Co-creating with communities
We enjoy connecting people through arts projects. We believe that to change the world you need to start by making a difference in the place, where you live. Explore our stories and
get in touch, if you want to run a similar project with your community.
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What I Learnt From My Grandmother 2021
Our new community arts programme and local history project has been developed in partnership with the Dunmow Museum, Dunmow Library, local schools, Great Easton Sewing Bees and some wonderful artists. The aims are to;
- reflect on and share the skills and life tips passed down by influential women in our lives
- celebrate local women's history
- create new textile pieces and artworks for display in Great Dunmow
- run community workshops that celebrate the health and wellbeing benefits of sewing and crafting
- hold celebratory events that bring together the makers of all ages
- raise awareness of environmental issues connected with the clothing industry
- challenge ageism
What is taking place and how you can get involved
We want to create artworks that everyone can contribute to, whether they have lived in the area for 5 days or 5 generations. Workshops and activities will be taking place in schools, community spaces and will involve all ages. The projects will culminate with exhibitions in the Great Dunmow Maltings and Museum, Dunmow Library and High Street in March 2022 as part of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month
There will be opportunities to get involved if you are new to sewing and craft work, or highly experienced and looking for new creative challenges. We will also discuss the best ways you can get involved if you only give a few hours, a day, or to make a regular commitment of time.
Check our Events page to see what is taking place.
For more info contact E: catherinemummery@highstileprojects.co.uk
Supported using public funding by National Lottery Funds through Arts Council England.
Drawing In Dunmow - Woven & Welded 2020
Our 10th Dunmow Big Draw was scheduled for 10/10/2020 a wonderful date that also connected with the 20th year of the Big Draw. There was no way that we were not going to make something creative happen, not even a global pandemic was going to stop us. We just knew that we were going to have to do things differently this year. The theme for the 2020 international Big Draw Festival was "A Climate of Change", a great theme to get behind.
Traditionally Drawing in Dunmow programmes culminate with a celebratory Big Draw Day. A big event that takes over the library and town square, mass opportunities for collective mark making activities led by invited professional artists and local drawing enthusiasts. Events created for all ages to meet and draw together and to talk about topical themes. We didn’t want to lose that ethos of a shared experience and the power drawing has to change lives. However, we know we had to do things differently as we were creating a programme in extraordinary times. The Covid pandemic and changing lockdown rules needed new ways of doing things, new ways for co-creation and participation. We were helped by the way that lockdowns had made many start to appreciate nature on their doorsteps and the importance to wellbeing of being outside. These are subjects we have championed for years. In past years we had asked families to draw the changes they would like to see in the town and to consider what they could all do to make a difference. This year was the right time to take ideas from drawings and doodles and make real 3d creations.
With thanks to an Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grant we were able to commission artists Deb Hart, Graham Slade and Nabil Ali. Deb Hart, Graham Slade created a giant perch sculpture out of willow, rush nettles and reclaimed steel. Perch are known to live in the river Chelmer that runs through great Dunmow and fish are good indicators of the health of a river. Artist Nabil Ali has taken inspiration from the Green Man carving on St. Mary’s Church. He created “Leaf People” that were displayed in St. Mary’s Riverbank Walk. The abstract figures made out of natural materials and are there to encourage us all to pause and think about what we can all do to help local wildlife.
An art trail was devised that linked the sculptures by taking familiies on a healthy walk through the town. 30 local shops & cafes displayed artworks created by local residents aged 2-90 plus. The children’s work featured a wonderful range of campaigning posters and wildlife art. Local adults also contributed pictures illustrating how important time in nature is to their mental health and well being. We were particularly pleased to involve residents from Redbond Lodge Care Home. The art trail ran from 10-31 October.
Traditionally Drawing in Dunmow programmes culminate with a celebratory Big Draw Day. A big event that takes over the library and town square, mass opportunities for collective mark making activities led by invited professional artists and local drawing enthusiasts. Events created for all ages to meet and draw together and to talk about topical themes. We didn’t want to lose that ethos of a shared experience and the power drawing has to change lives. However, we know we had to do things differently as we were creating a programme in extraordinary times. The Covid pandemic and changing lockdown rules needed new ways of doing things, new ways for co-creation and participation. We were helped by the way that lockdowns had made many start to appreciate nature on their doorsteps and the importance to wellbeing of being outside. These are subjects we have championed for years. In past years we had asked families to draw the changes they would like to see in the town and to consider what they could all do to make a difference. This year was the right time to take ideas from drawings and doodles and make real 3d creations.
With thanks to an Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grant we were able to commission artists Deb Hart, Graham Slade and Nabil Ali. Deb Hart, Graham Slade created a giant perch sculpture out of willow, rush nettles and reclaimed steel. Perch are known to live in the river Chelmer that runs through great Dunmow and fish are good indicators of the health of a river. Artist Nabil Ali has taken inspiration from the Green Man carving on St. Mary’s Church. He created “Leaf People” that were displayed in St. Mary’s Riverbank Walk. The abstract figures made out of natural materials and are there to encourage us all to pause and think about what we can all do to help local wildlife.
An art trail was devised that linked the sculptures by taking familiies on a healthy walk through the town. 30 local shops & cafes displayed artworks created by local residents aged 2-90 plus. The children’s work featured a wonderful range of campaigning posters and wildlife art. Local adults also contributed pictures illustrating how important time in nature is to their mental health and well being. We were particularly pleased to involve residents from Redbond Lodge Care Home. The art trail ran from 10-31 October.
We were delighted that we could launch the programme at the Gardens of Easton Lodge on 13 September, 13 years from the last time we organised a Big Draw event at the historic gardens.
Our thanks to all the schools and groups who took part including Dunmow St. Mary’s & Great Dunmow Primary, Freedom Daycare Nursery, Dunmow Brownie units and residents from Redbond Care Home. Graham Slade was represented by Livin’ Art, part of the Alloy Fabweld family, our thanks to Andreas Stavrou (Livin’ Art) and Shaun Pledger Manager of Alloy Fabweld all all their help and support.
Drawing In Dunmow Drawn to Life Big Draw 2019
The theme of this year's international Big Draw Festival is Drawn to Life, celebrating the pivotal role creativity can play in supporting wellbeing. Our Dunmow Big Draw explored we how we can encouraged to get outside more and do more to locally to help the environment. Workshops were led by artist & sculptor Nicola Burrell & textile artist Ellen Jackson. Nicola created a giant cardboard tree that allowed families to add their pledges to do something positive to support wildlife & the town. Nicola said "It was brilliant to develop ideas with the people of Gt Dunmow, who had terrific ideas about how small actions can really improve the environment; from creating habitats for bees & other insects, to planting flowers to attract butterflies. My favourite idea was from Thomas, a keen artist & thinker, his pledge was "Thinking carefully about how we use space", The artwork everyone produced was terrific. Everyone's contribution was added to our tree that really built up during the day to become a fascinating structure which will remain in the library as a great starting point for further discussion about improving the environment."
Ellen said it "was a wonderfully interactive day, many families having great fun exploring their feelings about the natural world & really engaging with one another on ways forward to protect it."
Invitation to Play Big Draw Days (2018)
Four amazing Family Art Days took place at Great Parndon, Saffron Walden, Great Dunmow & Old Harlow Libraries from September 29-October 20 involving over 600 people aged 2-70. Artist Kiran Chahal came up with a brillantly simple but highly effective idea of making the game of matching pairs. This is a game that can easily be played by all ages together. We set up chain reactions with the game. It started with Harlow College art students making the first set of cards. Families made their own set to take home & made cards to be left for other library visitors. Participants felt proud to be contributing to this community project & took real care in making their cards as good as possible. Families were also encouraged to draw their favourite games on jigsaw squares. This promoted intergenerational story sharing as parents & grandparents shared memories of the games they played as children. Artist Tom Downing transformed spaces with giant cardboard models of the actual libraries. The libraries were delighted by the numbers that attended the days. Harlow Library Face to Face Manager Laura Collins said "the days gave us new ideas on how we can encourage families to spend more time in the libraries. It was lovely to see so many people enjoying themselves and learning at the same time.". Feedback from a parent "it was fun & wonderful. Make this a once a month/week event."
The Great Dunmow Bottle Greenhouse (2018)
Great Dunmow town got behind creating a Bottle Greenhouse for the Jubilee Gardening Club, a local voluntary run club for people with dementia. 1,600 plastic bottles were donated and 489 people aged 4-90 decorated bottles. The Club members can’t wait to start using “the only multicoloured eco friendly greenhouse in town”. The project raised awareness of issues faced by people living with dementia and inspired Dunmow to become proactive in reducing plastic waste. Drawing on the success of the Dunmow Bottle Greenhouse, High Stile Projects and artist Anne Schwegmann-Fielding are looking forward to developing more community projects that link growing and making food with art and creativity.
Dunmow Greenhouse - Watch Our Film
St. Mary's Star Gazer Community Oven (2017)
With the idea that "we are all stars" as a starting point, workshops creating mosaic stars took place with Accruro Under 19 group, the Jubilee Gardening Club for people living the dementia, & library visitors. Most library staff were involved - often the overlooked heroes of the town. The stars were set into the oven, located in the grounds of St. Mary’s Church. The oven was lit and pizzas made at a special event that took place on 25 November 2017 linked with the opening of Taylor’s Exhibition. AND WHAT? WHAT WERE THE OUTCOMES?
Drawing In Dunmow - Super Seven (2017)
The theme for 2017 Drawing in Dunmow festival was the “Hero or Heroine Within” celebrating the unsung local heroes and heroines - that is local volunteers and the people who quietly make a difference. We also invented our own breed of local super hero/heroine - The Dundoodle. Dundoodles are friendly super heroes – a force for good. Working with artists Paul Taylor and Anne Schwegmann-Fielding we delivered a programme of activities for families, where people could draw their own characters and then create stories for their Dundoodles. The participants could also turn themselves into life size super heroes by striking a pose and being drawn around, and then filling their outline to become a their alter ego super character. We transformed the floor of the children’s section in the library into a giant cartoon creating space and then laid out our comic strips in the town square to everyone to see!
Meadow on the Hill Community Cloth (2015-16)
The Meadow On The Hill Cloth project was organised by us as part of our Drawing In Dunmow initiative. We wanted to turn Great Dunmow a Drawing Town and to use the art of drawing to bring people together and celebrate creative abilities of people of all ages.
The theme for the Big Draw Festival in 2015 was “Every Drawing Tells A Story”. Artist Jevan Watkins Jones discovered that Dunmow is said to mean “Meadow On The Hill”. This inspired him to create a giant cloth that people could draw colourful flowers and plants onto. The cloth measured an impressive 21ft by 8ft!
Work on the “Meadow-on-the-hill Cloth” started in October 2015 at the Dunmow Library. Local families were asked to share stories of their own gardens and memories of flowers that have special meanings for them and to draw those on the cloth using oil pastels and green ink wash paints. From October until May 2016 the cloth was taken to 14 different groups and events including ACCURO Youth Group (for young people with disabilities and special needs) and the Jubilee Gardening Club (for people living with Dementia). Over 250 people aged 2 – 98 added flowers to the cloth.
Jevan Watkins Jones said, "Sometimes the simplest of ideas capture the hearts and minds of a community. I think the "Meadow-on-the-Hill Cloth" did that. It didn't need any great explanation and even for those who don't think of plants and flowers on a daily basis, it was easy to picture a flower in their mind's eye - even if it's the motif of a looped formation around a button centre indicative of a daisy. For some drawing their favourite flower was about drawing the flower they most like the look of - like a flower an insect is most attracted to. For others the attachment went much deeper as in the case of the lady who on seeing an image of Myosotis commonly known as ‘Forget-me-nots’ remembered in drawing the occasion when her husband brought her an armful of the flowers to her bedside on the birth of their first child. And for the man who drew a Narcissus in remembrance of his wife, who he had lost to cancer, flowers symbolise a beginning and an end.”
The completed cloth was unveiled on 11 June at St. Mary’s Church as part of national Children’s Art Week and the celebrations to mark Her Majesty the Queen’s 90th Birthday. Guests of honour were the Deputy Lieutenant of Essex, Michael Chapman representing the Queen and the Mayor & Mayoress of Great Dunmow, Milan & Julia Milovanoic.
The theme for the Big Draw Festival in 2015 was “Every Drawing Tells A Story”. Artist Jevan Watkins Jones discovered that Dunmow is said to mean “Meadow On The Hill”. This inspired him to create a giant cloth that people could draw colourful flowers and plants onto. The cloth measured an impressive 21ft by 8ft!
Work on the “Meadow-on-the-hill Cloth” started in October 2015 at the Dunmow Library. Local families were asked to share stories of their own gardens and memories of flowers that have special meanings for them and to draw those on the cloth using oil pastels and green ink wash paints. From October until May 2016 the cloth was taken to 14 different groups and events including ACCURO Youth Group (for young people with disabilities and special needs) and the Jubilee Gardening Club (for people living with Dementia). Over 250 people aged 2 – 98 added flowers to the cloth.
Jevan Watkins Jones said, "Sometimes the simplest of ideas capture the hearts and minds of a community. I think the "Meadow-on-the-Hill Cloth" did that. It didn't need any great explanation and even for those who don't think of plants and flowers on a daily basis, it was easy to picture a flower in their mind's eye - even if it's the motif of a looped formation around a button centre indicative of a daisy. For some drawing their favourite flower was about drawing the flower they most like the look of - like a flower an insect is most attracted to. For others the attachment went much deeper as in the case of the lady who on seeing an image of Myosotis commonly known as ‘Forget-me-nots’ remembered in drawing the occasion when her husband brought her an armful of the flowers to her bedside on the birth of their first child. And for the man who drew a Narcissus in remembrance of his wife, who he had lost to cancer, flowers symbolise a beginning and an end.”
The completed cloth was unveiled on 11 June at St. Mary’s Church as part of national Children’s Art Week and the celebrations to mark Her Majesty the Queen’s 90th Birthday. Guests of honour were the Deputy Lieutenant of Essex, Michael Chapman representing the Queen and the Mayor & Mayoress of Great Dunmow, Milan & Julia Milovanoic.
Drawing In Dunmow (2015): Every Drawing Tells a Story
For our 6th Dunmow Big Draw festival local schools and groups were encouraged to create artworks that told a local story. It could be based on local history or completely made up, but it had to have a link with an actual place or person. Ellen Jackson asked families to take inspiration from the Dunmow Town Crest and create their own family crest illustrated with drawings of objects that were important to them. A town art trail took participants through Dunmow to see selected artworks from over 500 drawings summited by local schools. The trail also took to participants to St. Mary’s Church, where Anne Schwegmann-Fielding supported families to create their own stained glass effect artwork inspired by things noticed on the trail and the stained glass windows in the church. More art displays and activities had been created by 3 local nurseries, the Cubs and Brownies.
Drawing In Dunmow (2014): Take Five
Winning the Drawing Inspiration Award
in 2013 set the challenge to build on our success. It was agreed that the 2014 programme would start to explore what a Drawing Town could be. The national Big Draw theme “It’s Our World”
was prefect for this, and as it was to be our fifth Big Draw the theme “Take Five”
was also created. Over 5 hours across 5 venues linked by an arts trail between venues 5 professional artists and volunteers at Little Gosling’s Children’s Centre explored how drawing can promote well-being. We encouraged participants to:
1. Be Active (evidence: walking, making and drawing)
2. Keep Learning (evidence: acquiring new skills and approaches)
3. Give (evidence: physically helping each other, sharing thoughts)
4. Connect (evidence: linking arts to daily life to arts, interacting)
5. Take Notice: (evidence: expressing curiosity, responding positively to the unfamiliar)
Artists involved – Paul Taylor, Tom Jones, Kiran Chahal, Nabil Ali, Ellen Jackson.
Groups: Dunmow Brownies; Staff & children from St.Mary’s Church Nursery; Freedom Daycare Nursery & Little Goslings Children Centre; Staff & pupils Dunmow St.Mary’s Primary; Helena Romanes Secondary School, Great Dunmow Primary, Felsted Primary
Drawing In Dunmow (2013): Plant Some Ideas
The themes for our festival in 2013 were "Plant Some Ideas" and "Draw The Future". We were delighted to be part of the international Big Draw Festival and the UK Family Arts Festival. Artists Jevan Watkins Jones and Nabil Ali devised a series of activities for families on the Dunmow Big Draw Day on October 19.
Nabil Ali is an expert in creating art materials out of plants, natural materials and recycled objects. He uses historical recipes that date back to the medieval times and beyond. Activities included "Giant Invisible Ink Drawing". Recycled plastic juice bottles were filled with water and iron sulphate to create novel drawing instruments. Participants needed to dress in overalls and gloves as the ink can stain – this added wonderfully to the theatrical nature of the event and made sure that even very young children took seriously the need to plan and make their marks with care. The iron water then needed to dry and the marks became yellow. A new group of participants used gall water (made from boiling oak galls to release tannic acid). Once the gall water came into contact with the iron water drawings a chemical reaction took place turning the images blackish purple. The new marks made the images more abstract and expressive. That year our festival won a Drawing Inspiration Award
from the Big Draw and Campaign for Drawing.
“My boys love football and love running around. I find it very hard to get them to sit down and take part in more traditional colouring and drawing activities. This event was fantastic as they were able to see that art can be everywhere and that you can draw with unusual objects, that you could be active and messy and big and expressive. It was also a shared experience which is again a contrast to the way that drawing is often seen as a solidary activity”, Kelly Latimore, festival visitor.
“The workshops with Nabil Ali were very illuminating. It was the thought process behind creating the ink and pigments used in the paintings that caught my attention. The Big Draw event in itself was fascinating. My kids enjoyed painting with nettle pellets and getting their hands dirty with clay modelling. Nature and science coming together to help create art was what we found informative. It was overall a fun and an educational day out for all of us.
“My boys love football and love running around. I find it very hard to get them to sit down and take part in more traditional colouring and drawing activities. This event was fantastic as they were able to see that art can be everywhere and that you can draw with unusual objects, that you could be active and messy and big and expressive. It was also a shared experience which is again a contrast to the way that drawing is often seen as a solidary activity”, Kelly Latimore, festival visitor.
“The workshops with Nabil Ali were very illuminating. It was the thought process behind creating the ink and pigments used in the paintings that caught my attention. The Big Draw event in itself was fascinating. My kids enjoyed painting with nettle pellets and getting their hands dirty with clay modelling. Nature and science coming together to help create art was what we found informative. It was overall a fun and an educational day out for all of us.
Thanking you,”
Lakshmy Menon, festival visitor.
Participating groups - Dunmow Brownies; Staff & children from St.Mary’s Church Nursery; Freedom Daycare Nursery & Little Goslings Children Centre; Staff & pupils Dunmow St.Mary’s Primary; Helena Romanes Secondary School.
Drawing In Dunmow (2012): Grow to Know
The Grow To Know
programme took inspiration from the river Chelmer and St. Mary’s Church Riverbank Walk. Thanks to Whoosh Explore Canoe Club
there were even canoes and kayaks in the Town Square for people to draw and sit in. Artist Nicola Burrell encouraged families to work with cardboard to create riverbank animals and birds. She said, “It was lovely the way people came and responded to the project. Everyone had thoughts about the river and knew quickly what they wanted to have a go a drawing or making, whether was a kingfisher, fox or boat. It was great to see the parents working with their children and an amazing amount of work was created. The children, in particular, went into energy overdrive in making creatures out of cardboard and drawing in the Library and on the big paper mural“.
Inside the Library families got to work with artist Anne Schwegmann-Fielding on a giant mosaic fish. Thanks to Rachel Cox and the Little Gosling’s Children’s Centre younger children had the chance to produce their own spin paintings on paper plates. These later formed a giant caterpillar for the Library. The Children’s Corner now has a wonderful display on the river Chelmer created by Year 4 children from Dunmow St. Mary’s Primary School.
Inside the Library families got to work with artist Anne Schwegmann-Fielding on a giant mosaic fish. Thanks to Rachel Cox and the Little Gosling’s Children’s Centre younger children had the chance to produce their own spin paintings on paper plates. These later formed a giant caterpillar for the Library. The Children’s Corner now has a wonderful display on the river Chelmer created by Year 4 children from Dunmow St. Mary’s Primary School.
Drawing in Dunmow (2011): My Place, Our Place
The starting point for the 2011 festival was an encouragement to think about the spaces we make our own, for example, our own room in our house or our garden, and then to contrast these with spaces that we share with others especially those outside our immediate family or circle of friends. In today’s society there are fewer places where different ages get to meet. The Town Square and library are two such community spaces. As an illustration of the way that we departmentalise our things and our lives, group leaders were encouraged to think about using boxes as a common object, they were also asked to take the theme and make it their own.
Dunmow St. Mary’s Primary linked the topic with a school project exploring how labyrinths can be used as thinking spaces. For story mapping, within maths and as technical drawing challenges, for the Dunmow Big Draw a giant labyrinth was draw out on the town square and cardboard box landmark buildings including the Millenium Wheel and Big Ben. At the centre was a Wishing Tree, where families were encouraged to draw and hang their wishes for changes to the Town Square (a creation of a café was the most popular choice).
Elsewhere on the square a cardboard café was created with live size chairs and tables created from donated boxes. Within the library Sarah Bigland encouraged families to create their own 3d models using match boxes.
Artists involved: Tom Deakins, Sarah Bridgland, Ellen Jackson
Participating groups – Dunmow St. Mary’s Primary, St. Mary’s Church Nursery, Freedom Daycare Nursery, Library visitors
Drawing In Dunmow (2010):Take A Leaf
The 2010 initiative grew out of a Power Drawing Training Session led by Eileen Adams in January 2010 at Dunmow St. Mary’s Primary School. At this event 25 Essex teachers, artists and arts development officers worked with Eileen to explore how drawing can used across the curriculum and in the community. The strong support for this training event from local schools and Essex-based artists convinced Essex County Council Arts Development Officers that it would be worth supporting a pilot project that would link to the Big Draw.
The theme "Take A Leaf" was chosen so that links could be made with 2 key sites – the Library and St. Mary’s Church & Riverbank. Marking the centenary of the death of noted Victorian & Edwardian designer Lewis Forman Day who created “The Vine” stained glass window at St. Mary’s and the call for people to create a decorated leaf inspired by their favourite book or author resulted in the creation of hundreds of mini leaf art works that decorated the library and town square. The square itself was transformed by giant willow leaf sculptures on metal frames created by local company Alloy Fab and weld in sessions led by Deb Hart, and large wooded leaves that were drawn and mosaicked on in activities lead by Anne Schwegmann-Fielding.
The theme "Take A Leaf" was chosen so that links could be made with 2 key sites – the Library and St. Mary’s Church & Riverbank. Marking the centenary of the death of noted Victorian & Edwardian designer Lewis Forman Day who created “The Vine” stained glass window at St. Mary’s and the call for people to create a decorated leaf inspired by their favourite book or author resulted in the creation of hundreds of mini leaf art works that decorated the library and town square. The square itself was transformed by giant willow leaf sculptures on metal frames created by local company Alloy Fab and weld in sessions led by Deb Hart, and large wooded leaves that were drawn and mosaicked on in activities lead by Anne Schwegmann-Fielding.
“We had over 1,000 visitors through the doors on the Big Draw Day, a record for us, we could not believe it. It was really brilliant, there was a fantastic atmosphere and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. We loved the way the whole community seemed to be involved and we could love to do it again. I am delighted at the way the project has developed the confidence of some of the Library staff in engaging with the public”, said Glenda McCoyd, Library Manager, Dunmow Library.
Artists/Project Leaders involved: Eileen Adams, Anne Schwegmann- Fielding, Deb Hart
Groups – Helena Romanes staff, Dunmow St. Mary’s, Rodings Primary School, The Brownies, The Dunmow Blind & Housebound Club, St. Mary’s Church Nursery, Freedom Daycare Nursery
Groups – Helena Romanes staff, Dunmow St. Mary’s, Rodings Primary School, The Brownies, The Dunmow Blind & Housebound Club, St. Mary’s Church Nursery, Freedom Daycare Nursery
