Past events

Information about some of our previous events.

The Mill Big Draw Story Blanket October 2008

This blanket below is the outcome of The Mill’s collaborative community project for 2008. In celebration of the National Year of Reading, each square depicts a hat-wearing character from a well-known storybook. Local textiles artist Anne Griffiths prepared hat shapes in felt which were then sewn on and embellished with character clues by participants.

The squares were completed during two sessions. The first took place on a drop-in basis on Sunday 5 October as part of the town’s Canal Day events, where all members of the public were welcome.

The second workshop involved families from the Sunrise and Multicultural Play Projects, who attended a two-hour workshop on Saturday 25 October as part of a wider arts participation partnership funded by Cherwell District Council.

The finished squares were then assembled into the fantastic colourful blanket in the photograph. You can see close-up images of individual squares on Anne Griffith’s website at www.pocketmouse.co.uk. Can you guess which character each square represents?!

The blanket hung in Banbury Library from December to February, and during January library visitors were invited to guess the identity of the characters and enter a competition to win a pair of tickets to see Hansel and Gretel at The Mill. It will shortly come home for display in The Mill Arts Centre.

Image courtesy of Will Johnston at the Banbury Guardian.

Spoon Race Thursday 31 May 2007

Over 30 people, from the very young to the slightly older (!) took part in a workshop with local artist Francesca Shakespeare to turn ordinary wooden spoons into a colouful array of characters as part of Oxfordshire's 1000 year birthday celebrations. Special thanks to the Early Learning Centre who kindly donated materials for this event.

Concentrate... painting the facial features.	Mum watches on.
Making a pink dress for Britney Spears!	Three heads are better than one.
Finished! It's messy work making Spoon people.	Spoon family.
And daddy!	Men in black.
A bright palette for Grandma.	Everyone received a souvenir spoon and balloon.
On your marks, get set...! The finished spoons at the start line.