With the school summer holidays right around the corner, parents and guardians looking for fun, affordable and creative ways to keep their children entertained during the break need look no further than the Artsreach summer programme of activities, which runs from 24 July – 19 August. Whatever your child’s creative streak, there’s something for everyone to get stuck into this summer, including circus skills, animation, African drumming, arts and crafts, storytelling and more, taking place in 18 communities across the county!
The inimitable Squashbox Theatre are back with a quirky and hilarious mix of puppets, natural history, facts, and comedy cabaret in ‘The Sea Show’, which visits village halls in Drimpton (24 July) and Cranborne (25 July). Come and celebrate the sea with tall tales, silly slapstick, fantastic facts, live music and songs, and meet a whole cast of mischievous sea-squirts, anemones, limpets, crabs, and pilchards!
Families can GO WILD IN THE GREAT OUTDOORS and get back to nature with former teacher and Forest School leader, Claire Harding. Taking place at Broadmayne (28 July), expect a session packed with adventures and activities including nature craft skills, games, challenges, and campfire cooking with delicious marshmallow toasting!
Create Colourful Cardboard Chameleons in a creative workshop at The Exchange in Sturminster Newton with artist Darrell Wakelam on 29 July! Expect a jam-packed and hands-on crafting workshop filled with cutting and sticking, collage, papier-mâché, and painting as you create your own colourful cardboard chameleon to take home!
Using papercraft and printing, artist Sarah Butterworth will tell you all about some of Dorset’s mythical beings, including antlered horsemen, mermaids, giants, goblins, the Dorset Ooser, before helping you to create your very own Magical Masks and Headdresses!
Expect a fun-filled session for all the family to enjoy together as Oops Wow offer FAMILY ART CLUB in the Community Orchard adjacent to Winterborne Stickland Sports Club on 1 August. Inspired by the landscape around you, use found objects for a range of creative activities that could include creating mono-prints and cyanotypes, making paint from local clay, drawing in charcoal, painting leaves and flowers and much more!
Join James Bamford, Artistic Director of Project Dance in Marnhull (5 August) for an energetic and exciting day of showbiz! Learn a number of musical theatre dance routines together before performing them for friends and family in your very own short Dance Show in a Day!
Join artist Gigi Sudbury in Halstock (6 August)and express your Creativity through Drawing and Movement!
Make large drawings in pen and pastels, inspired by patterns you see in the world around you, then work together to turn your drawings into exciting new movements!
Created to inspire musical creativity and a life-long love of music in the very young, Primo Music musician Charlotte Gibbs presents a fun and interactive Music, Play, Explore workshop for adults to enjoy with their little ones in Hinton Martell (7 August). Expect to get hands-on and make music with a whole host of instruments!
Inspired by life in the ocean, Creative Clay for All artist Deborah Clarke will lead two Sealife Pinch Pot workshops where children can get hands-on in Litton Cheney (8 August) and Woodlands (11 August).
Treehouse Theatre present an exciting, immersive and interactive new family show as Treasure Island heads to Sixpenny Handley (11 am) and Shillingstone (3 pm) on 10 August! Laced with all the fun of panto-style audience interaction, live music, singing and dancing, plus an irresistible mixture of colourful characters and gripping action, the show will also include sign language and resources for visually impaired audience members.
Families can join Senegalese master drummer Cheikh Diop for an interactive African Drumming workshop at Swanage Mowlem on 13 August. Fun for all the family, this drum circle will feature djembe drums and dun-duns, undoubtedly creating an exciting atmosphere full of high energy and great rhythms!
Kevin Burke brings his Circus Skills to Stalbridge on the 13 August; children can learn a variety of circus skills including juggling with clubs, rings, balls and scarves, diabolo, flowerstick, stuntsticks, plate spinning, stilts, poi and rolla bolla!
Packed full of interactive games, playful music and lots of laughs for all the family, critically acclaimed Scratchworks Theatre fuse their signature style of physical comedy with the world of fungi, bringing together science, music and participatory activities for whole families to experience together in The Mushroom Show. Catch it live in Litton Cheney (18 August) and Alderholt (19 August).
Join Jo Burlington of Oops Wow Messy Art for We are Painting in Corfe Castle on 19 August! Children will splatter, drip and have a glorious, colourful riot in this immersive experience, making their own paint brushes, experimenting with lots of objects and materials, and making prints!
Please note that all workshops have limited places and often sell out and so advanced booking is essential. Full details on all of the events above, including recommended ages, times, contact numbers and prices, can be found in the Artsreach Young People’s programme, which is available online at www.artsreach.co.uk
