08/09/2026
There was so much to love about Ecofest in Leamington last weekend. The Mobile Sculpture Studio was packed from the moment we opened – families waiting for a space, new makers slipping into seats almost as soon as others left, and an extraordinary amount of care, concentration and energy going into making hundreds of small clay vessels.
But perhaps our favourite thing to watch was the way people made together. Children working alongside parents and grandparents; adults steadying clay while smaller hands shaped it; ideas being talked through, demonstrated, tried, changed and tried again. Sometimes the child was leading, sometimes the adult, and often neither quite knew where the vessel was going until it got there.
Again and again, adults initially assumed the making wasn't for them – that it was a children's activity, or that by sitting down themselves they might be taking a space away from someone else. So we encouraged them to join in, and they did. Some hadn't touched clay since school, some had never worked with it before, while others quietly revealed skills they hadn't used for years. Very quickly, the distinction between the adults making and the children making disappeared.
This is something we love about sculpture and about making together. It gives us a different way of being with one another: to talk, watch, help, learn, experiment and problem-solve alongside each other. Knowledge passes from older hands to younger ones, and just as often the other way around. Parents supported children, children encouraged parents, and everyone had permission to have a go, regardless of age or experience.
Thank you to everyone who joined us at Ecofest – young, old and everywhere in between. .dc
Photos: Andrew Moore
