Illustration by Sylvia Bull

Join ceramic artist Alice Thatcher for the next relaxed and fun session at Art Stop Stoke.
Participate in the creation of works to be exhibited at the final show of her residency with Festival Stoke later in the year. During this free drop in workshop you will be producing delicate porcelain pieces which will be created using printing and forming techniques.
Bring along a favourite book, poem or quote to use in the making of the pieces.
108 Church Street, Stoke. ST4 1BU

New dates announced for drop-in workshops!

We are excited to announce that ceramic artist Alice Thatcher will be based in Art Stop Stoke on Wednesday afternoons, from June to November 2018, as 'artist in residence' as part of our Festival Echoes programme this year.

Alice will be hosting workshops and drop-in sessions for participation along with demonstrations as she takes time to experiment with developing her work.  (A mix of afternoon and evening sessions - times will be posted on our Facebook page).

During her residency Alice will use the time to research and experiment with new techniques, in addition to hosting workshops.  Art Stop will be a temporary studio, a space for making and thinking, for experimenting and sharing ideas, and an opportunity to engage with the people who live, work and visit Stoke.

"My independent ceramic work reflects ideas of fragility and material transformation through the human hand. Using various sculpting and painting techniques, I experiment with creating paper-like ceramics, mostly inspired by paper and the Japanese art-form, Origami. My work is extremely fragile; the paper-like qualities are initially visible but on closer inspection, the ceramic qualities show. I aim to challenge people’s perceptions of the two materials by creating visually ambiguous work."

We're excited to be joining in a brilliant and beautiful creative event in Stoke during this spring and summer called Greening Church Street.  Supported by Grow Wild, Kew Gardens and Seedbed Stoke Creative, artists Rachel Ballard and Anne Kinnaird from Letting in the Light will be using discarded items, such as colanders, tyres and even an old bath, to create beautiful plant and flower displays around the town of Stoke.  They will be getting local people and businesses involved too, to donate unwanted items as plant-holders and help to plant up displays.
The original Greening Church Street was an installation by Rachel outside Art Stop as part of Festival Stoke 2017 at which she used and old filing cabinet as a planter and created a small lawn on Church Street.  This generated such a positive response from local people and passers by that, when the Grow Wild project was announced, it sparked the idea to spread the floral displays using up-cycled items right across the town.  With support from the Festival Stoke team Rachel and Anne have been able to extend the impact of the floral project further afield (do excuse the pun!).  Watch out for a gloriously floral Stoke this summer!

Signs of Spring hope have inspired artist Rachel Ballard who is creating the next Festival Echo, Rachel says:
"Thinking about what the future holds and our own resilience to hardship these free drop in creative workshops will give time to explore hopes for what this year will bring. Using the snowdrop, one of the first flowers of spring, as a motif to make a collage about growth, new beginnings and renewal. The art works produced will then be exhibited around Stoke to in shop window to brighten the month of February."

Check out the Festival Echoes Page for more details

The Roaming Poets will be out and about in the town centre of Stoke during January as part of the Festival Echoes programme, bringing poetry into the bus stops in town and throug the (Un)Official Tour of Stoke.  Poet GKA Gay is also hosting an exhibition of 'Older Women Rock', beautiful and quirky dresses created by local artists with poetry woven into the fabric.  
Check out the Festival Echoes page for details of performance and exhibition times.

For our December Festival Echo - Artist Mitchell Robinson has designed and created these beautiful gift bags, using Lino-cuts, featuring well-known potters across the eras: Josiah Wedgwood, Susie Cooper and Keith Brymer-Jones. They are available with your purchases in selected local shops around the town centre of Stoke*.  Can you collect all three?
​For a chance to win a bag signed by Keith Brymer Jones check our our Facebook page!
*Hippie at Heart, Samaritans, News on Church Street, London Road Oatcakes.