Creative workshops to return to Marks Gate this summer
Sadia Ur-Rehman is running the sessions in Marks Gate again this summer. Picture: Paul Bennett - Credit: Archant
Arts and craft sessions are returning to the Marks Gate estate this summer.
The Creative Cafe, which aims to give residents on the estate activities to do together during the school summer holidays, is returning with a programme of events aimed primarily at families.
There will be sessions on using colour in art, shadow puppet making, creating family portraits with Russian dolls and a mask making session.
The four sessions see Sadia and Shazia Ur-Rehman, sisters who are both artists, return to the estate to put on sessions for residents.
The sisters have run workshops on the estate before aiming to give residents a chance to express themselves creatively.
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“It is mostly geared for families, so that children on their school holidays can get involved,” said Sadia.
“But it is not just about dropping your child off - it is about taking part with them.”
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However she hopes other residents, particularly older people living on the estate, will also attend and Sadia expects more than 50 people to come to each of the sessions.
Sadia added: “Since the Creative Cafe has not been running I have had lots of local residents contact me to say ‘are you coming back?’
“It has left a hole there.”
For Sadia, who has been running creative workshops on the estate since 2015, the sessions are not only about teaching the estate’s residents artistic skills.
“It is not just about the creative activities - it is about the local people having a space to share and make friends,” she said.
Sadia says the sessions have been “well publicised” through schools and community centres.
Let’s Get Colourful is in the Marks Gate Community Centre on Tuesday, July 31, Puppets is in the Eastern Avenue Baptist Church on Wednesday, August 8, Family Portraits is in the Marks Gate Community Centre on Tuesday, August 14 and Masks in the Making is in the Marks Gate Community Centre on Wednesday, August 22.
All sessions run from 11am to 3pm.
The sisters are currently writing funding applications to organisations in an effort to get financial backing to put on more sessions for residents on the estate.
