• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Annual Reviews
  • News
  • Our Work
    • Our Work With Older People
    • Our Work With Young People
    • Our Work With Family Carers
    • Our Work With People With Learning Disabilities
  • Gallery
    • Gallery
    • Films and Audio
    • Reminiscence Booklets
    • Publications
  • Resources
  • Support Us
    • Support Us
    • Donate Now
    • Give regularly
    • JumpstART Storytelling Shop
    • Fundraise for us
    • Thank You
  • Contact Us
  • Donate

Suffolk Artlink HomepageSuffolk Artlink

Making Creative Connections

You are here: Home / Projects / Make, Do & Friends

Make, Do & Friends

“It made me think about my local community and what I value about it.” Participant

“It was good to keep in touch via Zoom during lockdown.” Participant

“[Taking part was like] … when you’ve been working in the garden, and you come back into the house and you feel kind of mentally at peace with yourself, you feel good, you feel you can cope with things and you’re not worried – it made me feel like that.” Participant

What is Make, Do & Friends?

Felt picture of rose hips

Make, Do & Friends is part of our programme of work for older people in rural areas of Mid Suffolk and Babergh.

It provides a way of making and keeping connections; initially, it intended to deliver a programme of face-to-face events and creative sessions, along with our partners Rural Coffee Caravan and DanceEast, to bring people together.

Right now, it’s not so easy to bring people together physically, and that makes it even more important that we find ways to stay connected – which we’ve done by producing the Make, Do & Friends blog site, offering three distinct ways of taking part.

Create offers regular creative activities, specially devised by our team of artists, that range from photographing a daily journey on your mobile phone to writing poetry about your hands or printmaking using fruit and flowers from the garden. Each activity is published on the Make, Do & Friends blog site, where it can also be downloaded as a pdf. We also produce Create Activity Packs, which we will happily post out to people if they would prefer to take part that way.

Connect is a series of mini ‘events’, in which an artist visits a particular location and, together with a local resident, plans and delivers a brief creative activity. Thus far, we have created jesmonite plaques in Laxfield, personalised footpath maps in Clare and bonded images in Risby and have several more ‘events’ planned over the coming months.

Community We are all limited in how and where we can meet up – and Zoom definitely offers an alternative means to achieve this, even if we find the technology a little daunting. So, we have devised a series of informal, relaxed Zoom sessions that, whilst focusing on a creative activity such as creative writing or listening to a radio drama, also provides hints and tips on how to enjoy using Zoom.

To make the connection complete, we have shared images of work produced and people taking part on our blog site Gallery, for everyone to enjoy.

Who is Make, Do & Friends for?

Make, Do & Friends is for adults (55+) in rural villages and towns in Mid Suffolk and Babergh.

When & Where is Make, Do & Friends happening?

Make, Do & Friends is a two-year programme and runs until March 2021. Since it began, it has taken place in village halls and community markets, around duck ponds and echoing barns and in county parks and along footpaths.

Whilst much of our work is delivered via the Make, Do & Friends blog site and can be accessed at any time, we will continue to work hard to find ways of making and nurturing connections with rural communities.

We welcome feedback and suggestions – so if you would like your village to be part of a Connect event, or would like a Community zoom session with a particular artist, please do let us know.

Contact:

Carrie Phoenix on 01986 873 955 or carrie@suffolkartlink.org.uk or Candida Wingate on 07857 002974 or candida@suffolkartlink.org.uk

Further information:

Make, Do & Friends has been supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and also generous funding from Baring Foundation and Suffolk Community Foundation (Suffolk Rural Fund, Realising Ambitions East Fund and Realising Ambitions West Fund)

Arts Council England Lottery Funded logo Suffolk Community Foundation
2 people mono printing leaf designs

Make, Do & Friends Photo Gallery

Have a look at what we've been up to, click here to see our Make, Do & Friends photo gallery

Make, Do & Friends News

Make Do and Friends Connect in Laxfield

November 17th, 2020 by Candida Wingate (Edit)

The artist, Caitlin, standing outside Laxfield Church, behind a table set out with clay moulds

Inspired by an exhibit in their local museum, we invited residents in Laxfield to share with us some of the treasures they have stashed in their sheds – and the results were both fascinating and bizarre. Participants gathered outside the church and, using what looked suspiciously like sponge cake moulds, made impressions of their individual […]

Continuing to bring creativity to rural Suffolk’s older residents

October 26th, 2020 by Alistair Winch (Edit)

This month, we launched a free arts programme aimed at addressing rural isolation in Suffolk’s older residents. ‘What is your village made of?’ invites adults (55+) to take part in free activities that encourage creativity and connection with others, using their home villages and towns as inspiration. The programme is part of our ‘Make, Do […]

Make, Do & Friends Connect in Risby

October 13th, 2020 by Candida Wingate (Edit)

Last month, photographer Gillian Allard ran a ‘walking workshop’ in Risby, in which she accompanied residents as they showed her some of their favourite sights in the village, and she gave them tips on how best to photograph them. The resulting images were then bonded on to logs and yesterday we gathered in a large […]

Make, Do & Friends Connect in Risby

September 24th, 2020 by Candida Wingate (Edit)

Photographer Gillian Allard visited Risby today, for the first Connect session with local residents. After sharing a few top tips for taking photographs, Gillian walked round the village with the groups, as they took images of locations that connect them to their community. The church, the huge elm tree, the duck pond and several other […]

New Make, Do & Friends online activities

April 17th, 2020 by Suffolk Artlink (Edit)

What is your village made of? Make, Do & Friends blog

We are delighted to announce the launch of the brand new blog site for Make, Do and Friends, our programme of creative social events for adults (55+) in villages and towns in Mid Suffolk and Babergh. As the artists can’t come out to see you all in person, they have been busy devising ways to […]

Lift up your voice …

March 18th, 2020 by Candida Wingate (Edit)

Whether it’s from a balcony or a bathroom – lift up your voice and lift up your spirits in song. By way of a little encouragement, here’s a snippet from the Make, Do & Friends natural voice choir in Westhorpe, demonstrating just how glorious it is when we sing … as you can just hear […]

Celebrating creatively at Wingfield Barns

March 5th, 2020 by Candida Wingate (Edit)

Two women, each with a tray of water and paper pulp in front of them, as they make handcrafted paper

The rain stopped raining, the wind stopped blowing and the sun came out and shone on our Creative Celebration at Wingfield Barns this Wednesday, 4th March. By midday, adults and school children alike were hand-crafting paper, creating animations, producing beautiful poetry and even blowing paint bubbles, all in the name of celebrating what they love […]

Make, Do & Friends visit Beyton

February 26th, 2020 by Candida Wingate (Edit)

A pen and ink map, showing the names of fields in Beyton

It was lovely to meet so many people at Beyton today and hear some of their wonderful stories about the village. From recollections of being taken from the infant school, complete with chair, to sit and witness the blowing up the last remaining pill box in the village, to a beautifully drawn map of all […]

New creative get-togethers for older people in 2020

February 4th, 2020 by Suffolk Artlink (Edit)

Mosaic workshop

As Make, Do & Friends moves into its second year, we are pleased to announce a new programme of free creative and social events bringing older generations together with their friends and neighbours in rural towns and villages in Suffolk. Let by professional artists, the sessions will free and the activities as varied as the […]

New rural touring performance announced for Lavenham Village Hall

March 25th, 2019 by Suffolk Artlink (Edit)

A Little Bit of Light performance

We’re pleased to announce our next free performance from Make, Do & Friends, our creative programme for older people in rural areas . On Friday 3rd May, we’re looking forward to welcoming Glasshouse Dance Company to Lavenham Village Hall for a performance of ‘A Little Bit of Light’. Through music and dance, ‘A Little Bit […]

Volunteer with us!

November 26th, 2018 by Suffolk Artlink (Edit)

2 people mono printing leaf designs

If you live in Babergh, you like to be creative and you’ve got a few hours to spare in the first couple of months of the New Year, why not come and volunteer to help out at our ‘Make, Do and Friends’ project? ‘Make, Do and Friends’ is our new programme for older people in […]

Make, Do & Friends – getting crafty at Westhorpe

October 30th, 2018 by Lynn Whitehead (Edit)

People choosing wool for felting

Some fabulous fabric artwork was created last week at Westhorpe Village Hall when felt-artist Heidi McEvoy-Swift ran a workshop on traditional ‘from scratch’ felt-making. With the theme of ‘The Hedgerow’ 15 people created leaves, rose-hips, rainbows and even a squirrel before fixing the wooly images into the felt with soapy water and elbow grease!   […]

First Make, Do & Friends event for older people announced

September 12th, 2018 by Suffolk Artlink (Edit)

Little Love Cabaret

We’re delighted to announce our very first ‘Make Do & Friends’ event! Our new creative programme for older people in rural areas is bringing Spilt Milk Dance to Needham Market Community Centre for a performance of their ‘Little Love Cabaret’ on Thursday 18th October.  Expect an afternoon of real life stories of love, and all […]

Help provide inspirational, creative activities across Suffolk by donating via the button below or our donate page
https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/9780#/DonationDetails. Donate
2 people mono printing leaf designs

Make, Do & Friends Photo Gallery

Have a look at what we've been up to, click here to see our Make, Do & Friends photo gallery

donate Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Facebook Visit our Vimeo Channel sign up

Footer

Morag

The Machine of Random Art Generation. Suffolk Artlink has created a web site for people wishing to do their own creative activities.
Visit Morag

Company Information

Registered charity number 1110898
Data Protection No: Z2348150
Company number 05354844

Suffolk Artlink

Units 13 & 14 Malt Store Annex,
The Cut, 8 New Cut, Halesworth,
Suffolk, IP19 8BY

T: 01986 873955
F: 01986 875388

enquiries@suffolkartlink.org.uk

Keep Up To Date

Get information about forthcoming events. Sign up to receive our newsletter

Privacy and Cookie Policy
Accessibility

© 2021 · Suffolk Artlink

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Learn MoreCookie settingsACCEPT
Cookie Notice

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorised as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyse and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorised as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyse and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.

Necessary Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.