Date & Time: Saturday 8 May, 10am – 3.30pm
Venue: Training Room, Play Resource
Cost: £5 per workshop, if you book 3 get 4th session free.
Open to: members only, suitable for adults.
Booking: in advance is required for any workshop session.

Choices of Workshops for the day include: carnival masks, t-shirt design, face painting, kites & moving toys, Quick Things to Do, puppets, viking huts and clay modelling! Download full details of the workshop schedule and booking form, or call 028 9035 7545 to book now and secure a place!

Design Objectives are providing free drop-in demos of Summer Ideas through out the day too,  using a range of products we stock suitable for work with children & young people.

Beat Carnival Puppets

Master class ONE – Monday 12th & Monday 19th April

10am – 4.30pm at The Play Resource Centre

Master class TWO – Monday 10th & Monday 17th May

10am – 4.30pm at Beat Carnival Centre

For The Beat, 2010 is the year of the puppet. The Belfast City Carnival, 19th June will be a large scale ‘Puppet Picnic’ in the City Centre and at the City Hall.

For this reason The Beat Carnival has joined with the Play Resource to offer exciting puppet making master classes in spring 2010. The aim of these sessions is to assist community and youth leaders working with groups to participate in Belfast City Carnival and in their own local festivals. It also offers practicing artists a great training and development opportunity.  Download the booking form for more details!

For further information contact Eileen Eileen@belfastcarnival.com or Matt matt@belfastcarnival.com at The Beat Carnival, telephone 028 90 434 767. The deadline for registration is Wednesday 31st March.

• Wednesday 17 March – St. Patrick’s Day
• Monday 5 & Tuesday 6 April – Easter
• Monday 3 May
• Monday 31 May
• Monday 12 & Tuesday 13 July
• Monday 30 August

By creating networks between businesses NISP facilitates the flow of resources, enabling what is one firms waste to become another firm’s raw material.  From our point of view it is putting us in contact with new firms who are providing us with excellent scrap materials – so watch out in the Scrap Store and e-bulletins for any new arrivals!!   We certainly think it is a recycling and re-use chain between businesses worth being part of.

To find out how to contribute to this exciting new collection of artwork created by children at primary Foundation, Keystage 1 & 2 and special needs simply download the flyer.

The competition will culminate in a Summer Exhibition at Play Resource.  The final exhibition will give members Ideas & Inspiration as to how the wealth of scrap materials available from Play Resource can be used as a fun, vibrant, free source of creativity, arts, play and education.

We hope to encourage future generations of artists too by getting them started young! Deadline for entries is Wednesday 31 March 2010 at 5pm.

Inductions are friendly and informal, run on a drop-in basis every Thursday morning at 10am, commencing on 7th January.  Take advantage of this new service and receive a warm welcome on these chilly winter mornings!

The aim of this course is to build artistic skills and confidence, to help develop creativity and generate new ideas for those working (or wishing to) work with community groups.  Entry requirements: No formal qualifications are necessary to join the course, Level 1 is an advantage but not a necessity.  Anyone who has already successfully completed the first two units can come back again to work towards the L2 Award in Art.

For full course details download the flyer. If you think this course is for you register now or for further information call 9035 7545 or email aokane@belfastmet.ac.uk

Keep it handy; wear it loud and proud and in one easy move you are helping to protect the environment and spread the word about Play Resource!  We think they are gorgeous…. what do you think?!

The sessions on Youth Curriculum Training facilitated by the Curriculum Development Unit www.youthworkni.org.uk gave staff and artists insight into working in the youth sector and a greater understanding of the Youth Curriculum.  It also provided a forum for participants to share their own experience and insight gained from working on arts projects in the youth sector.

A series of Child Protection Training sessions were run by the Keeping Safe Project for those working with children and young people.  This training was tailored for artists and Play Resource staff with each session very well attended, demonstrating the importance placed on having an awareness of such issues.  It was invaluable for anyone having to design or implement Child Protection Policy and Guidelines.  If you wish to organise free Child Protection and Safeguarding Training for a community or voluntary group in Belfast contact Sheina Rigg on 9056 5310.

The comprehensive report looks at: the operational effectiveness and policy relevance of the programme, how it meets the needs of members and funders in equal measure.  The quality of life outcomes section makes interesting reading as it is often difficult to quantify the value of the arts in this context.  Gaining qualitative feedback from participants in their own words as to the value of the programme has been very useful to Play Resource.  Last but by no means least; it addresses just how the arts programme offers value for money.

You are most welcome to read the report in full.  Or for a snapshot of the findings simply look at Section 8.7 of the Evaluation Report.  Play Resource is very proud of the conclusions of this evaluation and keen to embrace the recommendations made in the document so that we can keep improving the arts programme on offer to members.