Our final Wild Things session of the year was well attended despite the wintery weather. We started the day lantern makihng in the library, this was very enjoyable for the children who loved making big lanterns. This was followed by a parade of all the lanterns that had been made. This was a great way to display everyones hard work and we even sang carols as we made our way through the park and back to centre!

A day of cutting back the undergrowth and making natural sculptures for the'ugly bug winter ball'

A massive 150 people turned up at this event. Ninety children were kept busy with a range of activities, and nearly everyone stayed until the end. We made flags and lanterns, did a bit of gardening, listened to stories and finished with a procession – not bad for a day’s work!

We painted terracotta pots and the children enjoyed gardening. Hopefully we will be rewarded with some beautiful flowers in Spring.

At Middlewood Park we planted bulbs and made willow pumpkin lanterns with 20 very helpful junior gardeners.

The range of activities kept the children interested, and they especially enjoyed working with 3d shapes. Our volunteer Elissa also noted that the children loved the idea of helping out around their local area. We look forward to seeing more from this new generation of gardeners soon!

We got to know Crookes Valley park better by deciding on our favourite wild things inside the park and painting them. People chose the trees, the wildlife or in some cases themselves! Having decided on our favourite wild things we used natural materials to make our own wild spirits which would look after them. We then spruced up their new homes by giving the park a good clean and decorated it with a string of colourful autumn leaves to celebrate the coming of a new season.

We had a great time celebrating the apple harvest by decorating the apple tree and tasting its fruit and juice. We collaborated with Abundance to pick and juice the apples, and wrote poems and drawings inspired by the fruit onto leaf shapes to hang with coloured ribbon onto the tree.

Art in the Park helped everyone add a fluttering pair of wings to their back on Saturday in Rotherham. We were joined by lots of you who cut out your very own wonderful wings then decorated them with glitter, card, pens and crayons to make them even more magical. Michelle Roper is an artist that worked with Art in the Park on the day, she said “the children were very happy with their wings and were excited to wear them”, Art in the Park was excited to see everyone wear them too!

Art in the park got into the party mood in Hillsborough. We designed our own bunting to celebrate the beautiful walled garden which looked wonderful after an afternoon of gardening. We used oil pastels on coloured paper to create a selection of bright bunting with images inspired by the natural world around us. Our artist Colette Cameron said “It was great being part of a group project creating bunting together. All ages were able to contribute leading to visually attractive results”.

As part of Art in the Park’s celebration of all things green this summer we were in Ponderosa park on Sunday August 21st for our ‘Wild Things’ adventure. We hosted a rather lovely picnic for everyone to enjoy, and then you all helped out our little animal neighbours by building the birds and the bats some brand spanking new boxes to live in.

As usual, there was lots of creative fun to be had, with children cutting and colouring to create some beautiful head dresses and even making their very own dragonflies and butterflies. We all finished off the sunny day with a nature trail in order to get a sneaky peek of all the creatures that call Ponderosa Park their home.

The next Wild Things event will take place on Sunday 11th September, 1-4pm at Philadelphia Green Space, Upperthorpe.

Art in the Park travelled to Doncaster on Tuesday to give everybody an under the sea themed treat. Fish (the cardboard kind) were decorated with an array of sequins, crayons, ribbons and pastels resulting in a fabulous fish extravaganza.

Art in the Park enjoyed a spot of gardening with participants, who planted in flower beds, took on some weeding and looked after the herb garden. Also, participants created giant flowers with oil pastels and took some time out to identify the wildlife around us.

The children enjoyed getting stuck in, enthusiastically saying, “I've got a root!”

Even the adults thought it was “really great to have a chance to do some art.”

This activity which was part of the Ruskin Park funday,was designed to include the whole family. The idea was to create a hobby horse, using all sorts of crafts from stuffed socks to make the body- to pens, buttons, felt and ribbon for decorating the horses.

Altogether it was a great day, everyone enjoyed it even the parents, who on occasion perhaps enjoyed it a little bit to much!! And although we did run out of materials, that just showed how popular the event was.

Watch a video of the hobby horses in action:

At the Zest Peace Gardens in Zest Heathly Living Centre, Upperthorpe, Art in The Park joined Netherthorpe Primary School for some fun plant pot decorating, planting and making ladybird shelters. Together we worked on our plant pot creations using paper, tissue paper and sticky back plastic. Digging deeper, we then planted a selection of herbs, lettuce, round carrots and beetroots. Creating a ladybird shelter was an exciting activity for the group of children who worked hard in the morning. Whereas, the group of children in the afternoon enjoyed a bug hunt.

Their teacher commented: “They enjoyed the activities.” Sean from Zest commented “yes it was brilliant and Annie (the artist) was great she really got the kids motivated and raring to go!”

Although the weather showed its many colours, the outside activities were still a positive experience for the children.

Twenty five kids and adults had fun at Philadelphia Green Space on Sunday 29th May, getting involved in creating bird and bat boxes. Most got put up and some were decorated. All together a very successful day!

The aim of the event was to get Sheffield University students involved in their local green spaces. So we set up guerilla midnight wild flower planting; working with Sheffield University we sent the students off to find the secret location using riddles and clues, when they arrived at the scene, we proceeded in our attempt to turn this little patch of land into something beautiful.

Carl described his experience as being ‘enjoyable and fruitful and that as a volunteer I would recommend anyone to get involved in any volunteering work , because of the rewarding impact it has, to know you’re making a difference.‘ The students worked together to help bring this area to life; supporting each other in each activity.

On Sunday 17th April a green-fingered team of residents joined forces for a day of digging, raking, planting trees and sowing seeds to brighten up the public green space on Middlewood Road!

A partnership between Art in the Park and Green the Grey Campaign. Funded by Big Lottery Fund (National Lottery) http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/

With our friends from Science Brainwaves, Art in the Park held a 'mini-celebration' in the underused green space on the corner of Oxford Street/Albion Street. Artist Lois helped passers by to create DNA windchimes while science experts demonstrated how to extract DNA from strawberries! There was also a 'nonsense poetry board' and a giant double helix sculpture from recycled materials which was installed in the trees.

We began this project on the 28th February, working with Friends of Lynwood Gardens- to help imporve the site and attract more people to the area.

On the 12th March as part of Sheffield's Big Spring Clean, our volunteers came together to help improve and revive green spaces of the neighbourhood in partnership with Sheffield Univeristy and H.E.R.B. It was a great success with volunteers helping to clear the area, lay grass and make planting space for fruit trees. The main event of the day was finsihing off the mosiac wall- Most of the mosaics were created with the local children at their homework club at the Broomhall centre but the volunteers on the day had the chance to add their own as well.

Our next session was on the 24th April at Lynwood Gardens, time was spent making a wicker man was burnt at the Beltane Festival on 30th April, celebrating the start of summer. The day went fantastically well, with many members of the community coming along and getting involved with the activities Art in the Park and Friends of Lynwood Gardens had set up.

The final session was on the 8th May where we worked with local children and University of Sheffield students to brighten up a wall that surrounded a local community garden.

As part of Science Week we held a Mini Celebrations event at Broadfield Park 12-3. This included looking at bugs in detail under the microscope, and then making your own. As well as crafting your own bug we also organised a bug hunt, and creative writing session on stories and poems about the bugs' lives.

In partnership with No Limits Film Festival we held a film making workshop on Monday 25th October, 12-3, in The Ponderosa green space, below Crookes Valley Road. Our friends at Get Walking Keep Walking led a walk around the park whilst our artist Rosie Etherington was on hand to help all the participants develop their photography skills. The event had an environmental theme and much of the photography represented this.

Watch the finished film here

On Wednesday 20th October, volunteers from Art in the Park and orange RockCorps joined forces to help brighten up an area of Walkley. On a beautiful but chilly October afternoon, our intrepid volunteers planted hundreds of Daffodil bulbs in anticipation of of their flowering in the Spring. Bemused locals looking on, we planted alongside Langsett Crescent using bulbs kindly donated by Sheffield City Council. This event was run in partnership with Orange RockCorps - all our volunteers will be rewarded with a voucher for a gig ticket of their choice. Thanks guys!

Follow the link below to learn more about volunteering opportunities with Orange RockCorps http://www.orangerockcorps.co.uk/

Saturday 25th September saw the last of the Villages of Poetry one off family poetry events, this time under the shadow of the imposing viaduct in Wentworth Park, Penistone.

Locals informed us the park is however better known as Waterhall Park, but name notwithstanding, with the area completed by a stream, ducks and the aforementioned brooding viaduct; there was much to inspire some fantastic writing. Again a verbal treasure hunt seemed to capture the interest of the young and not so young alike while budding writers also set out to re-name the various landmarks more poetically and to add wishes to our Poe tree.

Around 30 people braved the chilly day to join poets Joe Kriss and Charlotte Ansell to re-imagine their local park in an new way; from an experienced poet taking the time to write somewhere she had frequented but never written about before, to the family who created their own very personal map of the park, re-naming areas according to family memories and events. The Steel Valley Project was also on hand here enabling people to create their own fabulous bird boxes and bird feeders. All in all, some lovely work was created and it was a hugely enjoyable day- many thanks to all who participated and especially those who contributed their work.

On Sunday 19th September we treated the residents of Denby Dale to one off family poetry event in the magical setting of Wither Wood. The day featured a range of fun and exciting activities for all the family including; poetry writing workshops led by our professional poets Noel Williams and Ella Kent, imagination exercises and games for kids and a verbal treasure hunt around Wither Wood. The treasure hunt was a particular hit with families. The marvellous Steel Valley Project were also there running a stall at which you could build your own bird houses and feeders to take home with you!

Despite early threats of showers, twenty-seven writing enthusiasts, young and old took part in the day. Our poets were on hand throughout to give one to one support and advice. Everyone that came to the event left having gained something from the day, be it a greater understanding of the intricacies of poetic form, a new interest in writing or simply having enjoyed the opportunity of meeting a group of like-minded people in their local community. A big thank you to everyone who took part and an extra thanks to all those who donated some truly excellent pieces of work.

Listen to a sample of the poetry below:

On Saturday 18th September we arrived early at Stannington Park along with some promising signs of sunshine. Unfortunately the weather took a turn to the worse, which led to a quiet early afternoon for poets Joseph Kriss and Charlotte Ansell. However, before long the first residents of Stannington braved the cold and ventured into the park, followed by a bit more warmth which led to a busy rest of the day with over 30 visitors to the event! They were all invited to take part a verbal treasure hunt round the park, which was then edited and built into longer poems. There was also poetry written on rocks, paper plates, and many people ended up taking their work home with them.

We were accompanied by the excellent Steel Valley Project, and Sheffield Wildlife Trust, who both ran craft based activities. A great day was had by all. A special thanks must go to all the early participants who braved the wind!

Sheffield My International City…is part of Discovering Places, the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad campaign to inspire communities across the UK to discover their local environment - with all its hidden places, extraordinary spaces and the stories they have to tell.

On Sunday 25th July Art in the Park was in Middlewood Park as part of a wider programme of activities taking place across the city to mark Sheffield Open Weekend. It was a lovely day and the kids were amazing, really enthusiastic, and they managed to produce some truly excellent art work. Our artist Lindsey Mitchell delivered an innovative and exciting street art themed workshop during which the kids were given a canvas each to decorate using paint, glitter and a variety of other natural decorations. They were then asked to contribute to a number of larger canvasses, each featuring images of the local urban landscape - namely the Winn Gardens estate. We encouraged the kids to think about the the hidden, and often very personal spaces within the estate which mean the most to them, growing up in this unique environment.

For more information on the Cultural Olympiad campaign visit the London 2012 website: www.london2012.com/get-involved/cultural-olympiad/index.php

We have attended several Village Galas accross Sheffield and its surrounding area over the Summer months, delivering free art activities and encouraging children to think about their local area in a creative and environmentally friendly way.

Art in the Park had a fantastic afternoon at the Richmond Park Fun Day where artist Anneke helped local children and families make beautiful tags to describe what we like best about where we live. On our tags we collaged parks, stitched on lamp-posts and drew houses and playgrounds.

Parent Jeanette said “It is great to have something like this for the children. It can get so expensive doing other things [at the Fun Day] so you end up going home, but this sort of thing is much better. They totally love it and it only takes a little while, just using stuff you'd normally have anyway!”

Art in the Park at the Annual Ruskin Park Fun Day was a great success. A cold and cloudy day did not stop children and adults enjoying the music and atmosphere whilst taking part in our activities. Based around the idea of recycling and following on from the success at Peace in the Park, we had a recycled sofa and an area where children could swap shoes for slippers. ‘Sheffield’ was our theme for the day and we created flags around what we liked about it, ranging from butterflies to the many Sheffield parks. The flags got covered in lots of colourful paint whilst being hung near our gazebo and on a washing line between some trees, for everyone to enjoy. A fun afternoon spent amongst a community, with anticipation for next year’s event.

Art in the Park made our first appearance this year at the hugely successful Stannington Carnival, held in Stannington Park. This year's activity was flag making with Anneke, which involved using various collage materials to create miniature flags based around popular images of Stannington. We encouraged the children to think about what it was they liked most about where they lived and to use this as a basis for their designs. Mums and dads couldn't resist getting involved in the activity as well and by the end of the day we had loads of great flag designs made, despite the wind trying its best to blow all the collage materials away!

“Art in the Park's stall was our favorite stall of the day!” - Happy Parent

Art in the Park worked in partnership with No Limits to run some film related activities. No Limits is a brand new international student film festival. You can find out more about their work on their website www.nolimitsfilmfestival.com

The event in April involved setting up a gazebo in Ponderosa Park where we had film making related workshops aimed mainly at children. We had a stop motion animation workshop and filming your own trailer. The trailers were then played at the No Limits Film Festival later on in the evening on a huge screen for all to see.

We also had a pinhole camera and camera obscura workshop. People got to learn how a camera works by making a camera obscura, they then decorated their camera obscuras with bright colours. They also made their own pinhole cameras and took pictures around the Ponderosa! Here are some of the pictures people took with their very own pinhole cameras:

This was a great family event, funded by Sheffield Homes, to celebrate Hallowe'en in a creepy, crafty way! Participants worked with artists Annie and Anneke, and used flourescent fabrics and paints to make monsters, hand puppets and paintings. There was also the chance to use a giant french knitter to make spooky giant cobsebs from recyled plastic! We had a weird and wonderful 'glowing grotto' outside, where kids and parents could take their creations and watch them glow!

This was an open access event aimed at 8-13years, their siblings and families. The theme of the day was healthy eating, so artist Ruthie designed a healthy eating message on a large banner. Apart from the poor weather we have a great time printing the banner using fruit and vegetable as our printing tools!

This project was funded by PAYP, to provide activities for 8-13 years olds and their families and friends. We were making 3D sculptures that represented the sounds we associated with our space and place. It involved a series of workshops and events including Springfield After school club, Broomhall centre summer club, St Barts youth groups, Edward Street flats youth group and Zest centre youth group.

Philadelphia Green Space 6th August 2009 Three artists brought different activities which included sound recording and performance, making ear trumpets to hear small sounds better, and making 3D graffic scores. Children and their families spent three hours playing with materials and working with the team to make what they heard into something they could see.

“It was interesting to listen to the urban sounds. Young children were able to understand the concept. We made sound sculptures then a collaborative tree to hang the bird sounds from.” Worker, Zest Centre

“it was very fun and exciting, also very interesting” “I had fun in art in the park” “I liked everything!!!” “I enjoyed making the bird and making newspaper” “I found art in the Park fun” “I enjoyed making the 3D bird mask a lot and I learnt some new stuff” Participants

Art in the Park were invited to Winn Gardens annual fun day, this year with a Hawaiian theme. We have been running art and drama workshops up there throughout the summer so it was a lovely chance to be involved again. We made beach scenes with torn up paper and pens, and designed our own surfboards.

For this year's Peace in the Park community festival, Art in the Park had the task of creating all the decorations for the day! Artist Lindsey was inspired by Japanese Koi carp flags, used for celebrations in Japan. Using this years theme of 'movement', dedicated PitP and Aitp volunteers created dozens of kites to adorn the trees and bushes and transform the Ponderosa into a swimming sea of fishes! Colourful and recycled plastic bags were used and decorated in a series of evening workshops.

A local Yemeni young women's group got things started by designing and making a banner to be displayed at the festival: “I really enjoyed it and it was really fun” “New, fun, nice, good, exciting…great!” “Today was sikkk!!… brap” “2day was v good” “awesome, we had something to do!” Participants from New Generations New Dreams Yemeni young women's club

As part of Sheffield Environment Weeks, Art in the Park hosted four events in four different parks around the city. These were funded by PAYP for 8-13 year olds. 26th May - Middlewood Park, Hillsborough 27th May - Mount Pleasant Park, Sharrow 28th May - Hillsborough Park, Hillsborough 29th May - Ruskin Park, Walkley Artist Cara Flynn lead different activities inspired by the sounds of the park, encouraging participants to explore the sights and sounds that can often go unnoticed. Participants went on walks around the green spaces, collecting sounds and thoughts as they went. These were recorded onto mp3 players and built into brightly decorated bird boxes to surprise passers by! Other popular activities included making birds from paper plates, bird masks and kites. These activities also took place at Ruskin Park Fun Day and Peace in the Park festival. A Mind Apart theatre Company attended one of the days, with a youth group to perform a piece they had been working on over the past few months.

“Lessons learned from my first day’s volunteering: Art in the Park Gazebos are not as robust against strong wind as the twin industrial chimneys poking above the trees. One free vegi-pasty takes you further into the afternoon than a salad. Help 5 year old Alfy make a bird mask and he WILL run across the playground screaming and flapping his arms. His 10 year-old sister will NOT see the funny side, even with encouragement. Grown-ups cannot complete all origami designs. No-one likes to leave the roof unattached to their bird-box, however fiddly it is to apply. A fluorescent blue vest does not give the wearer extra power or authority over playground bullies. Rub vegetable suet into bread to make a bird feeder, or into your palms to achieve a long-lasting softness. Do NOT throw glitter into the wind unless you wish to be transformed into a weeping angel with sparkly face and hair.” Art in the Park volunteer

Through funding and support from Sheffield University, we employed an artist to create a stencil design over the vandalized art work that was decorating the basketball courts. We then had 30 students come down and help us paint the mural, plant some fruit trees and clean up the park.

“I had a lovely time volunteering and collected sooo much rubbish! Including a rabbit hutch and parts of a car…interesting!” Kate “Fantastic way to spend a day! Really worthwhile and would love to do it again.” Khadeeja “Great experience! The park looks much cleaner and the mural looks great!” John

Working with Sheffield Homes we worked to set up a Friends of Philadelphia Gardens. To advertise this further we held a winter celebration event; this included a story walk around the space, wreath making with natural materials, lantern making, mini beast hunts, and a final parade involving Opor choir and fire spinning.

“A really fun day! All workers, volunteers and participants enjoyed themselves a great deal.” Worker AITP

On 4th December 2008 we participated in a Christmas event at Firth Park. The event lasted two hours. Beside our workshop there were 3 other workshops for children. Our activity was a great opportunity for them to create some lovely Christmas decorations from natural materials such as beads, clay, wire, wooden discs, and twigs of pine and many more. Children of all ages turned up but the craft activities were more popular with the primary age boys and girls. The teenage generation had more fun with a game involving smashing mugs! I felt sorry for the pots as I imagined myself preparing crockery in my pottery studio! Art in the Park volunteer

“Despite the cold weather, we all had good fun.” Artist AITP

(Open access events aimed at 8-13years, their siblings and families)

In October half term, we created group poetry tree sculptures and planted some new fruit trees for the community at Philadelphia. Grow Sheffield also attended and made apple juice using locally picked apples!

“Fabulous fun making tremendously twisty trees! Thanks - Fiona, Ben, Josh + Rebekah” Participants “Great idea, should be in mainstream area. Wonderful apple juice. Laurence” Participant “Good fun making apple juice - great to see strangers chatting! Jan (Wigan)x” Participant

(This project also included 3 outreach sessions at a Residential home, a young people’s group and an open access exhibition)

Event One: Peace in the Park, Ponderosa 14 June 2008

Art in the Park joined forces with the popular and ever-growing Peace in the Park. The most popular activity involved creating nature palettes (small shapes with natural materials found in and inspired by the Ponderosa) and sticking them onto our giant painted beanstalk. Other volunteers and participants also helped to make a beautiful archway, welcoming everyone into the kid's area. It was a busy and exciting day and was a great way to kick off our summer project!

Event Two: Ruskin Park Fun Day, Ruskin Park July 2008

We had some great hands on activities in our gazebo such as making your own paper, modeling animals out of vegetables and easel painting. All the fun day visitors seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves, having a go at everything we had on offer and were able to take their wonderful creations home with them. “My favourite vegetable animal had to be a poodle and its food bowl, made from brocoli, celery, courgette and a raddish. The paper making was lots of fun, we added all sorts to create different texture and colour including seeds, beetroot and flowers.“ AITP volunteer

Event Three: August 6th 2008, Philadelphia

Our last event involved getting your hands dirty and completing a clay oven to be used in the final event to cook pizza! If getting dirty wasn’t your thing then Access Space, Sheffield, provided the opportunity to smash up old computers to create garden ornaments and name plaques from keyboard letters. Hallam Fm even dropped by to publicise the events on the radio and take part of course!

The first of several events based on African folk stories during spring 2008 was run on Friday 28th March by the artist Michelle McGuire.

The main activity on offer was using clay to make people from an African folk story. The afternoon began with an action story and from this people of all ages were invited to get their hands dirty making clay villagers, utensils or even meer-cats. Villagers that had already been made had set up camp on the climbing rocks in the park and were on offer for painting in bright and beautiful colours to represent the patterned fabric designs from African countries

Third Event: Sunday 6th April Despite the snow there was a great turn out and a real buzz created by the drumming for the third 'Go Wild with African Art!' event. Many different shakers, drums, rattles and other weird and wonderful instruments were made at the Ponderosa and we all had a great time keeping warm whilst playing them, to create a sound track and sound effects for the story recording.

“Seeking shelter from the sunny weather now turned to slightly snowy blizzard. We were well on our way enjoying the days' activities from instrument making, storytelling, and some more clay making with the usual painting and circus skills. When the weather got a bit too heavy we decided to call it a day, but participants didn't seem to want to move! Have to say a definite successful day and I look forward to the next installment.” AITP volunteer

A lovely setting to meet members of the local community. A chatty, lively atmosphere and some great creative work going on with kids and adults alike being active and creative, making giant monster footprints. The opening was exciting and the Footprints look great: like colourful mosaics and in keeping with the environment. Overall: lots of paint and fun!

For a full report go to: http://www.artinthepark.org.uk/footprints2008.doc