Welcome

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Stepping Stones is an independent organisation working within the Greater Manchester area. We work with young people with special needs and disabilities.

Stepping Stones promotes, supports  and encourages the artistic endeavours of young people with special needs to ensure they have a voice. We use creative arts to aspire, personal development and respite

We are a non-profit making organisation

Download the Stepping Stones presentation

NEWS:

Latest from Stepping Stones Creative

Outsider Arts Festival Manchester

Attached is a picture of creative pieces produced at our monthly Neurodivergent arts group. They are in oils. They are on display at Castle Parks Art Centre in Frodsham, for a starting mid September 2024.

Our ‘Neurodivergent Art Group’, met at Marc Turners ArtSchool (below) where we explored and discussing a piece by the African artist Malangatana, who created work on the ‘myths of African Identity’. The group will be meeting again in October where we will explore the myths around being an autistic individual.

Completed an amazing online collaboration with our SEND friends from Malta, EdgeHill University Dance Students and Bettina Carpi, and of course ourselves. Looking at the text and characters from Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, the group created some wonderful movement: working on language, movement, and sharing of ideas.

(February/March 2024). Lovely to see the Dance Students support and lead activities, and see Lauren and her mum, Amy, join in.

Completed an amazing online collaboration with our SEND friends from Malta, EdgeHill University Dance Students and Bettina Carpi, and of course ourselves. Looking at the text and characters from Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, the group created some wonderful movement: working on language, movement, and sharing of ideas.

(February/March 2024). Lovely to see the Dance Students support and lead activities, and see Lauren and her mum, Amy, join in.

Celebrating our own Rhia, nominated for Salford Young Volunteer of the Year Award 2023. The nomination is for the support Rhia has given to several of our members and groups in delivering group activities.

Unfurl and Listen

This exhibition, ‘Unfurl and Listen’, originated through a connection on social media, between Steppingstones Creative ( a creative arts organisation for young people with additional need), based in Salford and Casamance Kambaye, a Senegalese, activist and artist.

The exhibition offers images of our and Casamance’s practice of Theatre of The Oppressed.

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Lauren’s Doodles

Stepping Stones Creative member Lauren has been working on a project that transfers her ‘doodles’ into silkscreen prints thanks to the assistance artist Sally Gifford. click here to see more.

Lauren' doodles, complete set
Lauren’ doodles, complete set

Unfurl and Listen

Unfurl and Listen

This exhibition, ‘Unfurl and Listen’, originated through a connection on social media, between Steppingstones Creative ( a creative arts organisation for young people with additional need), based in Salford and Casamance Kambaye, a Senegalese, activist and artist.

Theatre of The Oppressed Drama Technique.

Theatre of The Oppressed is a drama tool kit, enabling marginalised groups, to explore and voice their ‘issues’ and ‘oppressions’. Founded by Augusto Boal and is a recognised world-wide technique.

It is a tool kit used by both Steppingstones Creative and Casamance Kambaye in their practice. It is a methodology which enables access for those groups and individuals who might have difficulty expressing themselves and their concerns in a safe and supportive situation.

The exhibition offers images of our and Casamance’s practice of Theatre of The Oppressed.

Unfurl and Listen

This exhibition, ‘Unfurl and Listen’, originated through a connection on social media, between Steppingstones Creative ( a creative arts organisation for young people with additional need), based in Salford and Casamance Kambaye, a Senegalese, activist and artist.

Theatre of The Oppressed Drama Technique.

Theatre of The Oppressed is a drama tool kit, enabling marginalised groups, to explore and voice their ‘issues’ and ‘oppressions’. Founded by Augusto Boal and is a recognised world-wide technique.

It is a tool kit used by both Steppingstones Creative and Casamance Kambaye in their practice. It is a methodology which enables access for those groups and individuals who might have difficulty expressing themselves and their concerns in a safe and supportive situation.

The exhibition offers images of our and Casamance’s practice of Theatre of The Oppressed.

UNFURL and LISTEN is an exhibition of wonderful creative expression by young individuals with complex needs.

Steppingstones Creative own artists: Chloe, Rhia, Jackson , Sienna, and William, along with our Excell group have been exploring, discussing, and creating, influenced by the following Senegalese artists:

Papa Diop, ‘Outsider Artist’.

Amadou, ‘Urban Artist’.

Younesse – Seye, female artist, and voice activists

Chloe’s creative work on where she lived in Salford, in the style of ‘Amadou – Urban Art’, was included in the recent Eccles Art Trail, commissioned by Salford City Council. His urban images encouraged Excell to explore and discuss the life of their Salford, and their participation in the life of Salford.

Rhia and Chloe have explored ‘Papa Diop’s’ work, reflecting on their family and friends. Using crayons and chalk on whitewashed cardboard.

William, Jackson, Rhia, Chloe, and Sienna have been inspired by Younesse – Seye portraits to paint, in oils, several self-portraits, in their own representations – from figurative to abstract.

Younesse – Seye use of art to demonstrate her activism, around voice and not being heard, has led our individual artists and Excell Hub members to discuss their own voices and if they are being heard. William, in oils, has expressed a brilliant facial sequence, where his lips (voice) increasingly are disappearing and as an autistic individual feels it represents ‘him not being heard or listened to’. Excell, using image theatre, explore Younesse – Seye images to explore their own thoughts on ’voice’, using the patterns in her work, developed their own images.