in answer to the question posed in the last post, the extended strategy – taking our workshops out to pre-existing groups – has not yet led to new attendees at our own sessions.
the last 2 we have held have been with brian (sic) and marvin (also a pseudonym) present for the whole session, and one of our older drawers, pedro (not his real name), popping in for a cup of tea and a biscuit, but not stopping to draw, on account of his ill-health. we have received some emails from social-prescribers and social workers (probably due to 600 flyers that went out with a southampton voluntary services mail-out), but again, this has not yet resulted in attendance at the sessions. on the one hand, it is easy to feel disheartened by this, but katie and i look at each other, and remind ourselves that this was never going to be an easy process. our choice of cohort is notoriously difficult to engage, which is why there is little provision. and the men who are now coming regularly and drawing with us are open in their appreciation of the opportunity, and revel in the experience.
all the more so, now that we have installed the first exhibition of the work that has been made in the first 7 workshops. we are sharing the work in a community space at ‘october books’ – a brilliant enterprise, october books is a local, radical, ethical ‘more than just a’ bookshop, owned and controlled by staff, members and customers.
as a community space, it is not a classic gallery, hosting multiple events, random furniture and extensive food and drink, so we needed a way to show the work that was appropriate and packed a punch in a chaotic environment. as objects, the drawings are variably sized, mostly on paper, and are not robust, so i had the idea to show them as digital renderings of themselves, collated onto a single banner that would wrap around the room.
we had a thoughtful and discursive afternoon with the drawers, deciding how to group and place the drawings. it took us the whole 3-hour session to lay all the drawings out, group them, edit them (keeping some back for a later show where we will have more space), and then for brian and marvin to place them into a taped out space the size and shape of the planned banner. for me, it was a great exercise in listening, enabling, encouraging, tongue-biting and navigating shared desires with different visions. it felt important that it was a genuinely collaborative process – that katie and i brought some experience and expertise to support the wishes of the people we had invited to be part of this endeavour.
then we spent a day on the computers …. thanks to simon griggs at solent university, and peter in the canon print shop there, for their experience and expertise. newest version photoshop made selecting the drawings and combining them less fiddly than i anticipated, although it was still an 11pm finish to be sure the file was ready for printing the next day.
the show looks great. brian, katie and i had a lot of fun making it work – magnets, pins, double-sided tape and determination were all required. and our morning was rewarded with a delicious lunch at the veg-out café: a community-run social enterprise, using food that would otherwise be wasted. what could be better?
a million other thoughts have been rolling around my head, and we have talked about some of them in the sessions.
these include:
– how does it affect the dynamic/ethos/validity that katie and i (women) are running a men’s drawing group?
– how can we encourage our participants to take some agency in how the group runs?
these will have to wait, so here are some prelim pics of the show – if you are based in southampton, or nearby, do join us for a free drawing workshop at october books on saturday february 25th from 1-4pm. this is for anyone and everyone – maybe a couple of our men will be there to talk about the project – maybe they won’t. either way, katie and i will be there with a beautiful exhibition to share with you, as well as a range of drawing materials and things to draw.
