At The Whitworth, we are interested in new ways of doing things. The gallery is an experimental, shared workspace for everyone to get involved – from nurseries to universities. It operates a bit like a workshop, with activities, artist residencies, hands-on sessions and research informing the exhibitions and events that the gallery develops. Our PLAY days are monthly drop-in sessions for under-fives and their grown-ups that take place in the ‘school of creativity’, which takes up the entire mezzanine level of the gallery.
ACTIVITIES
Our PLAY sessions are focused on loose parts. Imagine a room absolutely jam packed with crates, boxes, tyres, and many other weird and wonderful objects, chiffon scarves, fabric, wooden planks, pieces of foam, all for children to help themselves to and play within any way they like.
Today we are exploring things that roll. We have plastic and cardboard tubes of many sizes, half drainpipes, planks of wood, balls, cars with wheels, cotton reels and cable drums and everything in our stash of resources that can help children explore the concept of rolling and the rotation schema. We lay any big resources out and any smaller resources we have available in low boxes or baskets, so children can help themselves. We've even created an empty rug space to encourage physical rolling of bodies.
An artist facilitator and a team of volunteers are on hand to support families. They may decide to become involved in the play themselves, often testing theories or wondering out loud (and the children will often happily join in), but it is important that the adult does not try to lead with an outcome in mind.
For example, one child wanted to create a chute to let their toy car run down. They started by propping a half drainpipe on a bench, understanding that the pipe needed to be on a slant. They then laid another drainpipe down in front of the first, but the car wouldn’t continue down the second pipe as it was on the flat. This child then found a box to put under one end of the second pipe, continuing to extend their construction with a further sloped pipe. When it was done, the car ran perfectly down the chute and was repeated over and over again with different cars and balls. Other children saw this activity and wanted to create their own. Another child set up their ramp alongside and started to have races, developing the activity even further. Chutes or ramps and cars or balls is a great STEAM activity, enabling children to test out theories such as gravity, speed and friction, as well as problem-solving.
All too often art workshops for under-fives focus on the end product, allowing little room for experimentation and learning through play. Loose-parts play allows children to adapt and change their creations without completely starting again. By focusing simply on the process, it allows there to be no right or wrong. Children quickly realise that the non-permanent nature of their creations allows them more freedom to change, to experiment and to explore, problem-solving and growing in confidence as they go.
SCRAP STORE
All the loose parts resources are sourced from the Scrap Store in Leeds. There are similar scrap centres around the UK so there might be one near you. The Leeds Scrap Store is a social enterprise focused on helping the environment by reusing waste materials from businesses as resources for art and play.
So often we have been asked by parents where we get all our resources from, so last year we launched the Shop of Creativity, a new venture in partnership with the Scrap Store. The Shop of Creativity sells affordable, creative art and play materials, providing families, early years settings and schools the opportunity to purchase their resources here in Manchester.
THE WHITWORTH ARTS GALLERY
Number of visitors: 327,871 visits in 2019
Collection: part of The University of Manchester, The Whitworth has over 65,000 works of art, textiles and wallpaper, and contains a park with an art garden, sculpture terrace and orchard.
Early years offer: PLAY days are monthly drop-in sessions, while Art Baby is for under-twos and Outdoor Art Club uses the art garden and park.
FURTHER INFORMATION
