'Out of the Box' Community Project
Printmaker and community artist Karen Wicks has established face-to-face art groups for autistic teens and their families over a one year period in Staffordshire, using funding from the National Lottery and Arts Council.
The project aims are to create a safe and low arousal space to give families who are home-educating a venue to come to and for the artist to facilitate creative opportunities, using her work as a starting point and then extending the work to encompass the suggestions and needs of each group.
Click on each image to see more...
Summer School : August 2026
Creating imaginary landscapes using boxes:
We ran two workshops in August where families created a landscape inside a box, using collage and drawing materials. In pairs we then added character drawings to add into the scene and used AI to animate our work.
Interacting with our cardboard landscapes using AI animation:
We photographed our drawings and 3D box landscapes and used these in an AI tool to create the animations.
We do not use other people's drawings or images for our work. AI allows us to see how our characters and landscape can interact so that we can develop our ideas.
This way of working allowed families to collaborate by drawing in their own style and then using AI to combine the drawings together so that we could visualise them. It is also a great springboard to new ideas.
Take a look at what we co-created here, click on 'play' for each video.
Policies
Safeguarding Policy
Terms and Conditions
Safeguarding Policy- Child Version
Photo Consent Policy
Photo Consent Form
Now and Next Board
Privacy Notice
EDI Accessibility Statement
We love the current group we attend . It has been something we all , as a family, look forward to and enjoy attending .This has been the first group we have attended where my daughter has been happy and comfortable for me , her mum, to sit across the room and not with her . Slowly my daughter has opened up and started to share her art , something she doesn’t generally do, and she said very recently she is feels sadness because the group has an end date .
The classes have been amazing and not just an art class but a class that helps us to use art to understand the journey we have been on.
Testimonials
We've enjoyed it, thank you!
It's been good trying new art activities.
Brilliant opportunity. Teacher is a perfect match for my daughter.
I've enjoyed all of Karen's classes (summer term)
Please note that this class in now full
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