Young parents meet Manet

How could Manet’s Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus inspire young parents to explore art and work with artists and be part of the Ashmolean’s audience?

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) was a major contributor to the funds raised to acquire the painting in 2012. Part of this funding was to focus on a series of projects to widen access to the painting, the Ashmolean, and art in general.

The first group to be inspired by Manet’s Portrait of Fanny Claus was BOP mums. The mums are young parents who access a young parents group at the Roundabout Children’s Centre in Barton. 4 mums joined the project: Emma, Jess, Laura and Stephanie.

We first met in July, before the summer holidays. I took the portrait (well, a fantastic copy) and after we talked about the painting, Manet and 19th Century Paris asked them what artistic skills they would like to work on. Unanimously, they chose jewellery and what an inspired choice it was!

Over 6 weeks (September / October 2014) we used the portrait to think about 19th Century society, Paris, styles, fashion, women and used the portrait’s era and Ashmolean to inspire their design for original pieces of jewellery. The mums embraced Manet and Mlle Claus, dressing up as Mlle Claus and all deciding on and designing their own jewellery pieces in their first session!

We had Kate Coker help us. She is a gifted jewellery artist that has a special talent in supporting people to find their style and designs and was so supportive through the whole process. Here is Kate, looking stunning, wearing a headpiece like Mlle Claus.

Fundamental to this project was how the HLF funding allowed us to provide a crèche for the young children. The mums had the space ro focus on developing their own artistic skills. It was also delightful to share the museum visit with all the children. For most of the group, it was their first time in the Ashmolean and the children loved going around taking photos of everything they liked. I think we got a couple of photos in focus!

The space to be artistic and focused on creating individual pieces of work created a special atmosphere. We chatted throughout this project and the mums supported each other through the difficulties of having young children, coping with daily pressures and choices. At the end of the 6 weeks, the mums had all made unique, beautiful pieces of jewellery.

The space to be artistic and focused on creating individual pieces of work created a special atmosphere. We chatted throughout this project and the mums supported each other through the difficulties of having young children, coping with daily pressures and choices. At the end of the 6 weeks, the mums had all made unique, beautiful pieces of jewellery. Interestingly, they viewed these in a variety of ways: some as works of art to be framed, others to be worn immediately. However, all of them talked about how proud they were to finish their work with Kate and how they would be visiting the museum with their families. Their work will be exhibited in the Manet Community exhibition, the Education Studio Gallery, Ashmolean (13 Dec to 7 January 2015).