The Mess Room connects with the past

A year long project of participatory arts has connected artists with people and places they've lost

The Mess Room began 20 years ago when artist Wendy Daws started volunteering with the Kent Association for the Blind (KAB). Now, the organisation works with a broad group of people to provide various arts activities to help people explore creativity, build confidence, and connect with others. We visited the Guildhall Museum in Rochester to learn about their Mess Room Creatives celebration.

Front, from left: Ann Bowdler, Valerie Watson, Catriona Faulkner, Eliza Mellen, Julie Clark, Sarah Muggridge, Zoe Harvey-Austen. Back, from left: Tina Ryan, Norma Benham, Brenda Singleton, Nora Chandler, Dr Jeremy Clarke, Maureen Lauder, Shona van Aswegen, Wendy Daws, Sue Carter, Matilda Flood. On floor: Cllr Douglas Hamandishe, Shaurav Rai. Photo: Gary Weston

Dr Jeremy Clarke is the Guildhall Museum’s education officer. He describes the venue as a great treasure house of Medway’s history, “where that history is told through objects, but that objects are nothing without a connection to people’s lives.”

Mess Room Creatives is a free 12 month participatory arts programme to connect communities across Kent, now reaching its conclusion. Co-founder Wendy Daws is really happy with how well the project has gone. “We've been working with Catriona Faulkner and Matilda Flood and Tina Ryan, leading a project collaboration with Jeremy Clark here at the Guildhall Museum and working with local Medway residents creating really exciting artwork.” The original project was led by artists Tina Ryan, Marissa Marden, and Dan Russell, who worked with the Royal Engineers Museum, Rochester Cathedral, and the Guildhall Museum. After a month of workshops, they had a mini exhibition in each of the venues. “It was about partnership working with heritage venues across Medway and then working with artists that the Mess Room hadn't worked with before to create opportunities for everyone.”