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Saturday 16 August 2025, 1–2.30pmCCA is delighted to welcome artist Kelly Ewing to facilitate Creating Companionship. This Summer Family Activity forms part of the Public Programme for the exhibition Love is blindly reaching out rhizoids and anchoring them to a rock.
During the workshop children will use storytelling, making and seed planting to explore exhibition themes - including friendship, caring and love. The workshop invites you to create your own Xenothorps. These are imaginative, multi-species characters that blur the boundaries between human, plant and other life forms.
Through storytelling, making and planting, each child will develop their own Xenothorpian being. You will create bodies (plant pots) in which you will plant seeds- from which our plant companion (Xenothorp) will grow over time. The act of seeding and nurturing a growing plant is symbolic of the ongoing caregiving relationship between ourselves, plants and our wider world.
The workshop:
In the first section of the workshop you will develop your Xenothorp (the seeded plant) companion’s personality through conversation, imagination, discussing who they are, their personality and what they like/dislike.
In the second section you will build the plant pot (body) for the Xenothorp, by decorating a pot using a mixture of paper collage and painting. Materials include paper, paint, markers, glue, brushes, yarn, pipe cleaners and foam.
In the final section you will plant a seed into the pot, discussing the act of caring and nurturing for plants and the importance of caring for plant life and our wider world.
This free workshop is suitable for children ages 6+. Supervision from a parent or guardian is required. Tickets are limited and booking is essential. You can book your free place through CCA’s online shop here.
About Kelly Ewing
Kelly Ewing is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores Irish folklore, ecological collapse, and speculative future landscapes. Through video, sculpture, and drawing, they create. immersive environments that bridge mythology with environmental realities, inviting new ways of engaging with landscape in a time of crisis. Their work responds to urgent ecological concerns, including the ongoing crisis at Lough Neagh and the broader impact of climate change on the Irish environment.
They received a full scholarship from Frank Bowling RA to complete an MA in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art UAL, graduating in 2020. Since then, they have exhibited widely across England and Ireland. In 2025, their work was featured in ‘Urgencies 2025’ at CCA Derry~Londonderry (commissioned), and ‘In The Press’ at Hypha Studios, Mayfair. They have received funding from Jerwood Arts and the Working Class Creatives Database, with recent mentions in The Guardian and The Irish Post in early 2025. Kelly is also an artist educator.
@kellyewingartist
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
10–12 Artillery Street, BT486RG Derry, United Kingdom, 10 Artillery Street, Londonderry, BT48 6RG, United Kingdom, Derry
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