families
How we are using artist-led creative play to support pre-school children and their families, in partnership with Sure Start and university researchers
A solid foundation in childhood is essential for the best life chances. And the first two years are particularly critical. So how can art and culture support the delivery of health and education for families with young children? And how can Platt Hall support the families of Moss Side, Rusholme, Fallowfield and Longsight?
The programme
STAY AND PLAY
Our weekly Stay and Play sessions provide indoor and outdoor creative play for local pre-school children and their carers. Developed in partnership with Sure Start outreach workers and artist Naomi Kendrick, these sessions use creative play to develop socialisation, speech and language skills and emotional resilience in young children. They provide parents and carers with the opportunity to socialise and form new supportive friendships while taking part in activities that encourage attachment and bonding with their children.
What started as a response to the Covid pandemic and its developmental impact on young children, is now a popular cornerstone of Platt Hall’s programme, and a great place to meet other young families from the area. The historic building and community garden provides a unique sensory environment for young children to explore, and a safe space to get messy with paints, water and other materials.
Family STAY AND PLAY happens every Monday in term time.
Morning and afternoon drop-in sessions, 10.30am-12noon and 1-2.30pm
Contact your local Sure Start to find out more, on 0161 510 0000 (Rusholme) or 0161 2196799 (Fallowfield). Or just come along on the day.
Organised in partnership with Sure Start Rusholme and Sure Start Fallowfield Children's Centres
THINGS OF THE LEAST
THING OF THE LEAST : lively exhibition making through the material encounters of under-3s is a research partnership between Manchester Art Gallery Manchester Metropolitan University, Sheffield Hallam University and Sure Start. It explores how very young children interact with their physical environment to inform an experimental approach to exhibition making with and for families.
The project focuses on one of Platt Hall’s collection areas, the Mary Greg Collection of domestic and childhood objects. These are what Mary Greg described as those ‘things of the least’ that, although modest, often provide the anchors of belonging in our daily lives. Six artists are working with Early Years academics, Sure Start workers, Gallery staff and local families to develop a set of resources and prototypes in response to the collection that will inform a new exhibition in the Lion’s Den at Manchester Art Gallery.
Local families include people from South Asian, African and white British backgrounds who come to Platt Hall’s Stay and Play sessions, and families seeking sanctuary here, having been displaced from home countries that include Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq and Iran. Together, through the gestures, movements and interactions of the youngest family members, we are exploring how things shape our presence in time and space, how we create the space around us, and how values, beliefs and cultural identities are embodied in the items, clothing and environments we treasure.
