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Arty options for children

Angela Kelly
30/ 7/2008

HELP bring out your children’s artistic side during the summer holidays – and buy yourself a spot of sanity!

Youngsters really enjoy expressing themselves drawing, painting or in various creative pursuits and two major venues are offering them enjoyable opportunities to do just that.

At the Lowry, there’s a new interactive family exhibition called So You Want to be an Artist which allows all ages to find out how LS Lowry and other artists created their pictures, then have a go themselves.

This is a hands-on family exhibition, informal and fun, where there will be plenty of help and advice on hand in trying to follow in the footsteps of famous artists while having a good time.

Michael Simpson, head of galleries at the Lowry, explained: "There will be all kinds of opportunities for everyone to make their own work, including life drawing from a very lifelike mannequin which we will have here all the time.

"We want to encourage children to look around them – whether it’s through a window or something they’ve seen at the seaside – and translate it into a picture, just like Lowry did with working life around him."

Michael said that the exhibition provides an ideal activity for the holidays or for later school visits.

"We’re having an over-sized fridge door with magnets for people to show their work," he added, "and we’d love them to drop in anytime and enjoy making their own pictures."

The whole exhibition is a million miles from the usual ‘look but don’t touch’ instructions to children when you’re out and about, and youngsters can decide for themselves what materials and colours to use, what their inspiration will be and how they might frame their work.

Renowned north west artists Liam Spencer and Ghislaine Howard will share some of their secrets on screen and fun exercises will help children relax at the start.

Then they can perch on pencil-top stools and scribble alongside Lowry’s own early jottings or sit astride donkey easels.

And this summer at Manchester Art Gallery, there’s the chance for young fans of favourite TV characters Charlie and Lola to take part in a host of activities related to the current exhibition about Lauren Child’s internationally popular work.

There are 3D badge-making sessions, they can draw on the walls officially in the pop-up room, enjoy musical stories, create their very own hand-made book and even watch classic episodes of Charlie and Lola’s TV series.

So You Want to be an Artist is free and runs until November 2. Find out more at www.thelowry.com or ring 0870 787 5780. Green Drops and Moonsquirters: The Utterly Imaginative World of Lauren Child, runs until September 21. Go to www.manchestergalleries.org/lauren for full details.