back to Purbeck Young Artists | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 |2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012
PYA 2026
PAW’s core mission is to make art accessible to as many young people as possible within the Purbeck area. Each year, we collaborate with talented local artists who bring a wealth of expertise to deliver fantastic school workshops across Purbeck schools. Over the years we have built strong ties with local schools to champion and encourage creativity, reaching around 500 Purbeck Young Artists participating in creative activities each year. This year marks a record involvement from schools, partnering with seven artists on a diverse range of workshops, including: glass art, puppet making, painting banners, clay making and 3D art using recycled materials and interactive art. The workshops and artwork are centred on the festival theme, which this year is ‘Birds’ and a couple of schools used their PYA workshops to be creative around the nightingale theme of The Whispering Dome community event. We invite you to view the inspiring results on display in The Byre at Rollington Barn’.
As always, we extend our sincere appreciation to The Friends of the Festival and to all our generous sponsors for their invaluable support of our work with young people. Their incredible kindness makes it possible for us to ignite a passion for art in as many schools as we do. Our thanks also go to the participating schools and teachers for recognising the value of art education and helping create such remarkable pieces of artwork.
Sophie Jenkins Workshops
Sophie is a local artist with over twenty years of teaching experience. She gained a BA Hons in Art & Design at Nottingham Trent University. She has worked with children of all ages and enjoys encouraging children to have fun and aims to inspire them to have confidence in their own artwork. Sophie is Purbeck Young Artists Coordinator, runs Saturday art classes for children in Swanage and is also a part of the Purbeck Artisan Yard in Wareham.
Workshop outline – Banners
Working with acrylic paints on cloth, the children made beautiful banners based on the theme of Birds.
Wendy Jeavons – Fused glass artist
Wendy is a local fused glass artist who’s been working with and teaching fused glass since graduating from Edinburgh College of Art in 2000. Wendy’s work explores the magic and wonder of the Dorset coast, focusing on light, space, and colour. Her specialist techniques are screen printing on glass and embossing glass.
Workshop outline – Fused glass coastal inspired installation
Based on the theme ‘Birds’ students experimented with fused glass materials and techniques to create glass artwork, including, birds, eggs and feathers.
Deborah Clarke – Clay Workshop
Deborah Clarke is a Dorset based ceramicist and community artist. She has over 25 years’ experience working in clay and uses a variety of hand building techniques to create sculptural pieces inspired by the Dorset Landscape. She established Creative Clay For All 9 years ago to bring inclusive workshops to all ages and abilities. Workshops have been adapted to be suitable for all abilities including visually impaired and learning disabilities. Clay is a tactile material that is suitable for everyone to explore and create with.
Workshop outline – Clay building
The children learned a variety of techniques such as pinch pots, sealed pinch pots, adding texture using leaves, slab building to make a 3D bird picture and adding colour.
Holly Miller – Puppet workshop
Working from her studio in The Lyric Theatre in Bridport, Holly makes Puppets and props for theatre companies and runs a wide range of creative workshops for schools and community groups, for all ages and abilities. Her approach is centred around the participants own creative process and drawing out their creative ideas and bringing them to life.
Workshop outline – Flapping bird puppets
The children made a beautiful flapping wing bird puppet using cardboard, newspaper and tissue paper.
