THE Masterworks Foundation is now offering a series of free art workshops to residents eager to discover or improve their creative talents. It’s been an annual event since 2003. Held in conjunction with the UK-based charity Arts for All, the idea is for locals to pick and choose from a catalogue of two-hour classes on offer.

“Masterworks is excited to host this event that exposes the community to an enriching creative endeavour,” enthused Masterworks’ education coordinator Carrie Zenti. “It is our pleasure to coordinate an event that seems to bring so much joy to the participants. Having Caroline (Barlow) and Richard (Tait) return as instructors brings added excitement. They have such fresh ideas and new activities each time we collaborate. Arts for all is a fabulous opportunity for all to try something new, get messy, and explore their creativity in a safe and encouraging environment.”

Arts for All boasts approximately 15 dedicated staff and volunteers whose aim is to provide disadvantaged families with arts opportunities they might otherwise never have had.

“Lots of the people we work with are from disadvantaged backgrounds,” said Ms Barlow as she described the charity’s function. “We’re taking someone who maybe has got very little aspirations for their life and very little confidence in their ability and just through creativity, building up their confidence, helping them to achieve something wonderful and hopefully therefore turning their life around a bit.

“We’re two people working in an environment where we want to build people up, inspire people, provide something wonderful and amazing and colourful and creative, which will actually build people’s confidence up so much that it will change the course, the direction of their life. The massive majority of people we’re working with are seriously disadvantaged. But it’s called Arts for All — it’s open to everyone. If there was a multi-millionaire living next door they’d be welcome.”

The programme has enabled a societal mix — of ages, generations and incomes — that would otherwise have never have taken place and it provides opportunities where the need isn’t always so obvious, she added.

“You get a child who comes from a pretty middle-class, okay, doing fine family, who has access to all sorts of facilities because his parents will drive him all over the place to get to all the good things. And you think, well maybe his place should be given to someone else. Then you find out that he’s been seriously bullied by his father and he’s really intimidated and he’s struggling because of that. So he’s just as disadvantaged as the child who has no money, really.”

The charity opened its doors in 2001 with one class and only a few instructors. Six years later, as many as 60 adults and anywhere between 80 and 100 children benefit from the programme each week.

Although an impressive growth, its tutors don’t view the charity’s success by the increase in numbers, but by the strides made by individual clients. Pressed for such an example, Ms Barlow and Mr. Tait shared the story of a student who had given up on school because he was being bullied by his peers but managed to turn his life around after entering their programme. His efforts were such that he was recognised by the Jack Petchey Foundation Achievement Award Scheme, a programme designed to encourage young people in east London and West Essex, England.

“He didn’t go to school for 18 months,” explained Mr. Tait. “And then he started coming to us and eventually started going to school again. I think within the first year of returning to school he won what is called a Jack Petchey award for punctuality and attendance. He was in our painting programme and became one of our rising stars — he’s had exhibitions (which) the Lord Mayor of the City of London has come and declared open, and he sold all of his paintings.”

The teenager’s work was subsequently spotted by a gallery owner in London’s west end and exhibited first in a group show and then as a solo effort.

“This is while he was still at school,” said Mr. Tait. “This is after he’d just been cowering at home from being really badly bullied at school. When we first met him he would just sit in the corner and squeak and now he’ll go up and meet businessmen, shake their hand, introduce himself, offer his paintings up for sale and sell his work. He’s completely turned around and we have a dozen stories that are similar.”

Added Ms Barlow: “It’s made such a difference to him in the long term. He’s just about to take his final school exam. He’s not going to do brilliantly — the predictions for his results are not great but (the achievement he’s made has been) because of what he’s done with us. We’ve had letters from the school saying it’s because of what we did.”

Mr. Tait and Ms Barlow struck a formal partnership in 2002, after Ms Barlow’s initial partner “bailed out” of the venture.

“We met by co-incidence through a mutual friend,” he explained. “I’d always wanted to work with children and other people and do creative projects but I didn’t know how to try and do that because I didn’t want to be a teacher. I was already a painter and I wanted a way of supporting that where I could try and share my enthusiasm.”

What he did have was a love of children’s drawings and artwork — an interest the painter expressed to the Arts for All founder.

“She said come along and so I started. That was five years ago. And then when Caroline’s original business partner set off to go and do her own thing....neither of us really talked about it but then, all of a sudden, it was so obvious what we were doing together was so much better than before.” Interrupted Ms Barlow: “I’ve got a very strong, stubborn streak. If I think an idea is really good and I think it’s worth pursuing I won’t let go of it. In the end she bailed. What happened is that Richard started working more and more hours and doing more and more things.”

The job also offered great potential to Mr. Tait personally. Although based in Shoreditch the programme was gaining increasing recognition from art representatives in London and, “my painting subjects for the last seven years, have been the skylines of London,” explained Mr. Tait.

Said Ms Barlow: “I was going to a lot of meetings in the City and saying to Richard, ‘Look. This would be really a brilliant experience for you. Come into the City with me and meet really high-profile people.

“It’s interesting because from Day One it was always great. We started it really small and just very slowly, one class at a time. The two of us work as such a great team and something happened (when my initial partner left). It just turned into absolute magic.”

The programme is run weekly, and is held free of charge. According to Mr. Tait pupils have been as young as two weeks and as old as 77. What each receives is a lesson in creativity — the opportunity to explore every artistic medium and method imaginable.

“We use the word ‘creativity’ to mean painting and drawing, but we also mean felt making, jewellery making, textiles and fashion, model making, 3-D sculpture stuff, drama and singing and sewing and dance, writing and producing and acting and singing in plays,” he said. “So if we say creativity, you name any creative kind of thing and - probably - pretty much we do it.”

Although she lends her considerable knowledge to the charity’s art programmes, as the only full-time staff member Ms Barlow is responsible for its day-to-day operation. However she is quick to point out that if Arts for All has become a success story, it’s through the assistance she receives from Mr. Tait, a handful of part-time staff and volunteers and a dedicated Board of Governors.

“Caroline’s in the art room as well, but largely, the responsibility of the office falls on her head,” said Mr. Tait. “I’m the creative key worker. I’m also a practising artist. I’ve got seven years’ studio practice experience and I try and mix in my professional experience and knowledge and whatever I’ve picked up along the way and try and share that enthusiasm and knowledge.”

Initially such works were shown in a local church, however as the charity became more recognised more prominent exhibit halls came calling. Among them, the House of Commons, the Guildhall Art Gallery “and various other quite prestigious places” where the paintings always sell, Mr. Tait said.

Their meeting with Masterworks’ curator Tom Butterfield took place by chance, at an event the Bermuda gallery hosted in London.

“As I mentioned, we have very strong links in the City,” said Ms Barlow. “We were at an event at the Guildhall...”

Continued Mr. Tait: “It was the Bermudiana collection 2004. Tom gave a really great speech. I thought it was a really moving speech and I just wanted to meet the guy who gave the speech. He asked what we did and he said, ‘We’ve been wanting to do something like that in Bermuda for a while, but we just haven’t set it up. Why don’t you guys come our way?’ It was that simple. And so we thought, we’ve got to think of all the best things we can do to make this worthwhile.”

Added Ms Barlow: “We spend a lot of time trying to make it the best. I think one of the reasons it works is when we’re in the workshops we really give it our all. We really want to make it as bright and colourful and as exciting and all those wonderful things for the children in attendance. Our first visit to Bermuda was magical — the magic came from all the wonderful people we encountered. With each visit the magic seems to have spread and grown. Our fourth visit is more exciting than ever, simply because each time is different and unexpected things happen.

“We try to constantly reinvent our approach to ensure a fresh, vibrant, fun and colourful time for everybody we can reach. Also, this time around, we will spend a whole day at WindReach Recreational Village, working with a group of disabled children, which will be a gift to our experience and hopefully rewarding for them too.”

Each year has seen a positive impact. According to Ms Barlow, while Bermuda is a wealthy island, the fact that everyone doesn’t enjoy the same standard of living makes their classes all the more appreciated.

“There are disadvantaged kids here,” she said. “When people look at Bermuda they see a lot of wealth. But really it’s very rare to find anything for free. And people don’t have to be really, really skint. They can be all right and still maybe can’t afford to go to art classes because they cost extra. In the years we’ve been coming here, we’ve seen a real mixture of children come through the doors here, some children who you just know, there is just no way they would ever have been able to access these things.”

Added Mr. Tait: “We’ve got presents that they made or their parents have made. One of them wrote us a poem and had it printed on a plaque. So we see results in that sense — the gratitude and thanks. We get heaps of little thank you cards; things that you never want to throw away that are on a tiny scrap of paper or something special that somebody’s put a lot of time and love into.”

This year the duo plan to hold two special classes for kids at the WindReach Recreational Village — something of particular interest to Ms Barlow.

“I personally have a whole life background of being surrounded by kids with special needs because of the work my mum was doing,” she explained. “WindReach is a riding for the disabled centre. My mum, all my life, has run a little section of that same charity.”

Arts for All offers a similar programme for children with special needs in London through which Ms Barlow explained they offer “exactly the same projects as we’re going to be doing here”.

“The project we’re going to be doing with the children is a felt-making class — a wall hanging of a horse. Felt making is basically one of the most ancient crafts in the world. Even to this day people in some parts of Mongolia and southern Russia make their houses this way. It’s a very amazing craft.”

Said Mr. Tait: “Really simply, it’s raw sheep’s wool that’s been dyed every colour of the rainbow. You use soap and water and friction and you can make hats, scarves.”

Added Ms Barlow: “We’ve worked with tiny children, children with quite severe disabilities, pensioners who have got terrible arthritis in their hands and people can still do it. It’s a wonderful. It’s colourful. In fact if you walk into Masterworks’ office, there’s a felt wall-hanging just on the left as you go in that we did here with some children. So it’s similar to that except the one we’re doing with WindReach is bigger and...”

Deadpanned Mr. Tait: “Of a horse.”

Continued Ms Barlow: “This is something that they’ll all get a lot out of and they’ll all enjoy. It doesn’t matter if they’re very physically challenged, if they can’t do very much, because somebody will be there to help. And they will get something positive out of it.”

Fourteen different classes are on offer at Masterworks today and April 10 through 13 in the Botanical Gardens.

“Planning for coming here probably started in October because we take a lot of time to intricately plan the whole schedule,” she said. “We want each class to be interesting, exciting and different. We try very hard to come up with different ideas. And we want it to be things that (participants) might not do here. So we bring materials, we bring unusual things and hopefully it makes a difference that we bring ourselves.”

Both insisted the classes offered something for even those who felt they had no artistic inclination whatsoever.

“Everybody can do something creative,” insisted Mr. Tait. “I know there are people who say I don’t have a creative bone in my body and that kind of thing...”

“Rubbish,” interjected Ms Barlow.

Continued Mr. Tait: “If they don’t know where it is we can show them.”

Asked whether an actuary with that view could be saved, there was a long pause followed by a chuckle: “We can get them to somehow realise there is creative potential in one form or another in most people. You can get them to do something where they think, ‘Wow. I never would have thought....”

Visit www.bermudamasterworks.com for more information .