PRESS RELEASE
22 June 2015
Immediate release
CHILDREN’S ART WEEK AT HALF MOON HAILED A SUCCESS AS OVER
250 YOUNG PEOPLE EXPERIENCE THE VISUAL ARTS WITH GALLERY
VISITS AND WORKSHOPS WITH ARTIST DEBORAH ANDREWS
Half Moon Theatre welcomed over 250 young people from local schools and families in Tower Hamlets to its
special events for Children’s Art Week, with free gallery visits and two successful workshops with print and
textile artist Deborah Andrews, exploring the themes and philosophy behind her current Gallery @ Half Moon
exhibition, A Stitch in Time: Reflections from Childhood.
Children’s Art Week, run by the national gallery education service Engage, is a UK-wide programme which
encourages children, young people, families and teachers to engage with the visual arts. Events have taken
place in galleries, arts centres, museums, libraries, schools and community/youth centres.
Andrews ran two hugely successful art workshops with pupils from Cayley Primary School as well as with Half
Moon’s Comets, Sunbeam and Moonbeam Youth Theatres (school years 1 to 3). All of the young people were
encouraged to undertake Half Moon’s specially created gallery trail around the exhibition, colour-in a selection
of works by Andrews, or leave a picture or message on chalk-boards in response to the work.
Beccy Allen, Producer for Creative Learning at Half Moon, commented: “We were delighted to be involved in
Children’s Art Week this year as part of our commitment to making visual art exhibitions easily accessible to
the children and young people who come through our doors. It was so important to us to be involved that we
were amongst the first 40 organisations across the UK to register our events.”
Deborah Andrews commented: “It was a real pleasure to talk with the young people, who are so inquisitive
and creative. It was a wonderful experience to tell them more about the process of creating art and then see
them create their own art around the gallery space at Half Moon.
“A lot of my work features young people and celebrates youthful play and reminiscences, so it was rewarding
to be able to work directly with so many local young people. I certainly took as much inspiration from them as
I hope they did from my art.”
A Stitch in Time – Reflections from Childhood, runs until 8 July 2015 at Gallery @ Half Moon.
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
For further information or to arrange interviews, photographs and press tickets please contact Stephen Beeny
on 020 7709 8907 or stephen@halfmoon.org.uk
A selection of images can be downloaded from Dropbox at the link below.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ksdqwpgk7zllxg4/AAC4-K5Cz4iM2ICU_65snxKea?dl=0
ABOUT HALF MOON
Half Moon is a local organisation with a national remit, committed to supporting young people at every stage
of their creative development. Working from their base in Limehouse and throughout the community in Tower
Hamlets, Half Moon makes a big impact on the lives of young people. Half Moon’s wide-ranging programme
reaches 49,000 people annually and engages those who are often excluded from arts activity. Half Moon’s
activity includes a season of professional plays for young audiences, national touring productions and an
extensive creative learning programme, including six youth theatres.
Half Moon receives regular funding from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and are a National Portfolio
Organisation of Arts Council England.
Website: www.halfmoon.org.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/halfmoontheatre
Twitter: @HalfMoonTheatre
ABOUT CHILDREN’S ART WEEK
Children’s Art Week is run by engage, the National Association for Gallery Education and supported by
Children & the Arts and the D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust.
As the National Association for Gallery Education, engage is passionate about increasing access to, enjoyment
and understanding of the visual arts. engage supports the visual arts and gallery education through
professional development for education and learning colleagues in the visual arts including teachers, artists
and gallery educators through a wide range of research. engage’s areas of focus include supporting galleries in
their work with young people and advocating to policymakers. www.engage.org
Website: www.childrensartweek.org.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/engageinthevisualarts
Twitter: @engagevisualart #ChildrensArtWeek
For press enquiries please contact: Stephen Beeny
Communications Manager
stephen@halfmoon.org.uk
020 7709 8907