Project Summary: Each child was given the task of creating one "Citizen of the Earth" one element from Nature from supplied white and hand-painted, multi-colored tissue paper. Tracy combined their art to create a large collaborative mural.

Project Summary: A collaborative "Citizens of the World" mural art project with young people from Refugee Action and Ebony & Ivory Community Organization as part of the Young Peoples Arc (YPA) program at the 2015 Brinnington Arts Festival.

Tracy worked creatively with young refugees and their families to offer them skills, confidence and peer support through the creative process. The project provided opportunities for the young refugees to meet other people from Stockport. It also helped to raise public awareness and to challenge the negative perceptions surrounding refugees. The mural was displayed at various venues and events over the course of 2015.

"It was a great day filled with art and laughter. There was a creative buzz in the air and the community leader from Ebony and Ivory led us in song. Refugee Action arranged interpreters, so we could all introduce ourselves. We bonded looking at a map of the world and marking the places where we were born, where we had lived and where our ancestors were from." Tracy

Arc is an award-winning charity which uses the arts and creativity to help people become resilient, healthy and active citizens. Young People’s Arc (YPA) is their successful and dynamic program of creative arts & media projects, targeted at engaging the most vulnerable young people aged between 5 and 25 in Stockport.

Refugee Action is a London based non-profit with a mission to help refugees, who’ve survived some of the world’s worst regimes, get the basic support they need to live again with dignity in the UK.

Ebony & Ivory Community Organization is a Stockport based organization that supports and advocates on behalf of young people age 5-18, and their families, especially those from African and Caribbean descent to encourage and enable cross-cultural integration amongst young people.

Project Outcomes

The artwork was a means of a number of key outcomes to be achieved, including increased integration and community cohesion, improved health and well-being, reduced social isolation, plus learning and development, to name a few.


Increased Integration and Community Cohesion

A client who had arrived just a couple of months earlier said:

“It was really nice to meet some new British people. Everyone was so helpful and friendly and it was really nice to meet new people for a change. I have gained more confidence now than before when meeting and speaking to British people. I have gained so much in confidence!”

Others added:

“I can remember the British people very well, they were very kind. They are very wonderful people, I enjoyed meeting them”.

“It was really good meeting people from different countries, especially local people. I’ve been welcomed by British people in Stockport and feel happy about it”.

Improved Health and Well-being

2 clients who arrived at the session with bad toothache, one of whom had a swollen face, were supported to access emergency dental appointments and reported that their well-being was much improved by the relaxing nature of the session. About this, one of the clients with toothache said:

“My well-being definitely improved! I had nice time and because I wasn’t feeling well on that particular day, but when I saw other people and started doing the art work, I forgot about my illness and had some fun. It was a nice distraction from feeling poorly”.

Others said:

“They (the other clients) had forgotten how to draw and it reminded them of their memories and things they had seen. It gives me good memories when I think of that day. Everything that day made me feel happy”.


“Well-being is very important, it’s very good for people (to go to these sessions)”.

“It was a fab time, I was very happy! I enjoyed the singing (said laughing)!”.

Reduced Social Isolation

2 clients who were socially isolated and found it difficult to attend events due to health conditions were supported to attend through encouragement (using an interpreter over the phone) and a taxi being provided.


“I was very very happy because I saw other people from my country and lots of people that I like”.


Learning & Development

Clients also reported that they had learned a lot and felt proud of the work that they did:

“I enjoyed practicing my English really well. My main enjoyment of this was the English practice with British people. It was a good opportunity”.

“It was my first time using those papers (making a collage), so I didn't know that I could do it”.

“I enjoyed the day, I enjoyed the drawing and felt proud of my pictures”.

Project Summary: Art project to make giant paper mache bugs. This project linked directly to a project studying Rainforest insects and their habitat that the children were working on at school with their teacher, Claire Kelly.

They were also reading "Journey to the River Sea" by Eve Ibbotson which really ignited their imaginations and desire to come up with incredible descriptive creative writing along with making field journals of their chosen or imaginary bug. The final outcome was a wonderful display in the school showcasing all of the work they had done for this project.

Project Summary: This international market scene mural was created in collaboration with the children and parents of the Ludworth school in Marple to go along with their studies on world food.

I painted multiple sheets of acid free white tissue paper and newspaper pages with acrylic paints for collaging This is to get a very rich pallette. This collage technique allows so much room for creativity and playing around with shapes and colours before commiting to gluing down the final design.

This is a great method to do in schools as it it takes out the need to get lots of paint out which can be very challenging in a school setting. Especially acrylic which can restrict the freedom of expression worrying about paint on hands and clothes etc, I want to have as much time as possible creating and not cleaning up paint brushes etc.

The children and adults created componants for me to collage into the final Market scene.

As pieces were created I layed them out on the floor in a kind of loose sketch of how the final mural will come together this helps them understand my intentions and then it becomes easier for them to create more imagery. seeing what has been done already by others and what else the market scene needed, A very beautiful organic process.

Project Summary:  Part of Tracy's "Eye Candy for the Soul" exhibition at the Stockport Gallery, Big Friendly Robot was created as part of a two week residency project funded by the Stockport School Library Service "Mad About Book" exhibition.

The exhibition was a vibrant and lively reminder of the importance of play which is vital to adults as well as children. Big Friendly Robot became part of a fantasy world created with broken and unwanted toys. On the surface the show was a colorful display of fantastic plastic. On a deeper level, the show called attention to the harsh reality of the environmental impact of plastic production.

BFR has been traveling around to local libraries and schools. He's become a fantastic learning tool and springboard for all kinds of fun learning; creative writing, art, technology, and environmental studies. He raises environmental questions about recycling, plastics and where discarded toys end up.

We painted acid free white tissue paper with acrylic paints.

red, black, white, purple to represent the colours of poppies.

This mural was created for All Saints school in Marple. The headteacher had a fairly clear idea of what he wanted. A piece of art that conveyed the schools loving and caring ethos. He wanted photographs of the students incorporated into the image and positive words and phrases throughout.

Tracy created the big fish made of all the children's faces printed that out on to heavy weight watercolor paper, mounted it onto a wooden panel then continued to collage and paint the rest of the image.

Project Summary: Mural for All Saints Primary School outdoor playground. The collaged mural is made up of painted sheets of newspaper cut into paper characters created by children from the school and Tracy.

Tracy started with painting newspaper with acrylic paints allowing some of the words and images to show through – a technique very similar to Henri Matisse's. Once the children finished their characters, Tracy took them back to her studio to created the overall picture. here is a link to the process of creating a mural for outdoors. https://www.accessart.org.uk/the-ludworth-mural/

Project Summary: Tracy was commissioned by Transport Greater Manchester to create three murals for the public parking area outside The Rises, a private nursery school in Manchester. Enlisting the help of the nursery school children, Tracy created the murals mixing her work and the childrens work.

Transport Greater Manchester Article

Project Summary: Collaborative mural with youths at Bright Tribe, an academy trust. The academy's mission is to break down the barriers that limit educational progress by adopting a personal learning pathway for every child — one that takes into account individual needs, aspirations, and talents.

The mural incorporates the school's three key action words: Learn, Grow and Prosper.

Learn … The younger children created numbers and the letters of the alphabet and then each letter has a corresponding picture that starts with that letter.

Grow… The children created flowers to create a visual metaphor. I then collaged them into a garden growing and in bloom.

Finally,

Prosper… We asked the children what they would like to be when they grew up some took the route of doctors, teachers, singers and olympic swimmers others went with mermaids and star gazing.

The project was left to the children’s own imagination.

Back at my I collaged each catagory of the childrens individual pieces of work into the final on plywood creating a rainbow effect for it to flow when installed.

The finished six panelled mural was then installed in the school’s reception area.

As part of a funded project where artists and teachers are working alongside each other in developing fresh creative ways of delivering art to children I was asked to do a printing session with years 1 and 2 in a primary school. 2 classes of 30 children.Printing can have its challenges in a school setting and in order to achieve exciting and beautiful results or every child I created a arge set of plant and flower printing plates for the children to create their own gardens. Using ink pads to great effect the results were glorious.Working with 6 children at a time All of the children absolutely loved making their own gardens. Given absolute freedom to explore shape, colour and layout layering the plants ‘like nature’ and smudging the inks to create ‘weather ‘ and fragrence of flowers. So inspired! We encouraged them to discuss one anothers work and they agreed after one child’s suggestion to display all of their work together to create ’one big beautiful garden to walk through’ for their loved ones to come and see. This project also inspired creative writing. Children are natuarally very close to nature and this project brought out their nature inspired vocabulary. Children often surprise me with their knowledge of the natural world, their strong connection fascination and acute observations.

The children were asked to look at sarchophagus, to notice the patterning and colour palettes.

They then used the template provided to sketch and design their own. They were all so unique,

As an artist I could not resist combining all of the children’s wonderful sketches into one ‘ Meeting at the Oasis’ This is something I have done many times in the past as part of my practice. It is a wonderful way to view all of the work at the same time, to appreciate the variety, detail, individuality and the powr of collaboration. The individual characters placed together creating such an engaging image.

We then provided the children with a selected palette of coloured papers given to them in individual envelopes . a large Eye of Horus printed on them. This intruiged and excited the children also paints to create their final sarchophagus. These were made of thick card and gessoed off white.

This project was inspired by the children looking at local history and how the high street has changed. We wanted them to create their own street of interesting independent shops.

I found some really nice templates of old shop fronts and prepped these for the children. they were given lots of interesting collage materials to work with plus art materials to add more of their own personal touches.

We showed them some photographic examples of interesting and beautiful shops and then they went about creating their own.

The classroom was buzzing with creativity . This project really tapped into their imagination. when they had finished i arranged them into a street that was displayed on the walls of the cloakroom creating more excitement and discussion by children from other classes.

I created a set of printing plates depicting some of the prominent hieroglyphs. Prepped sheets of a3 cartridge paper by painting them with concentrated tea getting a good use out of used tea bags, soak a few in a 2 litre jug oofwater so it gets really dark and concentrated. I painted the white paper both sides.This is something the children could do in one session before the printing.

Once dry round off the corners so they look like organic papyrus.

Hurt no living thing:
Ladybird, nor butterfly,
Nor moth with dusty wing,
Nor cricket chirping cheerily,
Nor grasshopper so light of leap,
Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat,
Nor harmless worms that creep. 

Christina Georgina Rossetti

My prep work. I painted lots of pieces of thin card both sides with acrylic paints and  cut out hundreds of shapes. Mini  beast bodies , heads, legs , antenna, wings etc.

In the classroom. We looked at posters and pictures of  various minibeasts using magnifying glasses.

Each child was given  a beautiful piece of  paper 100% recycled cotton rag 8” square. We briefly discussed this. A small pot of pva glue with spreader. A pencil. They were asked to design their own unique mini beast .

The children were offered compartmental trays full of the hand painted cut paper shapes. They had to look through and choose their own.

They were asked to not glue down right away but to play with the shapes and come up with a design by moving the shapes around and trying out different  outcomes.

Using dexterity for placement of pieces they glued down very small parts to form their own bug and/or habitat.Flowers etc.

It is important for the children to write their name on the front of their work in pencil as later when all of the pieces are displayed together as one they search for their own work.

The finished squares of paper are varnished with liquidex satin varnish.

Once their work was installed the children were so excited to find their own within the large display. Opening further learning and concersation.