MayflowerFolk at the John Hansard Gallery

Susmita Bhattacharya

Nazneen and I did our first session for the MayflowerFolk project at the John Hansard Gallery on Saturday, 20^thApril. This was the pilot for our project and it was a beautiful sunny day in Southampton. Great, you’d think. But actually it’s difficult to get people indoors on a day like this – the city centre was quiet. Most people had obviously gone off to the beach or were away for the Easter weekend. Not good when you’ve planned an art session!

We set up in the foyer space of the art gallery, and slowly but steadily, we got people dropping in. Some stayed for a bit, some stayed for a while – but they all enjoyed doodling or creating intricate works of art, and chatting with us about everything under the sun! 

There was great feedback from the participants. 

They loved ‘learning about the history and traditions of Indian Tribe forms’

‘I learned how to draw Warli Art and seeing different pictures’

‘Yes, enjoyed the story telling behind the activities the children are participating in’ 

Here’s some of the artwork produced on the day.