-By Elouise
This season of Romp Around has been a very bright, very colourful, and very messy! Our July session has been no different, working with artists Ruby Pester and Phoebe Mitchell alongside Gabby from MILK and Leon from Queer Families Glasgow. From mud cakes and paint splatting to giant inflatables and nature weaving, to face paints and stories, and a mischievous ginger cat, it was your average day out at ‘Romp Around’, putting play first always!
We started our day setting up with help from the friendly orange cat often found roaming around the Bowling Green. Anyone who came to our July session will certainly remember him stalking about hunting for hugs and snacks.
Unlike in most of our other sessions, we didn’t have a timetable of activities and instead had them running at the same time throughout the day so people could drop in and out as they wanted. As expected though, almost everyone started their day with the giant inflatables.
Created by artist Ruby Pester (and a few with Nadia!), the huge sun, eye, hand and fish floating across the green set everyone up well for the kind of day we had planned. Leaping across the inflatables, running underneath them, or just resting on top, these giant blown up artworks were definitely a fan favourite for our attendees needing to burn off some physical energy!
Next to the inflatables was our mud station, an activity that was started in our May session by one of our young attendees, and has become a permanent fixture during this season of ‘Romp Around’. With just some simple things we found lying around – a tarp, some bowls, plastic bricks and a lot of mud, kids came up with an array of ideas in this little corner of the green. Mixing cement, building house, making pies and potions, our muddy play has really defined this summer for us, showing how our community offers us as much back as we put in to the project.
In a similar vein, our paint splatting has slowly become a regular activity. It may just be a large plastic sheet and a bit of paint but every month our families turn it into a Pollok esque pattern of colours with just brushes and sponges on sticks, wiping it clean and starting again.
Making space for free play whenever possible in our sessions, our loose parts activities always end up mixed in with the main artists led events of the day. Whether it was painting the giant inflatable sun on the ground or brewing perfumes with mud, paint and flowers, all our activities weave in and out of each other in ways we never quite predict.
Weaving more literally was Phoebe Mitchell’s nature workshop, nestled in next to the puddles of paint. Creating little baskets and hanging nets with thread, beads and whatever bits of greenery and flowers were to hand, it provided a lot of creative inspiration for our little crafters. Casting spells while making potions or turning their woven wares into accessories, there was no bounds of what they were able to weave together.
Joining us this month were Leon from Queer Families and Gabby and MILK bringing with them a lot of our children and families from their communities too.
Gabby read stories with the children and painted lots of faces – a spur of the moment activity that led to lots of children adorned with butterflies, dinosaurs and abstract patterns leaping on the inflatables or churning their mud mixtures.
Leon spent the day drawing and collaging with our attendees, providing a calmer activity or just a quiet moment for those who needed it. A much more attendee-led activity, it worked alongside all our other activities too to help create a engaging experience for the families and children joining us.
What has categorised our summer in the Bowling Green, has been seeing what ideas children come up with when given simple tools to create. Always the core principle at Rumpus Room, free play underlies every aspect of Romp Around. Enabling children and their caregivers to work with other families and the environment in guiding the activities. This creates not only a collaborative relationship with us as the facilitators and artists, but also a shared community with each other.