Join artist Zephie Begolo for a family-friendly clay workshop where you’ll create votive offerings using locally sourced wild clay and natural materials. Inspired by ancient traditions, water folklore, and the practice of honouring the natural world, participants will sculpt small, symbolic objects.

These tactile creations are not meant to be kept, but returned to the water as part of a collective act of gratitude. The day will culminate in a closing ritual “Water Offerings - Return to The Water Ritual”. Participants are invited to gather at 15:45 on the lawn by the Lily Pond and walk together in procession to the Swan Pond, where the clay offerings will be gently returned to the waters in a shared moment of reflection and connection with poetry readings and song by artist Alison Cooper.

This event is suitable for all ages and encourages creative play, nature connection, and collective storytelling through making.

About the artist: Zephie Begolo is a multi-disciplinary artist and producer, working in sculpture, installation, photography and performance. Zephie's work explores connections between the human and non-human, ecology, social systems, folklore and myth. Her work is rooted in the belief that we are nature, with a particular interest in how we might reconcile our industrial heritage with a more sustainable and regenerative future. She seeks to challenge anthropocentric perspectives and plays with notions of hybridity and posthumanism in imagining new narratives for life on Earth.

Curated and produced by UP Projects ‘Bodies of Water’ is a site-specific public art commission by German/Korean artist Anne Duk Hee Jordan, which will unfold across two locations in England A la Ronde in Exmouth, East Devon and Haigh Hall in Wigan, Greater Manchester in 2025. Alison’s work will be part of the launch event on 13th Sept for this public work.

Location: Lawns by the Lily Pond, Haigh Hall. What3Words ///snail.hands.spicy

No previous experience required. Please note clay is a messy material. Public toilets are located close by at the Stables.

Water offerings: Family clay workshop