Grief & Art Workshops
I love facilitating grief & art workshops. These specialist creative sessions provide an opportunity for those who are struggling to come to terms with an emotional loss to express their feelings via the mediums of drawing and fabrics.
In a previous workshop I facilitated a year 6 group in a local primary school. I was asked to support the children who were struggling after the death of an incredibly popular and much loved teacher. Each child was invited to share their feelings and their personal memories and this culminated in each of them creating a textile piece (with some drawing) that expressed a magnitude of emotions. The individual sewn pieces were then machine stitched in to a large, colourful and incredibly poignant wall-hanging.
Another grief & art workshop was for a smaller number of school children who were struggling after the tragic death of their very dear school friend. This time I helped the group to create their very own 'Friend Buddy', inspired by the memories they had of their school friend. Helping people work through their grief, with the help of art, can be incredibly therapeutic.
A very special way of drawing out the difficult things while promoting the positives.
Dawn worked with us over the course of a year on a very specific project relating to memories and thoughts for the future during a very emotional and difficult period in the schools life. We were all grieving over the loss of a treasured member of school with our oldest children particularly affected. The Art & Grief workshop led by Dawn became an instrumental part of the grieving and the recovery process. She has the most incredibly passion, kindness and thoughtfulness and a very special way of drawing out the difficult things while promoting the positives. Art was the medium but this alone would not have had the same affect. It was Dawn’s personality that gave it such a vibrant and positive feel and one that the children gained so much from.
The adults who worked with Dawn were also supported and taken on the same positive journey to being able to celebrate the past and the present and look to the future.
Dawn is certainly a talented artist but much more. It was a pleasure and a privilege to have worked with and alongside Dawn.
School Art & Memory Workshop