 29 October. Participants will be able to use unusual drawing tools and exciting mark making methods to explore the relationship between mood, gesture and feeling via music and sound. This is an opportunity to think about how your surroundings make you feel and how you can express this on paper.
Speaking about Mini Makers, MK Gallery’s Informal Learning Manager, Victoria Mayes, said:
“We are delighted to be able to offer our visitors regular access to high quality, creative, participatory events each Saturday afternoon, led by professional arts practitioners, and all free of charge. This builds on our recently launched Tuesday morning artist-led Start The Art sessions for under 4s, which have proved enormously popular. MK Gallery now offers a seamless service of informal, hands on creative opportunities, for tiny tots right through to teenagers, and adult workshop sessions are also in the pipeline!”
No booking is required for Mini Makers sessions. For full details check the Gallery’s Events Calendar on its website and sign up for the free monthly exhibitions and events newsletter. Mini Makers will be accompanied by a simple see-at-a-glance coding guide to help parents and carers identify the most suitable session types for their child – eg whether it is more active or a quieter session requiring more concentration.
MK Gallery
MK Gallery, 900 Midsummer Boulevard, Central Milton Keynes, MK9 3QA.
Located in Theatre District, Milton Keynes, MK Gallery is one of the UK’s leading public galleries, presenting a programme of international contemporary visual art.
Open Tuesday–Friday 12–8pm, Saturday 11am–8pm, Sunday 11am–5pm.
Admission to the gallery is free. www.mkgallery.org