Creative skillshare workshops

Makespace is our new programme of creative workshops for adults, led by makers and artists from Rusholme, Fallowfield, Moss Side and Longsight. Join us in celebrating the creativity of our local neighbourhood, in a programme organised and selected in partnership with local residents.

Tuesday mornings 11am-1pm.
​All workshops are free, but you do need to book.
​You can book through Eventbrite or phone Meg Parnell on 07815 166178.

Upcoming workshops include:

Tuesday 26 April  Lantern Making with Akhter Ali
Tuesday 10 May   Crochet with Katy Jones
Tuesday 24 May   Garden Design with Tzanka Tcherna-Ilieva and Jane Morris
Tuesday 7 June    Artificial Flower Arranging with Jila Mazoum
Tuesday 28 June  Cyanotype Photography with Roxanna Allison
Tuesday 5 July      Fabric Collage with Michele Pouncey-Orr
​Tuesday 19 July   Weaving with Gina Nadal

Everyday creativity at Platt Hall

Celebrating everyday creativity is central to this programme and to our wider thinking at Platt Hall. It's an idea that has become increasingly important as we have got to know the rich cultures and communities on our doorstep a little better, and deepened our understanding of the collections we hold and what makes them meaningful.

Everyday creativity is an intrinsic part of daily life. It's the practice of care and attention to every aspect of life, from choosing what clothes to put on in the morning to cooking an evening meal. Early 20th century architect and design writer WR Lethaby referred to it as 'the common art', through which a deeper connectedness with the world can be found. He described it as the essential foundation from which so-called 'high art' emerges. And because of this, the more important of the two.

​More recently anthropologist Daniel Miller has written about making things as an 'art of care', related to the care we have for others and for our environment. It makes you feel connected. And it makes you feel good. He instructs the reader to "go out and learn to make something, just because you can. Feel for yourself that sense of achievement and exhilaration when you see before you the finished object of your own labour and how that object has in turn made you more than you otherwise had been."

This idea is also central to the Mary Greg Collection of domestic, childhood and handicraft objects, which was given to Manchester and housed here at the Hall in the 1920s. It proved popular with visitors. In 1928 Mrs Greg wrote "I am glad indeed to hear so many people have seen the collection. How glad I should be if we could know if any of them ever make a single thing as a result that will be a delight to themselves, their children or those who come after." Nearly a century later, objects from this collection have proved a popular choice in our Collections Chat programme, sparking conversations ranging from favourite board games, to the history of ironing, to horse riding in Pakistan. 

So these workshops are about slowing down, playing with materials, enjoying the process and the company. You don't need to be a professional artist or maker to run a workshop. You just need to have an idea, a skill, a practice - something you're good at that you'd like to share. Our first season of workshops is now underway, but we'll be organising more in the autumn and will share an invitation for proposals nearer the time. 

Images from Museum on My Street, the Platt Hall Collections and Open Day workshops earlier this year.