All in a day's volunteering...

Last month Artbox volunteers and artists gathered at central London’s FOLD gallery with 15 employee volunteers from a major corporation. The volunteers experienced working with artists with learning disabilities, and helped the artists create art and products in preparation for our Resonate exhibition to be held at the Cello Factory in Waterloo on Thursday 6 October.

Four different stations were set up in the gallery and the new volunteers rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in to painting, ceramics, embroidery and mobile-making. Artists Hisba, Chris, Samuel and Shannon showed the volunteers how they created their art, and the volunteers became ‘studio assistants’ for the day as efforts were combined to get things ready for the exhibition.

It was an amazingly productive session – at the end of the day Chris's stunning hanging mobile impressed everyone, and Hisba's geometric panel paintings are very nearly ready to be assembled!

The volunteers said that spending with the artists was ‘truly inspiring and uplifting’. It was also hugely beneficial for Artbox as we not only benefitted from the volunteers’ time and energy, but their company also donated an incredible £2,000 – the equivalent of the total wage bill for the day!

A massive thank you to everyone involved and we look forward to catching up at the exhibition! 

(And thanks Olivia Corby for contributing to this blog post!)