This past Saturday we welcomed the community of St Mary’s Primary School for the culmination of this year willow project led by artists Cherry Chung and Jane Doyle. Activities included painting waves with watercolours, marking the motion of Hokusai’s iconic woodblock print The Great Wave of Kanagawa and the main event, the process of bending and manipulating willow to create waves in our Art Garden.

Many thanks to our visitors who spent the afternoon with us, our wonderful volunteers for their energy, enthusiasm and warmth of welcome and of course to our two artists who planned and delivered an amazing day enjoyed by all. Looking forward to what can be achieved again next year.

Enjoy the feedback and images captured below and we wish you a wonderful summer break, Steven (Schools Team)

It is a very inclusive event for all ages. The staff, volunteers are helpful and knowledgeable. Enjoyed every bit of it. Thanks

What a lovely way to spend an afternoon. I found the process engaging and FUN!

Lovely to meet you all.

Really special to have the opportunity to create a wave out of willow. Thanks for introducing me to using willow. Really cheered me up today, thank you 

We’re aiming to go plastic free for life and reusable items at home. We love the activities and volunteers are so acknowledgeable.

Kids really enjoyed the activities. Nice variety and really helpful and engaging helpers. Charcoal and willow weaving was very novel! Thank you

A lovely, engaging activity so nice to learn a little about willow. My daughter loved meeting the crew. Thank you. The offer for families makes a huge difference. Always so welcoming and well judged.

A very enjoyable couple of hours spent truly inspired by the Hokusai. Lovely imaginative interpretation by wonderfully kind and supportive staff and volunteers.

It was such a friendly environment. Volunteer artists were very kind and helpful. We have spent easily a couple of hours trying each session. My daughter didn’t actually want to leave.

Me and my sister Aggie had a great time drawing and all the staff were so friendly and helpful. There were loads of resources and activities to do.