A designer & community artist based in Manchester, Nerissa designs and makes stuff. She also helps others to design and make stuff.
I run visual arts workshops in theatre design, prop making, costumes, masks, puppets, sculpture, banners and general art & design for all ages. Companies/projects include Teach UK, Groundwork, Alpha Plus, MAP, Creative Partnerships, Manchester PRU, Society British Theatre Designers, Warrington Borough Council, Bolton Lads & Girls Club & various schools. My workshops are tailored for each groupÕs needs & interests. Here are some examples of workshops I have run. Unfortunately I do not have photos of many of my workshops as many projects do not have the facility to get photo permission plus I generally don't have a chance to take photos as every moment is spent facilitating.
For a full list of projects please download my Community & Education CV.
In 2011, 42nd Street moved into a new building which had been especially designed for them. Over the summer before the move, I worked with box of frogs on a project with the young people who use it about the transition & exploring ideas for the interior of the new building.
A project to create work inspired by stories gathered as part of a local history project organised by Salford Council funded by a Heritage lottery grant. I worked with Year 3/4 in St Joseph The Worker Primary School in Irlam to create a puppet film.
I was asked by The Met in Bury to run some Easter Mask making workshops in one of the empty units in the Millgate shopping centre.
As part of the Royal Wedding celebrations, The Rock shopping centre in Bury asked me to run a hat making workshop & competition in one of their empty units.
I was asked to run mask workshops with years 5 & 6 looking at different types of traditional masks across the Americas with the theme of animals of the Americas.
I taught a series of doll making workshops for ladies of non-British origin exploring identity & traditional dress at Lanternhouse in Ulverston for No Nonsense Theatre Company as part of their “Ruth” project.
This was a 5 week project to design & make hats culminating in a tea party. Before they started designing their own hats, we looked at many different styles of hats, who wore them & why.
Over Easter I worked with two groups of teenage girls and a young mothers group at community centres in Langley & Hollins to create golden masks for the choir. The theme for the masks was fire and sun linking in to both the destruction happening in the area but also the new dawn of regeneration.