East Devon District Council’s public art gallery, THG  has launched a new exhibition of artwork created by adults attending ROC Creative Honiton. ROC Creative is a developmental arts project supporting and involving people with a learning disability.

The opening of ‘Inspired Art’ took place at THG on Saturday 18 July with a lunchtime barbeque and music by ROC Samba.

“Today is  a true celebration of all the talent at ROC Honiton. A chance to show what is created at Fairfield House in the glorious setting of THG, where the Samba Band outshines  even the sunniest day!“ commented Mel Smart, personalisation co-ordinator at ROC Honiton.

The exhibition coordinates with THG’s  Evolver Prize 2015 comprising the winning front covers for the arts magazine Evolver. ROC Creative pupils have taken inspiration from this exhibition to design their own magazine covers.

They are showing work from three different art classes : textiles, pottery and photography. The textiles class created sculptures inspired by their chosen artist, including Van Gogh,  Botticelli and  Beryl Cook. They are made using air dry clay then painted with enamel over a three month period. The pottery class made sculptures inspired by Henry Moore using stoneware clay, which are painted with earthenware glazes. The photography class have produced self portraits using a shutter release with a camera on a tripod.

Some of the comments from the ROC Creative participants:

‘It makes me feel happy making the sculptures’ - Jo, ‘I feel like a proper Artist when creating the work’ - David, ‘I am so proud of my work’ - Sarah and Nichola, ‘It is funny, the ladies make me laugh’ - Deanna

Angela Blackwell (THG Curator) commented “The ROC Creative artworks add a different dimension to the main exhibition and we love to see these adults’ interpretations too.”

The ROC  exhibition is upstairs in the Project Space at THG till 29 August. ROC Creative’s artwork continues across the road from THG in a collaborative exhibition ‘Inspired Art’ at the Beehive, Honiton till 15 August.