WCOYC BLOG 3: Young Creatives Making Art on the IKON Slow Boat

Young Creatives Making Art on the IKON Slow Boat

Over the past year, the Wolverhampton City of Youth Culture (WCOYC) Arts Trail has brought together young people and artists to create bold, collaborative works that celebrate the city’s creativity. Highlights so far include ‘Neon Dreams’, a vibrant day-and-night-inspired canvas painted in neon colours by young people at the Urban Rooms; ‘Rhythms of Wolverhampton Youth’, a visually rhythmic piece created at Beats A Bar and the Wolverhampton Arts Centre inspired by music, fashion, and lived experiences; and ‘Cosmic Routes’, a starry map of Wolverhampton’s cultural landmarks co-created at The Way Youth Zone.

Recently, the trail’s second year of activities launched with the ‘Ikon Slow Boat workshops’ – a series of creative journeys starting at the Canal Wharf in Wolverhampton, where two groups of young artists explored the theme of Reflections through hands-on artmaking. The works produced will form part of the city’s growing celebration of youth voices and perspectives, becoming new additions to the Visual Arts Trail in Wolverhampton city centre.

For the first cohort of young creatives, the Ikon Slow Boat took them on a trip along the canals of Wolverhampton. The session offered young people a creative adventure and a chance to explore their city, take a trip on a canal boat and develop skills in both traditional and experimental art making, creating colourful acetate window displays and metal foil embossing based on the Reflections theme.

The second group of young creatives had a different experience, with the Ikon boat remaining stationary for one of the workshops due to fault with the boat. However, this did not dampen anyone’s experiences! They were encouraged to use their current surroundings as inspiration for their art, which reflected in the final design choices. Some of the pieces included a block of flats which overlooked the canal, and reeds reflecting in the water.  All of the young people were very engaged with their foil pieces, concentrating deeply throughout the two-hour sessions. The calm setting of the boat and outside ambience made the session feel relaxing, despite the intensity of the heat as it was such a hot day. This workshop held a unique opportunity of experiencing and connecting with nature in an untypical setting being a canal boat, compared to a park or a garden which is usually accessible to most. Despite the group not being able to travel, it was still a fun setting for the workshop and the young people involved really paid attention and connected with their surroundings as shown in their artworks.

Throughout the sessions we peer researchers sat with the young creatives, chatting to them and shadowing their ideas generation and creative processes. Afterwards we discussed the incredibly insightful and inspirational conversations we’d had with the young people, and how it was clear that the art activities were aiding in their openness and reflective processes.

One young person shared how she had taken the theme of Reflections to be an inspiration for her artworks where she combined the scenes she saw to create her artworks, such as the ripples in the water, the fish swimming, the lily pads and the graffiti artwork. She, and another young person further expanded on that theme by reflecting upon their hopes and dreams for the future, hoping to build interdisciplinary careers with creativity embedded within them, as a way to combine their creative passions with their scientific interests and to go on to create in both a professional and a personal capacity.

After both sets of workshop sessions, once they had finished creating their pieces, the professional artist spoke through the future plans and how their pieces will be developed using Augmented Reality to create motion pictures for the WCOYC arts trail. The young people were enthusiastic to share their ideas of how their artworks could be developed, of what could move and how. They were excited and proud to be a part of something bigger in their city and to, in the near future, see their artworks displayed publicly.

The Ikon Slow Boat workshop series was another inspiring step in Wolverhampton City of Youth Culture’s mission to connect young people with the arts in dynamic, hands-on ways. By taking creativity onto the water, the project offered a fresh perspective on both the city and the artistic process, encouraging reflection, collaboration, and self-expression.

For us as peer researchers, we all agreed that the Ikon Slow Boat had motivated us and we had gained benefits from the experience for our artistic practice and future creative career plans: with the session strengthening our creative skills, our ability to work with young people, our creative ideas and our ideas of future careers in the arts.

As the works from the slow boat sessions prepare to join the Visual Arts Trail, they will stand alongside existing pieces like Neon Dreams, Rhythms of Wolverhampton Youth, and Cosmic Routes as a testament to the diverse voices shaping our city’s cultural story. With more Arts Trail workshops planned for August, we look forward to seeing how Wolverhampton’s young creators continue to leave their mark on the city — and you can follow the journey, explore the trail (and please do check out the pieces already live at Wolverhampton bus station and the Mander Centre!), and meet the team on our website.

Authors: Natasha Cullen, Taneesha Lewis and Doina Surchicin