Drawing Connections: Creative Labs -16/25 y/o

Creative Studio Sessions at Drawing Room (Ages 16–25) Come and spend Sunday afternoons making art in a relaxed studio space with other neurodivergent young people. This is a friendly, low-pressure creative group where you can try different materials, explore ideas, and meet others who enjoy making things too. Across the year we will run: - 9 creative studio workshops at Drawing Room - 3 supported museum visits to explore art together in London You don’t need art experience. You don’t need a diagnosis. You can join at your own pace. This is a calm, welcoming space where you can be yourself. These sessions are a collaboration between The Neurodiversity Family Hub C.I.C. and Drawing Room funded by Southwark Council.

Each workshop explores a different creative idea. Across the year we may try things like zine-making and risograph printing, collage and mixed-media work illustration and visual storytelling, texture, colour and pattern experiments drawing and printmaking in different styles You can work independently or alongside others — whatever feels right for you. Some people chat while they make. Some people listen and create quietly. Both are completely fine here. First three sessions (31 May – 28 June - 26 July) The first three workshops will be led by artist Lucie MacGregor: Lucie makes artwork using recycled materials and paper pulp, building large collaborative pieces layer by layer. Her sessions are very hands-on and relaxed, with lots of experimenting and making together. She makes work with found objects that become understood through sensory experience. Her artworks respond to material abundance and waste through site-specific making, working collaboratively and material cycles. Recent projects from Lucie include 'The Weather Show' a year long series of workshops and exhibition with SEND young people at Camden Arts Centre (2024-2025); 'Rain Break' with South London Gallery and students from Tuke School (2024); and the 'Big Birthday Weekend' at The National Gallery and members of the public (2024). Sunday 26th July :This workshop builds on our previous exploration of paper pulp, expanding drawing into sculpture, sound, and large-scale mark making through playful, collaborative making. Artist Lucie Macgregor will bring a collection of found objects into the space to act as armatures, frameworks, and storytelling prompts. Participants will use these objects as starting points for sculptural responses, exploring their shapes, textures, histories, and the stories they might hold. The objects will remain in the workshop, encouraging making in relation to them rather than taking them away. Using found and recycled materials, participants will also create their own wearable headphones to explore different ways of encountering sound—listening closely, noticing echoes and vibrations, or softening louder sounds. The activity invites participants to reflect on their own sensory preferences and discover ways of listening that feel comfortable or engaging. The session will culminate in a large-scale collaborative drawing that maps the sounds created by the group, translating listening into lines, marks, movement, and gesture. The disco room will also be back!

We will also plan three creative trips together to visit museums or galleries in London. (30 August, 13th December, TBD) Young people in the group will help choose where we go and what we do, so the visits reflect your interests. Possible places include: Tate Modern, the V&A, Museum of London, South London Gallery, other creative spaces suggested by the group During these visits we might: sketch or draw, explore exhibitions together, try creative observation activities, or simply enjoy visiting a gallery as a group Staff will support the whole visit, and we will plan each trip together so everyone feels comfortable and prepared.