PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE USE
ISSUE DATE – 5 AUGUST 2013
CRAFTPLAY
BILSTON
CRAFT GALLERY
GALLERY TO RECEIVE £14,000 FOR CREATIVE PLAY PROJECT
Bilston Craft Gallery has won a prestigious grant to extend its work with young children and their
families. Craftplay, the Gallery’s unique creative play programme for 0-7 year olds, has been
awarded £14,000 by The Happy Museums Project to develop a new project which will be inspired
by the Gallery’s community garden and involve children from local nurseries.
Craftplay runs groups where young children play creatively with a wide range of materials. They
use the top quality craft works at the Gallery to inspire children to create, play and combine a
wide range of materials, including recycled items and objects that can be found in every home.
The funding will allow Bilston Craft Gallery to commission inspiring new resources for this age
group from professional artists and craftspeople.
This project will be inspired by the community garden and outside spaces, building links between
the Craftplay, the Gallery and its wider environment. Local nurseries will be invited to join the
project, so that the artists can learn from children about how their play often mixes activities and
combines different objects together to learn about the world.
Jack Shuttleworth, Craftplay Coordinator, said:
“This project is pushing the boundaries in lots of ways: challenging artists to make things
that children really want, deepening our support for local communities and building
stronger connections with our environment. But what really matters is that our children’s
creative learning sessions will be even better.”
Bilston Craft Gallery created the project in partnership with Craftspace, the Birmingham-based
craft development agency who will support the delivery and evaluation. The grant was award by
The Happy Museums Project which is encouraging museums to make closer links with their
communities and environments. Bilston Craft Gallery will join the Happy Museums Network
alongside other cutting edge projects across the country.
Craftplay offers a range of sessions from their weekly Explorer’s club, to regular drop-in stay and
play sessions and visits from nursery and reception classes. They have extra sessions running
through the summer holidays as part of the wider range of family activities run by WAVE, the
museums, galleries and archives of Wolverhampton. For more information, please visit
www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk.
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
For more information and images, please contact Charli Hill (Cultural Promotions Officer)
charli.hill@wolverhampton.gov.uk 01902 552040
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Images available on request
Bilston Craft Gallery, Mount Pleasant, Bilston, WV14 7LU, is open Tuesday & Thursday
10am-4pm; Wednesday 10am – 7pm; Friday 10am-1pm & Saturday 11am-4pm, free
entry. Tel: 01902 552507
Bilston Craft Gallery is part of WAVE, the Museums, Galleries and Archives of
Wolverhampton, and is run by Wolverhampton City Council.
www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk
WAVE is a National Portfolio Organisation of Arts Council England