Unfurl - By Stepping Stones Creative
Our latest exhibition at The Horsfall was 'Unfurl' by Stepping Stones Creative
Stepping Stones Creative operates as an independent non-profit organisation within the Greater Manchester area, focusing on supporting young individuals with special needs and disabilities.
Their core mission revolves around promoting, supporting, and encouraging the artistic endeavours of young people with special needs to ensure their voices are heard. Through the utilization of creative arts, Stepping Stones Creative aspires to inspire personal development and offer respite.
Being a non-profit organisation, Stepping Stones is committed to making a meaningful impact on the lives of the extraordinary individuals they work with.
About Unfurl and Listen
"This exhibition, ‘Unfurl and Listen’, originated through a connection on social media, between Steppingstones Creative ( a creative arts organisation for young people with additional need), based in Salford and Casamance Kambaye, a Senegalese, activist and artist.
Theatre of The Oppressed Drama Technique.
Theatre of The Oppressed is a drama tool kit, enabling marginalised groups, to explore and voice their ‘issues’ and ‘oppressions’. Founded by Augusto Boal and is a recognised world-wide technique.
It is a tool kit used by both Steppingstones Creative and Casamance Kambaye in their practice. It is a methodology which enables access for those groups and individuals who might have difficulty expressing themselves and their concerns in a safe and supportive situation.
The exhibition offers images of our and Casamance’s practice of Theatre of The Oppressed.
UNFURL and LISTEN is an exhibition of wonderful creative expression by young individuals with complex needs.
Steppingstones Creative own artists: Chloe, Rhia, Jackson , Sienna, and William, along with our Excell group have been exploring, discussing, and creating, influenced by the following Senegalese artists:
Papa Diop, ‘Outsider Artist’.
Amadou, ‘Urban Artist’.
Younesse – Seye, female artist, and voice activists
Chloe’s creative work on where she lived in Salford, in the style of ‘Amadou – Urban Art’, was included in the recent Eccles Art Trail, commissioned by Salford City Council. His urban images encouraged Excell to explore and discuss the life of their Salford, and their participation in the life of Salford.
Rhia and Chloe have explored ‘Papa Diop’s’ work, reflecting on their family and friends. Using crayons and chalk on whitewashed cardboard.
William, Jackson, Rhia, Chloe, and Sienna have been inspired by Younesse – Seye portraits to paint, in oils, several self-portraits, in their own representations – from figurative to abstract.
Younesse – Seye use of art to demonstrate her activism, around voice and not being heard, has led our individual artists and Excell Hub members to discuss their own voices and if they are being heard. William, in oils, has expressed a brilliant facial sequence, where his lips (voice) increasingly are disappearing and as an autistic individual feels it represents ‘him not being heard or listened to’. Excell, using image theatre, explore Younesse – Seye images to explore their own thoughts on ’voice’, using the patterns in her work, developed their own images."
Find out more about Stepping Stones Creative's work and their artists here:
