Hats off to Wallace

The Education Department from London's prestigious Wallace Collection, conducted another in their series of outreach workshops at Ermine Road Day Opportunities.

The organiser John Chapman recounts the experience.

The workshop began by the workshop leaders from the Wallace Collection asking the group to recall their experiences from the previous workshop, which focused on the Collection's armour collection. A box was then passed around and the participants attempted to guess what was inside? The box was slowly opened and one of the group said that '...it’s got hats in it'

A picture of a queen wearing a crown was shown to indicate the direction in which the workshop was to proceed. The response to the picture was positive with the group identifying the crown in the picture.

An image of Frans Hals' famous painting 'The Laughing Cavalier', which is housed at The Wallace Collection, was produced to inspire the group to construct their own hats. They selected the materials they needed to make and decorate their artworks. The workshop leaders demonstrated the techniques that were used to make hats.

The atmosphere of the first part of the workshop was amazing and I felt that the Service Users had gained a great deal.

The second part of the workshop involved making a crown out of plasticine and decorating it with jewels. The service users seemed less interested in this even though some really good crowns were created. This was evident at the end of the workshop when the participants were leaving, they took their hats but left the crowns they had made behind.

The second part of the workshop seemed less energetic and service user participation wavered a little. This is not to say that they did not produce anything of merit, I just felt that the group enjoyed producing the hats more and moving onto the second stage seemed to affect the momentum of the group.

The workshop culminated in a rather surreal Mad Hatters Tea Party, whereby the group had an opportunity to display their artworks and end the workshop on a high.

Useful External Links

Ku xiriirsaneyaasha soo socda ma aha qayb ka mid ah bogga internet-ka Haringey Council web site.

Ka hor intaadan isticmaalin, fadlan akhri ogeysiiskeena sharciga ah ee arintaan khuseeya.

• The Wallace Collection