Penlee House Gallery & Museum are teaming up with The Food Bank in Penzance, run by Churches Together In Penzance Area (CTIPA), to provide 100 Art Boxes, full of free art materials and an activity book, to children in the Penzance area.
Penlee House Gallery & Museum, owned and operated by Penzance Council, is a lead partner in Cornwall Museums Partnership, who receive funding from Arts Council England as a National Portfolio Organisation (NPO). Part of this funding is dedicated to developing projects within the local community.
Building on the work of other museums and galleries within the partnership, Penlee House has joined forces with The Food Bank to provide free art materials to children in the Penzance area.
“Supporting local families is important to Penlee House, especially at this difficult time.
We are grateful to Penzance Council and Arts Council England for their support, which is enabling us to inspire creativity and spread a little joy through these Art Boxes.”
Anna Renton – Director of Penlee
Penlee House receives Art Council funding which includes a grant enabling them to work with local communities. This funding has previously enabled projects with organisations including Mounts Bay Academy, the John Daniel Centre, and Carefree Cornwall who curated exhibitions at Penlee House, as well as Penlee’s regular programmes such as the free Baby & Parent sessions.
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, many of these of projects have had to be put on hold. Penlee House has been looking for ways to take the collections out beyond the walls of the building and to support local communities to be creative during this challenging period. This has included producing films, online activities, and an online exhibition of the public’s artistic responses to the artworks and objects at Penlee House: #PenleeInspired.
Creativity is fun and is great for people’s wellbeing. However, not everyone has materials at home to get creative, or can afford to buy them.
“We are delighted to be working with The Food Bank in Penzance to support our local community by providing ‘Art Boxes’ of creative materials.
Getting creative is great for wellbeing and hopefully these boxes will help our local community during this difficult time.”
Zoe Burkett – Penlee House Education & Outreach Officer
Linking with The Food Bank, Penlee House will be sending out Art Boxes which will include paint, colouring pencils and paper, alongside ideas for getting creative at home.
“These unexpected items are a real bonus to people who are having a hard time just trying to feed their families. They are a symbol of people caring.”
Sharon Jones – The Food Bank in Penzance
“These will be most welcome as I am sure they will give hours of pleasure to children who have been faced with limited access to social events for many months.”
Christine Gendall – Chair of the Management Committee of CTIPA
The boxes are currently being made up by dedicated staff and volunteers at Penlee House and will be distributed by The Food Bank in Penzance alongside vital food parcels in the run up to Christmas.
Donations to The Food Bank in Penzance can be made at the following locations:
• Co-op, Market Jew Street
• Co-op, Wherrytown
• Lidl, Western Promenade
• Tesco Superstore, Branwell Lane
• Morrisons, Eastern Way
• The Food Bank Penzance (open from 8.30 until 12.00 Monday to Thursday)
• Lamorna village (see Lamorna Support Group Facebook page)
• Most village shops in the area – please contact individual businesses for more information
