Arty Mummas
Life-changing times need creative, life-changing spaces
Talking, exploring and art-making workshops for mums, babies and children
Connect, reflect and get real support as new mums - and have a ton of fun! Arty Mummas is a five-week ‘talking and making’ space for non-artists. No experience necessary…being a parent is all!
The first 1,000 days of a child’s life (from pregnancy to two years old) are now accepted to be the most significant in a child’s development by leading child health experts, such as WHO, UNICEF and NCT. Ask most parents, and chances are they’ll say that the first 1,000 days also present some of the most challenging moments in a person’s life – they are relentless! I’m sure you’ll agree.
And with each new child, comes a whole new set of priorities, dilemmas, and challenges.
Arty Mummas is all about changes and transitions. It’s about celebrating and connecting with other women - about your realities and experiences at one of the most intense moments of our lives. It’s sharing in the highs and lows of birth and new beginnings, changing identities, our relationships, being and becoming a mother, the night times, the love and the bonding – all in a deeply supportive and safe space.
It’s also about using our innate creativity and imagination to express our feelings and experiences in a new way through making images.
Each week is themed, and you’ll receive inspirational info from me to help get you thinking and spark those ideas.
How it works
The first session is where we meet each other and begin our journey together as Arty Mummas. Each week, I’ll email really simple instructions to help you think around the theme and how to approach ideas and images. I’ll be asking you to think about all your experiences as mums and giving you prompts you can use for creativity. Don’t be too worried about the ‘arty’ bit - this programme is for non-artists and I have a tried and tested format to help you get into the place of thinking about images that feel right to describe how you are and what you’re going through. And it won’t take lots of time - I get that we are time-poor! The sessions are about talking and telling, showing and sharing.
Each workshop is given a key topic or theme that I’ll guide you through. These might include: birth and new beginnings, changes in relationships, becoming a mother, changing identities, our relationship to work, looking after a new person, matrescence (the process of becoming a mother) and family life.
FAQs
-
2023 dates are to be confirmed. Enquire now to register your interest
-
Of course! Babies and children will be with us throughout and are part of the sessions. If you need to eat, feed, change, then that’s all just part of how we roll.
-
I’m happy to help you find creative tasks for older children if you need to bring them along - just email me. It can also be a good idea to make use of a bit of screen time to help keep little ones occupied.
-
The groups I run are small, safe and expertly facilitated. The focus is on offering warmth, space to think, support and fun.
-
The course costs £135 and you can pay in two instalments. Just contact me to set this up.
-
I’ve been running the Arty Mummas programmes since 2016 and this will be the 15th set of sessions. It’s called ‘Arty Mummas’ because the focus of these sessions is on you - the mother, parent and caregiver.
I'll bring all my expertise to the sessions. My coaching, consultancy and facilitation practice arises out of over thirty years professional work in the private, public, voluntary and statutory sectors; my leadership skills gained as CEO, a freelance strategy consultant and chair of multiple teams and projects; my 8.5 years as volunteer Leader and Chair of NCT Newham: my day-to-day expertise as a local community activist, a focussed artistic creative perspective and over 25 years experience of being in psychotherapy, 16 of which has been in psychoanalysis.
The sessions are a space for you to explore your experiences as well as gain new insights, meet new people, have fun 'creating' and relax as best you can at a time of intense emotions. My work aims to support parents with some of the challenging aspects and offers a new and exciting avenue to do some self-reflective artwork alongside and with children.
Testimonials
“Thank you for creating a nurturing and encouraging women's circle to delve into the new emotions, worries and pleasures that motherhood brings. Your format of processing our thoughts and emotions in a supportive network with such amazing women on similar journeys while being able to see the progress through creative outlets has been invaluable in comforting me in this transition.”
“Thanks Kelly for the great group, So glad to have done this on both my mat leaves. It's been amazing to open up to such lovely and understanding people. It’s really helped me to reflect on myself and my life as well as gain some confidence. It’s also made me realise that I have a passion to continue to do art. And above all meet all you lovely ladies.”
“Thank you for creating a safe space to explore my feelings about the huge changes in motherhood, through discussions and artwork. It has been such a blessing to have that time focussed on myself and my experience. Ive also loved the group setting and hearing about the experiences of others and provides a useful perspective to frame my own thoughts and feelings.”