I am giving a talk about Recipe for a good life Exhibition at the British Museum in London on the 4th November. 

What an achievement to get this far and able to tell others about how great this exhibition is. This is a great opportunity for me to do this with my wonderful work PA.Jade French. 

I am not at all nervous, on the day I will probably have butterflies and boy I am going to ace it. 

Tickets and info here: https://www.npconference.uk  

New Exhibition-Recipe For a Good Life 

I am interested in what makes a good life for people who have learning disabilities. I decided to do something about this. As I am passionate about changing mind sets and making a difference. I organised a range of various art workshops for self-advocates to give them inspiration and to think about this particular subject.
 
 Each workshop looked at different kinds of art making such as printmaking for the wonderful mono printing to be used on the table cloths, zine creating by using scissors/old newspapers/old magazines/gluing and sticking down words & pictures. We even came up with sculptures with air dry clay. 
 
 I hope the public will learn the importance of what makes a good life for people who have additional needs and the ingredients to give them the best possible life. I also hope that the exhibition will make them think about the positivity that comes in hand by hand with what can be done when you believe in all the good things in your life.
 
 
   
 
 

Positive You had a Printmaking Workshop at the Brindley Theatre in Runcorn. It was held in the Education Room on Monday 19th November. We looked at Block/Lino printing. There were lots of colourful Lino printings made. 

I really enjoyed hosting this event and I got the chance to do some Lino printing which I enjoyed. The day is ok considering we had two people taking part. The guys came up with some amazing prints. 

On Wednesday 22nd August I hosted an Zining workshop at the Brindley Theatre in Runcorn. This workshop looks more closely at what makes a good life and what it means to us as individuals.  

Zining is similar to magazine only its made smaller and less words through  collage making by cutting out letters, words, pictures, using different decorations, sticking them down in the positions we like letting out our inner artist to come out. 

We had different topics to explore such as Family, Transport, Relationships, Employment, Support, Friendships etc. Each person chose which one to use for their collage like for a example I chose relationship for mine and on the other side I chose employment around having a job which is important to me. 

Someone picked friendship for her collage so she cut out words and letters to spell out friends. As friends are important in this person's life. 

I really enjoyed the zining workshop and there were so many amazing collages made.  

A zine is usually a non commercial, non professional publication, kind of like a magazine but with a twist.  it is a self-published work of original or the right kind of words and images.
 
Why did I want to make zines? I chose zines to inspire people with learning disabilities and to express themselves. Unheard voices of people who have learning disabilities don’t often get heard. Many campaigns such as Mencap help with this to give people a voice. This is why I am passionate about this. Zines can make a difference to give them the chance to speak up in their own creative way.   
 
Also, there’s no rules in making zines you can as creative as you like. Traditionally there’s lots of words and pictures in newspapers and magazines. The beauty of zines is that you can make it your own. They can include your own style, cutting, sticking and much more, your zine can cover any topic.
 
I have chosen “Recipe for a Good Life” as a topic for a zine.  “Recipe for a Good Life” Exhibition will be at the Brindley Theatre in Runcorn on the 14th April 2019 till 17th May 2019. On the lead up to the exhibition I am hosting different art workshops for more information you contact me on my email positiveyouwithleah@gmail.com or on Twitter under @LeahKathrynMary
 
 

Disability Awareness Day is an a event which is at  

Ella Together holds once a year a summer time special with the associates and the Carers Group which is held at the Arts Marquee at Walton Hall Gardens Warrington on the lead up to Disability Awareness Day. 

Last nights show had quite a lot of performances which were amazing and fantastic with an arrange of different acts from singing, acting piece, dancing and monologues. 

I thought it is very inspirational, professional and absolutely wonderful. I am proud of each person who took part in this show and how far they have come as performers with bags of confidence to boot.   

On Saturday 9th June 2018 I hosted an printmaking workshop at the Brindley Theatre in Runcorn. There were lots of different types of printing with bubble wrap, lego, block printing, monoprinting and lots more. 

Some participants started with stencilling a picture then used the roller with the paint and placed on stylofoam sheets. Others used different printmaking equipment and some of them used them used their hands and rolled paint onto bubblewrap to do their printmaking. My partner also used the bubble wrap to paint it in the colours of Ireland flag and he stencilled a church and the year when we marry and rolled paint over it onto a sheet. 

The day was a big success for my printmaking workshop. Lots of people came and it made my day. 

I really enjoyed looking at peoples art work, they were so bright and colourful. 

On Saturday 24th March I am hosting an event called Visionary Voices at the Education Room at the  Brindley Theatre in Runcorn it starts at 2:00pm-4:00pm. It is free to attend. During the drop in activity we will be putting together a patchwork quilt and exploring the possibilities of future coinciding with World Down Syndrome Day. 2018.  This is supported by 

Ella Performance Group is performing Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat at the Brindley Theatre in Runcorn on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th February. To book your tickets here is the website 
https://tickets.thebrindley.org.uk/en-GB/shows/joseph%20and%20his%20amazing%20technicolor%20dreamcoat/events  

Come along and see the show I promise you.