With music that had everyone up on their feet dancing, Kila kicked off The Ark's Concerts for Christmas series with two fabulous performances on Sunday. The two sold-out concerts were an overwhelming success! The theatre was full of energy and laughter as parents and children alike danced about, amidst our winter wonderland setting.



An early Christmas party, Kila's extraordinary musicianship combined with their friendly audience engagement produced a lively family friendly show. But the musicians of Kila weren't the only ones playing instruments... Children participated with percussive instruments handed out to them throughout the performance.

A brilliant start to our Christmas programme that runs until Sunday 21st December, but there's more excitement sure to come!

Bhaineamar go léir rí-thaitneamh as ár lá le Kila san Ark.

Mandscape has come to an end, but we've had so much fun making everything from photograms to window boxes over the last few weeks. Mandscape artist Laura de Burca has written a blog for us to tell us about her monoprinting workshops.

Workshop designed by Laura de Burca
In the monoprinting workshop, the youngest Ark goers made their very own Mandscapes into inks. Using a variety of tools to draw into the ink, I asked them to imagine they were making the first marks onto the surface of a planet they had just discovered. They seemed to really enjoy this part of the process as it is so direct and energetic, also inventing their own colours proved exciting for many.

Initially they made stencil shapes from paper to lay down before printing, creating strong white shapes in their pieces, these stencils were varied and wonderful! People, trees, ponies, stars, spiders, monsters and lakes featured!

When they were happy with their marks made and their stencils were laid, dampened fabriano printers paper was placed down and the reverse rubbed and drummed upon! On lifting their monoprint, genuine wonder was often expressed, as for many 3-6 year olds this was their first time experiencing the magic of printmaking.

Don't worry if you missed Mandscape - there's still loads going on at The Ark. Our winter programme 'Concerts for Christmas' opens this Sunday - come and join us for some festive fun!

Don't forget that our panel discussion on Mandscape takes place tomorrow, Wednesday 11 November, at 4pm at The Ark. Everyone is welcome to attend. Two members of the panel are Mandscape artists, Mhairi Sutherland and Jole Bortoli, and have written in to tell us about the workshops they developed and led for Mandscape at The Ark.

Workshop designed by Mhairi Sutherland.

I facilitated a series of workshops for children based on drawing with light, using darkroom photography processes. Each child created an individual photogram, firstly by making a negative using drawing and collage with natural and man made materials, and then used this to create a positive print in the fully equipped darkroom, constructed by the team at The Ark

Beautiful detailed, hand crafted and highly individual photographic images were made by everyone, to shouts of "lethal!" "deadly" and "this is one of the best times ever" as the participants watched their black and white images appear in the dim glow of the red darkroom lights.

This was a completely new activity for all of the children involved, and it was a very powerful experience to guide them through this strange, unfamiliar process and see them take ownership, with excitement and growing confidence, of their quite amazing images...!

Framing and rubbing workshop designed by Jole Bortoli

The weather was on our side last week and the children had the chance of doing some very interesting drawings of The Ark's surrounding Mandscape bathed in sunlight!

Looking through paper frames they selected a portion of buildings, rooftops, pavements and anything that attracted their attention and drew it with black and white pencils.

Later on, after visiting the Mandscape exhibition, they got going on experimenting with different natural and manmade textures, from bark to metal grids, making rubbings onto paper and creating their very own personal Mandscape.

If you would like to attend the Mandscape panel discussion, please call Jeanine MacQuarrie, Box Office Manager on 01.6707788.

Mandscape is now well underway, and we've had a lot of fun so far!

In the workshops children have been exploring the exhibition, and taking the opportunity to tell their stories through making their own Mandscape.

Visitors have left all kinds of creative marks on The Ark in our interactive space:

Weaving, twisting and knotting fabric on the two weaving walls

Drawing pictures to hang on the response net - like our fiendish friend one visitor drew!

And scribbling all over the table and hanging scrolls.

We had great ghoulish fun on Halloween with our Ark artist (and pirate...) leading us on treasure map making workshops.

Mandscape runs until 16 November, we hope you can join us and make your mark!