​It is hugely important to the Creative Network that as we develop the Art Trail, we also involve and engage the local and Island community. To that end we have and will continue to run educational workshops and community events that encourage all age groups to get involved and contribute their own creative offerings to the Trail. We recognise the value of engaging with and immersion in nature and artistic/creative endeavour to maintaining and improving individuals' well being. We hope that eventually the whole Island community will have a sense of ownership of and belonging to the Trail, as they do with other Manx national treasures.
To further our aims we have scheduled workshops and events from the outset - a few of these are listed below and more will be programmed in the future. Please visit and follow our Facebook page to be kept informed of up coming events ​www.facebook.com/creativenetworkiom.
A programme of workshops held during 2022/23 have been kindly supported by the IOM Arts Council. 

Past events and workshops...

Beetle workshop 2022

To complement the temporary installation of the Silverdale Beetle Hunt on the Trail, a workshop for children was hosted so that youngsters could follow in artist Steve Chell's footsteps by creating their own beautiful beasties. The workshop was held in Ballasalla Village Hall immediately next to the Trail where some of the children's beetles were added alongside Steve's. The children (and their accompanying adults) made Beetles for the glen and butterflies to take home. A new beetle hunt sheet was created so that other children and families could come and hunt for the children's artworks as well as Steve's originals.

outdoor clay play - Family drop-in sessions 2022 & 2023

Around 30 families descended upon bags of clay in a corner of Poulsom Park in Castletown. Children and their parents, and in some cases Grandparents, rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in with artist, Eve Adams. Participants had a free rein to create whatever they chose on a canvas of tree trunks around the Park. All sorts of wonderful creations materialised and all together made a wonderful, spontaneous outdoor gallery. The artworks were short-lived as rain soon washed the creations back down to the ground, where the clay and natural decoration materials became one with the soil.
Due to the popularity of the first clay workshop, artist Eve Adams led a second, allowing participants a chance to come along and join in a messy but fun opportunity to add their mark in clay on the Silverburn Art Trail at Poulsom Park in Castletown. Around 50 families dropped in to enjoy some multi generational creative play.

Creative Writing and foraged materials workshops 2022

A series of workshops, run by Community Artist, Debra Tracey Carney, used the natural peace and beauty of the Trail to inspire adults in creative writing. The Trail also provided a source of natural materials which were used to produce natural inks and papers etc. on which the creative writing could be scribed. The resulting poems and writings were then dispersed about the glen section of the Trail for walkers and visitors to find and enjoy. The papers and ink were ephemeral and lasted only a short while out in the Manx weather before the words and materials dispersed back into nature.

Painting and Textile workshops 2022

Two other member artists, Laura Espinosa and Helen Winter used the Art Trail as inspiration for workshops within their own programmes of art workshops offered to the general public.
Laura chose to use the Trail as a location for one of her ongoing programme of landscape painting workshops, which take a variety of locations as inspiration.
Helen took the fauna as inspiration and designed textile insects for workshop participants to craft.