New Museum Meet-Ups offer craft sessions to create fun, friendships – and a very handy tote!

New monthly craft sessions are being held at the Museum of Liverpool.

The Museum Meet-Ups start this Saturday and are aimed at young people between 18-25, with specific sessions for those who are new to the city and others from the LGBTQIA+ community.

Led by Nicole Marnell, they offer the chance to get creative and, crucially too, to get talking to new people in a safe space with ‘no judgement, no bad ideas’ and, Nicole adds, ‘no experience necessary’.

Over the next few months would-be crafties can make anything from a tote bag to a lino print card and, in the very first session, a hand-embroidered rosette!

Nicole, 24, from Wallasey, was asked to develop the Meet-Ups which will carry on until at least August next year, after leading a one-off ‘Queer sew and sew’ embroidery workshop at the museum earlier this year.

She explains:

“That was with one of the participation producers at National Museums Liverpool, Katie Lee, and when we were in the session we were talking about how lovely an atmosphere it was.

“We had young people who were doing a little creative activity, making friends with each other, chit chatting, and it had a really lovely feel to it. We were saying how, in our generation, there are fewer and fewer of these spaces and opportunities, and it would be nice to have something more consistent with a crafts club feeling to it, or something really cheap that people could come along to and try something new.

“From that,” adds Nicole, “Katie got back in touch and said she’d love to do a prolonged series of craft activities, and so that’s what we’ve ended up doing.”

The sessions will run from this Saturday, October 4, with one at 11am and another at 2pm. 

Each lasts an hour and a half, and all materials will be provided for the £5 ticket price (£3 for concessions).

The earlier Museum Meet-Up is for people new to the city, with members of the LGBTQIA+ community invited to attend the later one ‘although anyone from 18-25 is welcome at any’.

Nicole, who’s worked as a workshop facilitator leading craft workshops in museums over the last eight years, goes on: “I plan the sessions, prepare them and run them in collaboration with Katie and May Chong, also from NML. 

“The things you can make I hoped would be more unique so that that would be part of the draw.  A lot of people have sat down with watercolours at some point but something like a rosette seems like a unique gift you can make and give, and came from an idea in lockdown when my friend and I would send each other letters and then increasingly odd gifts. She made me a little rosette, and I just thought it was the funniest thing.

“As much as the Meet-Ups are geared to those two specific groups, everyone is welcome, because I think lacking that community is a generational thing.

“I think the way things are going in society too, it’s important to have defined safe spaces. My mum emigrated over here so I’m very aware of how difficult it is to integrate into a new community, and I’m queer myself and so have lived experience there.

“Beyond issues exclusive to those groups, making friends as an adult is scary and intimidating, so having somewhere that no matter who you are or where you come from is non-judgmental, safe, and hopefully a fun space to be in, is really important.

“Meeting and doing things together is more likely to connect you to people; a craft activity makes it less intimidating than if you were just going to a group with the aim of sitting down, having conversations and making friends, and there are mindful benefits to embroidery or just messing about with pom-poms and pipe-cleaners.

“Hands-on experience is very calming to an anxious mind, and you can have a laugh and have fun.”

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