Name: Heart of Glass
Price range: $

Prototype Projects support artists working with communities to test, explore and develop new, innovative ideas and engage new audiences, or develop their own artistic practice. For 2023, we asked artists to respond to the themes in our autumn programme, A Sense of Green - a series of art events (25th July - 14th October 2023) celebrating our community’s love and appreciation of local green spaces.

About the Projects (2023)

Benjamina Albanese

Let’s Make Rubbish Art is an artistic play area where Benjamina challenged audiences to reconsider what we think of as ‘waste’ by reimagining waste materials as an opportunity. She invited people to make art from a range of materials she has accumulated over years of zero-waste living, as part of A Sense of Green at Incredible Edible.

Benjamina is a Liverpool-born, St Helens-based writer, performer and creative exploring themes of nature and identity fed by the roots of queerness, disability, and heritage. Sustainability and accessibility are held at the heart of her practice, as well as the importance of gentle activism.

Follow Benjamina on Instagram

A collage on a wooden board is photographed leaning on an easel.

3 kids are doing crafts with recycled materials.

Bea Albanese looks through recycled objects with two young children and their mother, they are all smiling and laughing.

John Maguire

John Maguire’s PARKLIFE was a series of creative workshops, which included shared reading, drawing, writing, meditation and discussion. The work produced by John and his collaborators explored the importance of the local environment, promoted climate awareness and how we can all help to look after our precious ‘green lungs’ (parks, gardens and fields), and the resulting poetry was shared as part of A Sense of Green at Incredible Edible.

John is a writer, playwright, historic walking-tours operator, community activist and Creative Director of ArtsGroupie CIC, which aims to make the arts accessible to all by taking theatre productions, heritage walking tours and creative workshops to communities across the North West.

artsgroupie.org

John Maguire is reading poetry off a sheet of paper in front of a wooden pillar with flowers hanging from it.

A participant of John Maguire's Parklife workshops reads a poem off their phone in incredible edible community garden.

A participant of John Maguire's Parklife workshops reads a poem off a page in incredible edible community garden.

Laura-Kate Draws

Laura-Kate Draws worked with a group of Buzz Hub St Helens members to explore environmental activism and sustainability through sensory drawing and printmaking workshops. Using plastics collected from beaches, woodlands and urban areas, they discussed the damage these items cause to the environment.

Laura-Kate is an illustrator, printmaker and workshop artist, with over 14 years’ experience working on a range of creative commissions as an illustrator and over 10 years’ of experience delivering workshops. Laura-Kate often works collaboratively on projects, most recently on a Historic England High Street Heritage project in Fleetwood with schools and communities over the course of a year.

Follow Laura-Kate on Instagram

A workshop participant from Buzz Hub St Helens is smiling at the camera, sat on the floor in front of some green leafy plants with a pencil and clipboard.

A man smiles broadly as he is photographed drawing at a table, there are watercolour palettes on the table.

Laura Kate and a member of Buzz Hub St Helens smile for the camera at Incredible Edible community garden with pencils in their hands and paper in front of them.

Becca Rauer

Folklore, mythology and storytelling have been used for centuries to influence behaviour and instil morals in children and adults. Many of these powerful stories include environmental conservation themes that are so pervasive, they steer policy today. Becca Rauer hosted two embroidery workshops, inspired by discussions about the links between the environment and folklore. The sessions explored how folklore helps to shape attitudes towards green spaces, with audiences invited to share stories and knowledge whilst creating embroidered artworks.

Based in St Helens, Becca is an experienced embroiderer and crafter, who discovered her skills at University and has since shared her creative passion through her small business at makers’ markets and in her former career as a primary school teacher.

Follow Becca on Instagram

A woman's hands are photographed looking through the embroidery transfers.

A man and a woman look through the embroidery materials, there are people embroidering sat on the circle of rocks behind them.

A mother and daughter choose embroidery transfers together.

St Helens, Knowsley and Liverpool artists join A Sense of Green events programme

We’re excited to announce five new Prototype artists who will present new work as part of A Sense of Green. They are: Rebecca Ainsworth, Benjamina Albanese, John Maguire, Laura Kate Pontefract and Becca Rauer.