Originally, my reason for going to Manchester this past weekend was to take part in Chorlton Arts Festival. Our Kindness Tree event, which sort of morphed into a Hearts for Manchester event was part of the festival, but our biggest contribution was the display in the window of The Make It Shop. Many, many thanks to those of you who contributed – the window looked fabulous, although trying to photograph it effectively proved beyond my limited skills with a camera; all I could manage was a flavour of it:
Danielle, however, managed a much better shot:
Craft+Activism=Craftivism (c) Danielle Lowy
Many thanks to those who contributed – I hope you can spot your creations (they are all in there), which will now be going off to new homes.
Although the emphasis was heavily on the performing arts this year, the Chorlton Arts Festival did include several other visual art exhibitions and we managed to visit two.
First, opening its gate for the tenth and final year, Bob Nancollis’ Smallest Sculpture Park in the World:
And second, Creative Recycling, where they make art from all sorts of materials, including the glass off-cuts from their picture-framing:
Do you notice, that as well as the art, they also have a little free library out the front of the shop?
So, life goes on in the city of Manchester, if with a heavy heart. I do hope that everyone out and about over the weekend had their lives brightened a little by the creativity that was on display, whether tattoos, beauty from recycled materials, craftivism, sculpture, our decorated community garden, or the lovely bees sent by Helen of Crawcraft’s Beasties, long before we realised how significant they were going to be.
A bee for Manchester
The Snail of Happiness 
katechiconi
/ May 31, 2017What a wonderful and hopeful display of optimism, kindness and creativity in the face of black horror.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ May 31, 2017It was really lovely to see beauty in the face of all that hate. So many people were out and about over the weekend – deeply affected by what had happened, but not cowed.
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Wild Daffodil
/ May 31, 2017Wonderful – looking forward. ❤
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The Snail of Happiness
/ May 31, 2017And sharing beautiful things.
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nanacathy2
/ May 31, 2017Gorgeous, and yes I spotted my blanket, thanks for taking the pictures. The other installations are amazing.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ May 31, 2017We had a great day on Sunday and I did love going to see the work of other artists. Your blanket, by the way, is beautiful.
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Laurie Graves
/ May 31, 2017I think I spotted my photo 😉 Such a lovely event and how timely! The world certainly needs more creativity, spark, and beauty and less ugliness and destruction.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ May 31, 2017So true. I thought I might not have got your picture in, but it’s there on the right of the display.
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thecontentedcrafter
/ May 31, 2017It’s wonderful to see – and so are the other artful installations you show today. It says a lot about the local ethos that the event was not cancelled and the people showed up despite the sorrow, anger and fear they must have been experiencing. It is heartening for the rest of us to see!
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anne54
/ June 1, 2017How’s that for synchronicity? …… To have this event, which was to promote community, hope and coming together, on this weekend. Just shows that people will triumph over the mean and wicked in the world. And the bee at the end brought a tear to my eye.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ June 1, 2017Helen’s bees are wonderful – I think she’s going to write up the pattern for them soon.
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arlingwoman
/ June 1, 2017There is so much to like here! I hope it all found lovely new places to be displayed and loved.
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crawcraftsbeasties
/ June 2, 2017What a great weekend you had, Jan… The window display looks great, and thank you SO MUCH for the shout-out at the end of your post! The other exhibitions you visited were super as well – I love that teeny library – and as you say, it’s so good to see life going on as usual in Manchester. As for the bees, I’m putting together a tutorial now, and I’ll be posting it as soon as I can figure out how to share the templates in an easily-downloadable way!
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Born To Organize
/ June 2, 2017I love your heart! What an amazing and poignant coincidence that this should fall immediately after the Manchester tragedy. I’m so glad you were there. It’s nice to hear, too, that the community turned out, saddened but not trampled but this horrific event. I love the bee. I hope I can take part in a future event. xo
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