Megan Dowsett is a freelance creative consultant working with museums and galleries.
Through the name Norris and the Flamingo, she shares the sense of adventure that runs through all of life, wherever we are on our journey. A sense of imagination, of possibility and discovery, for children and adults alike.
Her core values come down to two simple things:
People: At the heart of everything she does, people are there – be it audiences of any age or background, volunteers, staff or freelancers and apprentices. She believes that the best projects take everybody with them on a learning journey.
Creativity: In every role she’s taken, creativity has played a key priority. Working in Museums and Galleries, creativity brings a valuable opportunity to think about the same things in a different way.
Museums and galleries are the perfect place to bring the joy of discovery and magic of adventure to everyone who passes through the doors - and to invite those who haven't yet braved these sometimes intimidating buildings, to do so in a dynamic and inviting way.
Over twelve years working in these exciting settings, Megan has developed extensive experience in both managing and delivering creative projects that engage with a wide variety of audiences.
Our 'Meet the Artist' exhibition is a feast of opportunity for developing workshops directly around our own work. I showed my Dragon Book to a group of 6-9 year olds and we spent the day developing a new range of textile experiment- ation in response to the theme of
dragons.
At the Knitting and Stitching Show, I joined a workshop about Kanzashi flowers. These were mine ...
A group of 9-14 year olds spent a day exploring print techniques, including lino, foam and monoprint. I asked them to imagine a place, and think of all the tracks that pass that spot across the years ... and to make those prints.
We built up our layers of printed tissue paper into these pieces. Here, from top to bottom, are the works of Felix, Louisa and Tianna.
Another moment from the Knitting and Stitching Show. This Woodland Boudoir was created by a group of textile artists and was a delightful and inspiring shift from the many stalls where selling was their business.
My Make and Create group have been experimenting with silk painting.
It's been an amazing few weeks, as everybody found their own unique style and form for playing with this free-flowing medium.
As I watched my Art Club paint the objects they had made, I realised how much they preferred to play safe with colours, using colours as they came and not bothering to mix. So the next week I took a picture of two tigers from the exhibition, chopped it up and gave them a section each to draw and then paint. Pretty challenging for 5 - 10 year olds, but they embraced it!
