Bonjour Little Sheds™!
In recent years, I have become increasingly immersed in working with young children, initially through a 4.5 year Artist residency at Kids Love Nature kindergarten at Marwell Zoo in Hampshire, UK. In this stunning setting within the zoo, and as the weeks passed, I found myself naturally gravitating toward a Reggio Emilia inspired approach, drawn to responding directly to the innate creativity and unfiltered expressiveness of very young children. I became fascinated by their ability to communicate using what the Reggio philosophy calls “the hundred languages of children” which is a fluid, intuitive form of exploration and meaning-making through materials, movement, sound, mark-making and beyond.
As I extended my art practice and work into primary schools, I began noticing a shift. That natural creativity, so vivid in early childhood, can so easily become stifled as children move through the years of structured learning environments, lack of outdoor learning, fixation on outcomes and the fragmentation of creativity into isolated ‘art lessons’.
This transition, often happening in children as young as three or four, has become a central concern in my current research and practice.
In response, in March 2025 I launched the pilot site for a new initiative called Little Sheds™, a project placing small, artist-led creative hubs in school playgrounds. Stocked with a rich range of open-ended materials, the shed acts as a space for self-directed, playful exploration during lunchtimes. The aim is to support children’s intuitive learning and peer connection through art, whilst also addressing wider issues such as loneliness, overwhelm and disconnection during the school day.
Supported by DIY chain, Wickes and Winchester School of Art (University of Southampton), Little Sheds™ is an evolving project in its early stages but one that I hope will spread across multiple schools and become a quietly radical intervention in how creativity lies within education.
My personal art making continues alongside and often emerges directly from this socially engaged work as well as from my own journey in motherhood. I reflect on the interactions, the materials I encounter and the stories that surface through shared creative space and find they are often reminiscent of my own school experience. I remain fascinated by how these first experiences can quietly influence the way we see ourselves both back then and indeed during the rest of our lives.