Ysgol Y Deir and Hijinx (2019)

Between 14th November 2019- 25th November 2019, I collaborated with Ysgol Y Deir, a school for children and young adults between the ages of 5-19 with learning disabilities, and Hijinx, a not-for-profit company that provides opportunities for actors with learning disabilities. To develop and facilitate a series of sessions with the children at Ysgol Y Deir, alongside three other facilitators, to produce artistic outcomes which would be used as props for Hijinx's Aly in Wonderland play in the Wales Millennium Centre. For more information about Hijinx, click the underlined Hijinx by "Organisation".

In accordance with these organisations aims and participant needs, the aims of the sessions were to encourage social skills, spark imagination and creativity, and identify a sense of unification and connection between participants' artistic outcomes that would be props for Hijinx to use in their Alys in Wonderland play.

The sessions ran once a week, and each facilitator worked with one child to produce elements of a collaborative prop. The collaborative prop was based on each participant's illustration idea, within the first session, in response to the second draft script of a scene provided by Hijinx. At the end of each session, the facilitators and the participants came together to discuss what they created and how it would be potentially used on the prop.

Based on the participants' illustrations, the other facilitators and I created an acrylic-painted cardboard tree and two individual sessions for the participants we were working with, and a final collaborative session where we attached what we made onto the tree. With my participant, I facilitated an eye lantern-making session and an acrylic-painted art session in accordance with the participant's initial design.

Click the center of the image to view descriptions of the photos taken.