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@dayschoolarts

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Alternative arts education Bristol.
Facilitated by @natashamacvoy
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💛💛💫 Thanks to Fozia Ismail (@arawelo_eats) for an insightful and totally captivating Education Day 💫💛💛 Fozia shared how her work is informed by the creative ecology of collective thinking and making that’s born from Somali Nomadic life. She talked about migration, climate , making sense of the world, and interior domestic spaces built by Somali women whilst moving with the camels, surviving off the land in search of water. It is slow hard work where storytelling and song are used to pass the time and inject humour. Fozia uses food in her practice as a vehicle for conversation/ talking about borders, and enjoys creating a family atmosphere for visitors. Spaces that encourage slow time and engages people with traditional techniques, providing moments of knowledge transference. We discussed taking just what you need, the beauty in scarcity and how climate crisis is impacting the materials available to nomadic people. Nomadic culture includes weaving with old cloth and grasses, but some of those grasses don’t exist anymore due to drought. Despite materials being limited they create vibrant, colourful weaves to decorate their home. In the afternoon we made wedding rope from the strands we unstitched from a jute sack and learnt weaving techniques together. It became a space to continue learning about each other and thinking into ways of collective sharing. 💕📼 Fozia generously shared her use of sound to mimic the magic of making collectively by bringing a space alive with other voices, and how her ’Sonic ashes’, allows us to listen to people who’ve passed. Her collaborations have repurposed sound in new and interesting ways including destructive loops from cassette tape ribbons, igniting sound through touch and using microphones to add voices that echo back. 📼💕 💞 It was an amazing day full of insights and care. 💞Thanks Fozia for also sharing your love of camels and the key role they play in biodiversity as they can eat a huge variety of plant species. 🐪📼🐪 “Gaane kaun gaaye ab? Na to camels bache, na gaane bache.” - Who will sing now? Neither the camels remain, nor the songs. (From: Nomadic Echoes for Jodphur Art Week) 🐪📼🐪 by @dayschoolarts
🔥🔥 Thanks to Martyn Cross (@martyncross) for helping us to beckon an autumnal shift to our rhythms of thinking and making🔥🔥 Martyn shared the journey his practice has taken from artist led activities in Bristol to exhibiting worldwide. He shared how drawing underpins his paintings, providing the energy and structure for their slow, laborious layers. We talked about using found imagery, not knowing, destroying something to make something, continually correcting mistakes, the idea of painting being more important than the act of painting and drawing as revelation. 🔥🖤 After a generous artist talk and conversation we gathered around a fire pit to make charcoal from willow twigs and vines. We used our new materials for a series of activities including surrealist exquisite corpses and telepathic drawings with some spooky moments of drawing/thought alignments 🖤🔥 Martyn shared the importance of his studio and it’s community @bvstudiosbristol Throughout the day we were reminded of multiple ways artists support each other, including online spaces, The Artists Pledge, curating shows with friends in pubs and alternative spaces, and Martyn’s recent tour of Medieval Churches to see their crumbling wall paintings. 🔥🔥 As we embark on a year of delving into practice it was good to be encouraged to ‘try to find a voice that comes from the core’ and to ‘build slow meaningful conversations’. 🔥🔥 Images show: 1-6 Martyn leading the group through a series of drawing activities 7-12 Making charcoal including trying to capture the blue surface of the charcoal as it came out of the tin before it instantly faded away 13-16 Images from Martyn’s amazing talk by @dayschoolarts
At the weekend we welcomed the 2026/27 cohort to the Day School studio @bricksbristol for a day of introductions with @natashamacvoy Together we shared things we’ve been exploring in our practices, hopes we have for the year ahead, ideas we’re excited by and the challenges we might have set ourselves. We discussed the importance of creating the conditions for play and using Day School to continually try to articulate our work in multiple ways. We made some playful portraits that included drawings of our practices (all made with our non dominant hand and long sticks with feathers) and then allowed others to describe the outcomes. 🪶✏️🪶 In the afternoon we worked in groups to create models for a studio, gallery and community. Themes and ideas often overlapping, sparking ideas of how to begin settling into the DS studio at St Anne’s House. We’re excited for the year ahead. Looking forward to working together and continuing the conversations that have already begun. Thanks to @bricksbristol for providing the perfect setting with its own rich community engaged programme 💙 Images show the group activities from across the day and @natashamacvoy wearing the Day School 25/26 commemorative T-shirt with ‘Running 10 mins late xx’ taken from their workshop with @dinosaurkilby and printed by @thingsinthestudio 💚💚💚 by @dayschoolarts
🎉🎉 We are very excited to announce our 2026/27 Day School Cohort 🎉🎉 Autumn Everson-Darragh Edie Evans Eleanor Jacques Holly de Looze Holly Lewin Jazz Potter Joseph Winsborrow Joss Affleck Morgane Shaban Nikki Hatchett Noah Cole Rachel Verner Raina Monteith Sylvie Whitfield 💫 With massive thanks to the Jerram Foundation (@lukejerramartist) and Bath Spa University for supporting bursaries this year 💫 🔥 We cannot wait to start working with these amazing artists 🔥 by @dayschoolarts
💕💕Thanks to Polly Wright (@pollewright) for providing the perfect final Education Day with the 2025/26 cohort and their work. 💕💕 Polly is the Head of Programmes at Devonshire Collective (@devonshirecollective) and part of Incidental Unit (IU, @incidental_unit)which continues sharing the knowledge and information about Artist Placement Group (APG), and its successor Organisation and Imagination (O+I). We talked about curating verses being curated, how to prompt themes and/or elicit emotions in a space, working with feelings, layering materials and porosity. Polly shared how she regularly uses Barbara Steveni’s notion of ‘Context is half the work’ when initiating projects and working with spaces. We considered the importance of getting to know spaces we’d like to work with by attending events, visiting and having relaxed conversations about common interests. We discussed working within and beyond the gallery, how fluidity and reliable structures can both be useful, and the impact the layout and eco system of a town/city has on the location of a space (and what it does to that area in return). We thought about the importance of never assuming and using ‘Do your own thing’ (from Richard Phoenix’s book) as a prompt for participation. The group generously shared new works and ideas in the beautiful gallery @bricksbristol and invited an audience to join us for a sharing event the following day. It was a wonderful afternoon of conversations and celebration as we prepare for the new cohort to start in August. So special to see artists from cohorts past, present and future in the same space making the connections and friendships that underpin every artist’s journey. Thanks to DS 2025/26 for the beautiful parting gifts, Femke Henzen for creating a set of nails commemorating the practices of everyone in the group and Jenny Cashmore for the ‘panomancy readings’ during the sharing event. ❣️ 💫Images from our Education Day and Sharing event. 💫 by @dayschoolarts
💜💜 Before we say goodbye to the 2025/26 cohort and welcome the next, we’d like to invite you to join us at St Anne’s House to meet the artists, see their work and have conversations. 💜💜 July 12th, 2-4pm, The Gallery, St Anne’s House, Bristol 💫🍓 We’ll provide the snacks!!! 🍓💫 by @dayschoolarts
☀️Last Saturday we took a sun-drenched Away Day to London to visit Southwark Park Galleries and Goldsmiths CCA. ☀️ Emily Waszak’s ‘Ancestors, Lovers, Kin’ in the Park Galleries (@southwarkparkgalleries) presents an assemblage of works informed by rituals, heritage, grief, loss and the landscape of home. We found bones inside the ceramic vessels, bells woven into the hanging pieces, objects and remnants in conversation with one another so their layered connections resonated with ideas of time, history and personal / public. Saelia Aparicio’s ‘A Joyful Parasite’ transforms Dilston Grove with suggestions of entwined bodies, materials and vegetation playfully appearing from, and/or disappearing into the architecture. We also enjoyed discussing ‘The Nature Worlds / The Koinobori’, an exhibition of artworks made by local primary school pupils in the Salter Space as part of sou annual Art & Ecology School Residencies. Pupils learnt natural dye techniques with artist Emma Ogawa Todd (@3mmatodd), and worked with locally foraged clay with Tabitha Weddell (@wabithateddell). The work was installed at a child’s height and some drawings were made directly onto the walls. We finished the day by visiting ‘Flare-Up’, a group show of UK & International artists engaged with the poetics and aesthetics of illness, disability, neurodivergence and Deafness, at Goldsmiths CCA (@goldsmithscca). Themes of threshold and transformation particularly resonated. 💕 The trees in the park around @southwarkparkgalleries provided ample shade for us to relax and chat about what comes next as the 2025/26 cohort nears the end of their year with Day School. There’s an opportunity to join us at St Anne’s House on July 12th, 2-4pm, for nibbles, drinks and relaxed conversation as we say goodbye to the current cohort and welcome the new cohort. 💕 Images show: 1 Group photo on the steps of Goldsmiths CCA 2-6 Emily Waszak’s @emily.waszak.art Ancestors, Lovers, Kin 7-12 Saelia Aparicio’s @saelia_aparicio A Joyful Parasite 13-15 The Nature Worlds / The Koinobori with Louis Brown sharing information about the project 16-19 Flare-Up by @dayschoolarts
💫Spotlight on Day School’s facilitator Natasha MacVoy and founding Director Jack Lewdjaw.💫 Image 1: Natasha MacVoy (@natashamacvoy)is a visual artist and educator, interested in learning through shared expertise and the studio as a model for teaching. Natasha’s sculptural practice includes murals, ceramics, writing, performance and film to create installations and environments. Her work is a generous, gentle and complex study of mothering, identity, loss, gain and unconditional love through the lens of neurodiversity. Image 2&3: Move through me (proposal for stained glass), Eye Witness, Exeter Phoenix, 2024 Image 4: Notes from the margin, Eye Witness, Exeter Phoenix, 2024 Image 5: Jack Lewdjaw (@lewdjaw_jack) is the founding Director of Day School, and a Lecturer at Birmingham School of Art. He was Co-Director of the gallery east bristol contemporary (2016–2024), and a participant of Syllabus V: a peer-led alternative learning programme. Jack’s work, across both material practice and education, embraces the idea of the alternative: pursuing speculative paths that sit outside dominant or established frameworks. He is interested in imagining and constructing new spaces and possible futures, including alternative communities, experimental pedagogies, reimagined urban spaces, and expanded approaches to design, publishing, and mark-making. Visually, his practice is informed by his background in graphic design, which he transforms into sculptural forms. Image 6: To Live A Thousand Years In One Poem : a solo exhibition at 36 Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne 2023 Image 7: Nothing New Under the Sun (2023) Neon sign. Neon artwork that positions the exhibition in a continuous but artificial daylight. Image 8: Low Hanging Fruit (2021) Acrylic Plastic, vinyl transfer, aluminium frames, aluminium support, and fruit sticker. by @dayschoolarts
💥💥Shining a spotlight on Day School 25/26 Artists Femke Henzen and Dominic McKeown💥💥 Image 1: Femke Henzen’s practice works with props, costumes, characters and film to explore gender and how it intertwines into the creation of community. Images 2-4: Femke’s (@femke_henzen_art) latest film ‘The MMDL (man mowers defence league)’ follows a family going on a journey to find their father in the lands of the MMDL. “We must find him and return his father badge.” Image 5: Dominic McKeown’s practice often exposes the tensions between domestic and non-domestic materials, space and architecture, fashion and identity. Images 6-7: Dominic’s (@dmk.dmk.dmk.dmk.dmk) work for Core Sample invited constant rearranging or the possibility of being crushed underfoot. by @dayschoolarts
A lovely reminder of Core Sample, on the exhibition’s private view @centrespacegallery. Bristol has some amazing spaces artists can use to share their work and we’re grateful to the wonderful audience that came to see the show 💛 #Repost @centrespacegallery with @use.repost ・・・ A look back at Core Sample🧶 Exhibiting the works of @dayschoolarts 2025/26 artistic cohort, Core Sample was defined by visually and texturally rich works that explored the relationship between bodies, materials and spaces. Day School is a year-long alternative arts education programme based in Bristol. Photography: Dan Weill (@danweillphotography) by @dayschoolarts
🌛🤍 Shining a spotlight on Day School 25/26 Artists Charlie Parchment and Jenny Cashmore 🌛🤍 Image 1: Charlie Parchment (@imnottyrone) uses materials at their disposal, from collecting ideas across different digital materials to utilising the space around their job. Images 2-3: ‘Lifer’ coffee grounds, and a digital photo frame with individual headphones, to present a film work that presents fatigue, expressed through the cyclical journey of moving through their industrial work environment. Image 4: Jenny Cashmore (@jennycashmore) is a contemporary artist living on the English/Welsh border. She works individually and collaboratively. Her work and outcomes are often project specific. www.jennycashmore.com Images 5-8: ‘Pan Moon’  4m (w) x 3m (h) Semi transparent printed hanging / divider / curtain, (documentation from Core Sample) Dividing the exhibition space into two, its opacity varied depending on the lighting conditions of the space and outside. Your vision slips between the printed image and the view beyond. Images 9-10: Opening and closing the show, ’Eat in the style of a moon occurrence’, Vegan cheese crackers served alongside printed napkin prompts. Full Moon – Half Moon – Total Eclipse. Photos of artworks thanks to @danweillphotography by @dayschoolarts
💎 Shining a spotlight on Day School 25/26 Artists Serena de la Fuente and Erika Cann 💎 Image 1: Serena de la Fuente is an artist living and working in Somerset whose practice spans installation, drawing, sculpture, moving-image and performance. Serena’s (@zerenaura) practice explores the fallibility of memory and precariousness of selfhood under surveillance in the digital age, searching for human moments in imperfect resemblances and unpredictable outcomes. Her images pull on material from collective memory (such as film, traditions or books), open source software, and moments from her own heritage and autobiography.  2: D to D asset, Photogrammetry model, 2026 D to D seeks to explore the ´thingness´ of a dandelion weed, a plant notorious for disintegrating. Re-contextualising motifs associated with loss, the work draws on memories of childhood back gardens, laughter, and magical thinking.  3: Aerial Reflect, Wood framed mirror, Hairspray, Fixative, Bike rack bungee cord, 2025  This work changes itself depending on what angle you look at it, following you around the room. 4: Cache Control (After Michael Haneke’s Caché 2005), Performance and Film, 2023 - ongoing This participatory work considers how gestures and eye movements are tracked by corporations during our time online, exploring how our bodies become unwilling cursors when using everyday devices. Visitors were invited to interact with a live stream which the artist manipulated to reflect participant’s movements in real time. Erika Cann’s sculptural practice playfully explores the relationship between bodies and geologies, drawing on her experience as a rock climber. From stories gathered in the landscape, she creates speculative folkloric narratives that imagine what the deep-time future might look and feel like.  Images 5-8: Erika’s (@erikac_art) sculptures are created from climbing wall fragments, rope, fossilised shell fragments, granite fragments and earrings. by @dayschoolarts

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