What we made together at Art Club this autumn

This autumn, we ran Art Club, a free, weekly creative group in partnership with Space2. As the days grew darker and wetter, the sessions became a midweek bright spot and a much-needed chance to pause, gather and spend a couple of hours making things together.

Running across October and November, the series brought people back into the room each week to sit side by side, work with their hands and enjoy time in good company. It became a small but meaningful part of the week for many of us.

A shared space to make and spend time

Across the autumn sessions, participants worked on a range of creative activities using natural materials. Leaf printing, canvas pieces and bunting took shape gradually over the weeks, often with materials being shared across tables and conversations and music flowing. There was a real sense of ease in the space - people helping one another, talking things through, and taking pleasure in seeing work slowly come together. As the bunting was hung up and artworks laid out, there was a shared feeling of pride in what had been made collectively.

Looking outward

Towards the end of the series, a small group visited the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery at the University of Leeds to see In Touch With Nature exhibition, a collaborative project created with Ranya Abdulateef, featuring work by women from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds and developed in partnership with Leeds Asylum Seekers’ Support Network (LASSN).

Spending time with the work felt like a natural extension of the sessions. Seeing familiar names, recognising shared themes, and feeling inspired by the ways nature, memory and making can be woven together across different spaces.

Marking the end of the autumn sessions

That’s the end of our autumn Art Club series! The artwork created over the past few months will be displayed in the Roxby Community Garden in the new year, bringing our creations back out into the garden.

Art Club will return in 2026, and we’re excited to see how it continues to grow.

If you’d like to hear about future Art Club sessions or other creative projects, you can sign up to Mafwa Theatre’s mailing list or follow us on social media.