Naomi Kendrick Workshops

I have been running workshops for ten years at galleries, museums, schools and community organisations across the UK. These workshops have been attended by a diverse audience of all ages, including people with learning disabilities and visually impaired and blind people. I have developed multi sensory and self-directed workshop methods that enable as wider audience as possible to engage with contemporary art. These methods have grown out of: my own art practice, running *Elephant Project and training with CEMEA (Training Centre for Active Education Methods, France)

I established *Elephant workshops in 2003 with funding from the Arts Council. The reason for creating Elephant was to increase opportunities for visually impaired and blind people in the UK to engage with and create art. This has since expanded to include all audiences.

Elephant has carried out workshops and exhibition tours nationally in partnership with galleries, community groups and other organisations, giving hundreds of people of all ages, the opportunity to experience contemporary art exhibitions and create their own work.

My approach to engaging participants with an exhibition is multi sensory and includes using verbal (audio) description in combination with objects, sounds, smells and even tastes inspired by the exhibition that together offer ‘multiple ways in’ to the work for the participants. There is also a strong focus on discussion, exploring themes around the exhibition and the response this evokes in the participants personally. Workshops that involve participants making their own work are also multi sensory and self-directional in nature, and involve working across art forms. Participants are encouraged to realise their own ideas and explore new techniques, my role within this is to enable participants to create their work, offering guidance but without dictating the result. Work made during such workshops ranges from sound pieces and performance to photography, creative writing and sculpture.

Workshops:
Museums and Galleries: Tate Britain, The Royal Academy, London, Fabrica Gallery,   Brighton, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Brighton, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, Aspex gallery, Portsmouth, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, The Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool, Turnpike Gallery, Leigh, Manchester Museum, Manchester.

Other Organisations: CEMEA (Training Centre for Active Education Methods, France), Engage (National Association of Gallery Education), Lime (connecting health care and the arts), St Dunstans (for blind ex service men and women), Henshaws (Society for Blind People), VIC (Visually Impaired in Camden), Bradbury Fields (services for blind and partially sighted people), Liverpool, The West Of England School For Children With Little Or No Sight, Art Through Touch (art centre for blind and visually impaired people) Access to Heritage, The Wildflower Centre, Liverpool.

 For more inforamtion about my workshops see other 'workshops' posts and follow the links below

http://tinyurl.com/TwentyTenNaomiKendrick
http://www.elephantproject.co.uk/