Join us for a series of fun and engaging adult craft workshops. Learn new skills like wet felting, braid making, knitting, appliqué, button making, and mending. Our experienced tutor will guide you through each session, whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned crafter.
It’s a great opportunity to meet new people, relax, and have fun.
Sessions take place on the last Thursday of the month: 25 September / 30 October / 27 November
The workshops are held in the community rooms at Southport Library. Each session accommodates 10-12 attendees, so space is limited.
Tickets must be purchased in advance at the library counter and availability is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Call Southport Library at 0151 934 2118 for more information, ticket reservations cannot be made over the phone. Be sure to visit the library in person to secure your spot!
Event type: Workshop
Make It! Craft Workshop
Linny Venables is a visual artist based in Liverpool working in sculpture, installation, curation and facilitation. Linny experiments with kiln-formed warm glass processes as a form of therapy, slumping, extruding and manipulating glass into fluid, playful shapes. Linny’s exhibition Sweet Factory is currently on display in the Art Gallery.
Join Linny in The Atkinson’s Art Box for a ‘Sweet Factory’ themed arts and crafts workshop suitable for all the family. There’s something for all ages, with all materials supplied and all for free!
Drop-in any time between 11am – 3pm and get creative.
Children under 12 must be supervised by an adult.
First come first served. You may be expected to wait until a space at a craft table becomes available.
Introduction to Playwriting…2
A 6 week ONLINE Course led by Merseyside writer, Helen Jeffery.
This course is aimed at writers who have some prior experience of writing for stage
During the 6 weeks we will cover topics such as: Character development, Exposition, Verbatim, Form, Structure, Theatricality & World Building.
At the end of the 6 weeks, you’ll have time to go away and write and then submit a short piece to me for inclusion in a scratch night in Liverpool during the summer (details TBC!)
NB- If you are a writer who is sober/in recovery and based in Liverpool City region then please do reach out to me via email as I have some funded spots available if finance is a barrier
Introduction to UV Screen Printing
During this one day course you will learn the basics of screen printing, including learning about the materials used and processes involved in creating a UV exposed screen. After preparing and exposing your own screen, you’ll get time to draw your own image to print, or you can bring a suitable image with you. You’ll finish the workshop by using our screen-beds to ink and print your 2 colour designs onto paper in a small edition that you can take home with you.
All materials you will use are included in the cost of the course, but you are welcome to bring along your own if you choose.
Our studios are environmentally friendly where possible and use greener methods of screen printing, such as water-based acrylic inks. Completing this course will act as an Induction. After becoming a Bluecoat Artist Member you will be able to book into our Screen Printing Studio should you wish to.
Attendees must be 18+
£70 (all materials included)
Bluecoat After Hours: Collage Your Intentions
Set your intentions for the year ahead by creating a collage-based vision board before the New Moon on Sun 18 Jan. The New Moon marks the start of the lunar cycle and is often associated with new beginnings, renewal, growth, and transformation. It’s considered the best time to reflect, plan, and focus on your intentions.We’ll provide second-hand materials such as magazines, newspapers, strips of fabric, string, and ribbon. To make your vision board unique to you, please bring inspirational imagery suited to your intentions for 2026. This could be in the form of photographs, tickets, or postcards.Come solo or with friends. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with others and pin down your hopes and dreams for the future.Please note, the building will be closed to the public from 5pm. Please ring the doorbell on the right-hand side of the main entrance, and a member of staff will welcome you in.
Free, booking required
Creativity for Evaluation Training
Are you seeking new approaches to evaluation which put the communities you are working with at the heart of the process?
Understanding and demonstrating the value and impact of creative work in and with communities is vital to the sustainability of participatory and community arts. This training will focus on how artists, practitioners and project managers can enable participants to evaluate their own experiences of arts and cultural projects through creative exercises.
This training will:
Introduce ideas around participatory creative evaluation. Support practitioners to find the right questions and engaging ways to ask these. Share ideas on how creative data can be captured, analysed and disseminated.
Length: 3 hours
This training will take place online, via Zoom.
Ticket Cost:
For attendees supported by their organisations the full price of a ticket is £40.00 For freelancers and non-regularly funded organisations, the price of a ticket is £30.00 For those on low income the ticket price is £18.00
We also have a small number of bursary places available for those with limited funds, please email admin@collective-encounters.org.uk
Access: This event will use live transcription. If you require BSL interpretation, please get in touch no later than two weeks in advance of the training.
Introduction to Multi-Colour Lino Cut
‘Linocut printing involves cutting away from a block of linoleum, and inking and printing the uncut areas. When you place your carved, inked up block face down on a sheet of paper, the printed image will appear as a mirror image to how you have carved your block. Areas you have cut away will remain the white of the paper you print on.‘
During this one day course you will be guided through the basics of Linocut, an easy and enjoyable process that makes a perfect introduction to printmaking. You will learn how to transfer an image onto your lino, carve your lino blocks and create a small edition of 2-colour prints. You will also gain insight on the materials and tools used, and how you can confidently continue the process as home.
£70 (all materials included)
Crafty Companions
Join us for a series of fun and engaging adult craft workshops. Learn new skills like wet felting, braid making, knitting, appliqué, button making, and mending. Our experienced tutor will guide you through each session, whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned crafter.
It’s a great opportunity to meet new people, relax, and have fun.
The workshops are held in the community rooms at Southport Library. Each session accommodates 10-12 attendees, so space is limited.
Tickets must be purchased in advance at the library counter and availability is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Call Southport Library at 0151 934 2118 for more information, ticket reservations cannot be made over the phone. Be sure to visit the library in person to secure your spot!
Messy Grief: Grief Gathering with Brendan Curtis
For Grief Awareness Week 2025, At The Library presents Messy Grief! A week of arts programming as part of Loved and Lost, a programme of work exploring grief, how we talk about it and how we live well with it.
This Grief Gathering is a welcoming space for everyone—whether you’ve experienced grief or not – to connect, share feelings and experiences around love & loss. It’s for people who have experienced grief, and for people who haven’t.
Monday 8th December
1pm – 3pm
Crosby Library
This gathering is an inclusive space, open to people of all ages, genders, backgrounds and beliefs. You’re invited to share your experiences and reflections around death and grief—but there’s no pressure to speak. Listening and being present is enough.
This Grief Gathering is hosted by artist Brendan Curtis and Debbie Chan, with support of librarian Emma Latham who has experiences of grief. Refreshments, including both hot & cold beverages and cake will be provided.
Please tell us your access or dietary requirements when booking, so we can make the day comfortable & welcoming for you.
We keep gatherings small, limited to 12 people maximum, so booking is essential.
Messy Grief: Smashing Ceremony with Lowri Evans
For Grief Awareness Week 2025, At The Library presents Messy Grief! A week of arts programming as part of Loved and Lost, a programme of work exploring grief, how we talk about it and how we live well with it.
For this special smashing ceremony, artist Lowri Evans has reimagined her project, Fragile Handle With Care, to explore the reasons why grief can be messy, ambivalent and uncomfortable. Celebrating mistakes, accommodating agonies and giving voice to pain, you’re invited to a special Smashing Ceremony.
Friday 5th December
3pm – 4:30pm
Crosby Library – Echalaz Room
Bring an item that holds significance for you in a cathartic ritual, smashing the item against the wall to honour all that we do to hold ourselves, and others, together when we have loved and lost. This is an act of holding up the pieces, not brushing them under the carpet, finding beauty in mistakes, embracing what’s broken or lost, and letting it go.
When you book your place, please let us know what item you’ll be bringing to smash so we can discuss with you!
Visit our website to book your place and tell us which item you would like to smash.