New Outdoor Learning Space for Disabled Artists at Artventure Trust

Published on: 22 Jun, 2024
Updated on: 22 Jun, 2024

Artventure Trust, which provides visual art sessions for adults with learning disabilities and additional needs, invited Guildford Borough Councillor George Potter (Lib Dem, Burpham) to open its new garden and learning space.

Cllr George Potter, second from left, at the opening of Artventure Trust’s new garden.

Its says the improved garden at its studio at St Peter’s Catholic School in Merrow features an art space, a sensory garden, a herb garden, fruit bushes, a rock garden and a swing chair.

And that creating the garden was a true community effort. Cllr Potter was the first to support the idea and offered £5,000 through Your Fund Surrey, the rest of the funds needed were secured with a crowdfunding campaign – Guildford Borough Council matched the funds donated by more than 40 backers of the project.

The manager of Artventure Trust, Mariann Kehrling, said: “We hope this garden will have multiple benefits for our participants.

“It will provide additional art space especially for messier projects that are not suitable indoors. It will also offer the opportunity for participants to do some gardening, which can be truly therapeutic.

Trying out the new swing chair.

“The swing chair is already a hit amongst our clients. It calms them down and sitting in it makes them smile.”

Artventure provides visual art sessions for adults with learning disabilities and additional needs.

The chairman of the trustees of Artventure Trust, Robert Muir, added: ‘This year marks the 40th anniversary of Artventure offering its services to the community and we are glad we could improve the environment we work with our artists.”

Artventure Trust also has a studio at Gosden House School in Bramley.