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Bag of Excuses Free Workshops
These workshops sit alongside Bag Of Excuses, an installation by Gemma Mae Halligan and Sinéad O'Neill-Nicholl reflecting on the work of Prof. Jane Monckton Smith in relation to violence towards women & girls. Bag Of Excuses at its heart is trying to help our audience understand the 8 stages of behaviour found in intimate partner homicide and abusive relationships. When we found Prof. Jane's work we kept asking ' how do we not know this?' The installation is our response to that question and we wanted to create some workshops to help our audience do the same. The workshops have been designed to explore the themes and issues raised in BOE through engaging in an art activity and are open to everyone over 18yrs. We want everyone to be as comfortable as possible, so we have provided a breakout space, refreshments and plenty of further information. Our trained staff will also be on hand to direct you to additional resources.
Laura Nelson has been working with words and painting signs for the last 5 years. In this workshop participants will use traditional signwriting techniques and materials to create small signs containing everyday empowering words to take home.
Love Language with Laura Nelson
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Laura Nelson is an award winning visual and craft artist with a background in community organising. Her current work revives the traditional arts of sign-painting and typography which often humorously references both nostalgia and better times to come. She is a keen advocate of the DIY movement and enjoys working collaboratively with others to realise positive social change through creative action.
Date & Time: Friday 27th March 1-3pm & 4-6pm
Venue: PS², 11 Rosemary Street, Belfast
(These are deposit tickets and the £10 cost will be refunded at the workshop)
Weaving Words with Cathy Scullion
In A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf talks of a book being “built” by sentences “made by men out of their own needs for their own uses.” Join artist Cathy Scullion in writing your intimate story, your secret story, deconstructing it and rebuilding it into a woven, coded language, made by you, for your own needs. Each woven story created at this workshop will be combined by Cathy to create a new artwork that will potentially be used in a future iteration of ‘Bag of Excuses’.
Cathy Scullion is a Belfast-based visual artist whose multidisciplinary, conceptual practice explores human emotion, lived experience, and societal power dynamics on both intimate and systemic levels. Her work is grounded in materiality and process, often incorporating ritualistic, meditative methods that prioritise time, tactility, and repetition. These processes serve as both a personal form of reflection and a means to investigate structures of control, resilience, and vulnerability.
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Date & Time: Saturday 28th March 1-3pm & 4-6pm
Venue: PS², 11 Rosemary Street, Belfast
(These are deposit tickets and the £10 cost will be refunded at the workshop)
Table Salt Bobby Rai Purdy
A textile workshop on linen, creating words of empowerment and adding textures with thread, embroidery and stitching. After the workshop Bobbi will bring the finished pieces together to create a new collaborative work for future exhibit.
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Bobbi is a practising arts facilitator and multimedia artist who has worked with groups of all ages, abilities and backgrounds delivering Visual Arts and Drama Workshops in Belfast for 35 years. Her work includes intergenerational projects, working with older people, young people, children, with schools and residential groups, and arts organisations. Bobbi is currently working as the Community Engagement Manager with Northern Ireland Opera, delivering opportunities for all communities to engage in the arts experience and making it accessible to all.
Date & Time: Sunday 29th March 1-3pm & 4-6pm
Venue: PS², 11 Rosemary Street, Belfast
(These are deposit tickets and the £10 cost will be refunded at the workshop)
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