Prize draws on Crowdfunder
Individual prize draws are not promoted or endorsed by Crowdfunder.
Support organicARTS & win some amazing experiences
Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom
Aim
Raising much-needed funds to continue our nature-based activities with vulnerable people this winter
We have some amazing experiences on offer, which will help us raise some urgent funding to keep our essential programmes going over winter until we are able to access grant funding in the Spring.
We say at organicARTS that we grow plants and people, through connecting people to the land, themselves and each other.
We run a community garden, creative art projects and nature-based activity visits for local groups all from our beautiful rural farm site just 3km from Exeter City Centre. This money is essential to help keep our regular work going over winter, including providing people coming from a background of social isolation, mental and physical challenges with regular purposeful and creative activity in a beautiful and calm setting.
The Prizes
Our prizes are all unique experiences. Giving you, your friends or schoolchildren a chance to connect with our beautiful landscape locally, have lots of fun and spend time with nature and each other.
The prizes are listed here with more detail below:
1. Free school farm trip to organicARTs and West Town Farm + minibus transport from Exeter + 2 hour activity of your choice (1 available);
2. Free bespoke pottery tile workshop for you and nine friends (1 available);
3. Free outdoor clay experience day for you and nine friends. Dig clay from the land, process it, make finger pots and sit around enjoying mulled apple and fireside stories as pots bake in the fire. (1 available);
4. 2 free tickets to a creative workshop of your choice (3 available);
5. 3 beautiful hand-made natural items made by our makers group (5 available).
***Each winner will have the option to CHOOSE their prize (from those remaining, offered in order of the draw)***
1. FREE SCHOOL FARM TRIP (1 available)
Bring your primary school aged class to visit our beautiful farm location at West Town Farm, for a 2 hour farm visit. Included is minibus transport from Exeter and an additional 2 hour activity of your choice. Time/date to be agreed by mutual arrangement. (Transport is for 28 children and 4 Adults -14 children and 2 adults in two separate pick ups and returns).
organicARTS has a wide experience of working with young people from schools, nurseries and children’s centres. We work to create bespoke visits based around the needs of your group and time that you have for your visit. This year we have, among other things, dug up clay and modelled with it, cooked leek soup over a fire, tracked badgers, discussed where food comes from, pressed apples, climbed straw bales, herded cattle, examined soil horizons, learnt about farm stewardship and more. Click here to see what the Maynard School got up to when they visited us!
We can work with you to shape the visit to work with your class, covering issues such as:
- Bees pollination & honey: Waggle Dances, Beeswax Bees, Honey Tasting and Bee Observing
- Seasonal change in the orchard: The orchard is an excellent marker of the seasons, a storehouse of folklore and a great place for apple pressing.
- Fire & change: The farm has fire pits in many places. A fire creates a focus for storytelling and a scientific workshop for exploring change.
- Soil and Clay: The soil is the heart of the farm. We can explore its composition and role through a soil walk, dig up clay for Roman Pots and create compost to enrich it.
- Practical fireside cooking: Seasonal produce and food stories around a campfire. Wild Garlic and Nettle Soup, Sizzling Sausages, Local Pizzas, Pumpkin Soup, Kale Smoothies, Apple Pressing all feature on the West Town Farm menu – but only the right time of year.
- Garden explore: The community garden allows the exploration of how plants grow and where our food comes from. Seed planting, compost creation, digging can all feature.
- Farm explore: Orchards, meadow, old railway cutting, woodland, stream and hills – West Town Farm is a rich and varied environment to explore.
Extra 2 hour activities could include:
- willow sculptures and baskets
- charcoal making and drawing
- clay digging, modelling and firing
- natural dyes
- earth painting
- sculpture in the environment
Our school visits are very popular, see some quotes from previous teachers below:
"A super sense of freedom - being able to run through fields and up tracks" EL, St Martins, Cranbrook
"Jo and Kevin always offer such a rich, hands on, age appropriate, fun learning experience and memories that will last a long time. They always cater for individual needs and go the extra mile every time" FB, Ide Primary
"The children were so engaged and it gave them an excellent understanding of where apples and foods are grown and a direct experience of harvesting them. One the best trips we have ever done. We will be back!" SL, Homelands Primary
2. FREE TILE-MAKING WORKSHOP FOR YOU & 9 FRIENDS (1 available)
Bring up to 9 friends to take part in a private tile making workshop at our beautiful workshop and site.
Included would be a private 2 hour workshop with one of our experienced tutors, all materials and equipment needed, hot drinks and cake and firing of the clay tiles.
Date and time would be arranged by mutual agreement.
3. FREE OUTDOOR CLAY EXPERIENCE DAY FOR YOU & 9 FRIENDS (1 available)
Bring up to 9 friends to take part in a unique clay experience day where you will take parts in all elements of pot creation from harvesting to firing.
First you will go on a farm walk/tour and then harvest clay from our farm site. Back in the workshop you will learn how to process it into a suitable state for pot making. Then you will learn how to make pots and other items. Later you will learn about pit firing of pots and sit round the fire at the end of the day.
Included would be a private day with one of our experienced tutors, all materials and equipment needed, soup and bread for lunch, hot mulled apple and cake.
Date and time would be arranged by mutual agreement.
4. TWO FREE TICKETS TO A CREATIVE WORKSHOP (3 available)
Bring a friend and join one of our experienced tutors for a creative 2 hour workshop of your choice from the organicARTS schedule, held at our site at West Town Farm.
We will publish the schedule for 2024 workshops in February 2024 and you will then have the choice of available workshops. Subjects we have covered in the past include: pot making; tile making; green man faces; natural dying; mosaic making; willow weaving; bookbinding; weaving; felting and earth painting.
Included would be a private 2 hour workshop with one of our experienced tutors, all materials and equipment needed.
Date and time would be arranged by mutual agreement based on course availability.
5. THREE NATURALLY MADE ITEMS MADE BY OUR MAKERS GROUP (5 available)
These beautiful handmade items have all been made by our regular makers group. Our makers project provides a regular weekly session for all abilities (we have supported many individuals who are socially isolated or have lived experience of mental or physical ill health). The weekly session is a blend of external practitioners teaching specific skills, productive making time with our facilitator Megan, and development of individual practice. It is a place where people are encouraged to express themselves creatively and individually. Items may include:
- Hand made and printed tile/coaster
- Hand dyed fabric bag using our organically grown flowers
- Hand printed notebook
- Hand made calendula lip salve made using our organically grown marigold flowers
- Pack of hand made cards with envelopes
- Hand dyed and knitted cleaning cloth
Items can be picked up from our site at West Town Farm.
Why support us?
We are running this prize draw to bring in essential funds to help support our work with vulnerable people to keep going this winter. Some of our volunteers have been with us for 14 years and their sessions at organicARTs are an important part of their lives providing purpose, community and space in nature.
Our community garden and land-based makers group support volunteers three days/week. We also run educational farm-based school and community group visits and run bespoke days for vulnerable adults and children. Plus we run workshops and land-based seasonal celebration events for our local community.
We operate from our beautiful site on West Town Farm just outside Ide and only 3km from the centre of Exeter. The farm has incredible range of locations including an old railway cutting, orchards, stream, meadows and woodland.
"Our sessions with Organic Arts have proved an ideal tool for people with a young developmental age to explore the world in playful sensory engagement. ‘Sensory Learners’ at all stages of development can relish sensory experience at the farm as a rich resource for learning and creativity. It is also an alternative, natural environment that presents an opportunity for our young people and their carers to safely experience a part of their community that they otherwise have no access to. Kevin’s delivery of sessions are informal yet focused, maintaining high expectations of individuals ability whilst creating a fun and playful atmosphere. His activities are designed to create cross-ability collaboration and develop social skills as well as practical ones."
Charlie Robinson , Pelican Project
To find out more about our work please visit our website.
This project successfully funded on 21st December 2023