Volunteers’ Week 2026: Inside the Studio with Sandy

From ceramics and printmaking sessions to tea rounds and ‘hot cocktails’, Sandy is a familiar and friendly face around the Venture Arts studio.

After first hearing about Venture Arts through exhibitions and events across Manchester, Sandy began volunteering around three years ago. Since then, she’s brought lots of creative experience, warmth and humour into the studio – supporting artists in sessions and becoming a valued part of day-to-day studio life.

This Volunteers’ Week, we’re celebrating the brilliant volunteers who help make Venture Arts the welcoming, creative community it is. We caught up with Sandy to chat about creativity, community and volunteering at Venture Arts.

How did you go from that initial interest to getting involved?

I went down to 4 days a week in my day job and around the same time I saw on the Venture Arts newsletter that they needed volunteers on my non-working day so it was quite serendipitous. I applied and thankfully it worked out.

What does a typical day in the studio look like for you?

I’m usually helping Merida’s group with ceramics which might mean helping roll out clay, talking through ideas with artists, helping to construct something or just doing bits of cleaning up and topping up brews and ‘hot cocktails’.

Lately, Thomas has been covering so the group has been drawing and printmaking. As I am a printmaker and have lots of experience in this medium, I have become a bit more involved in the creative facilitation over the last few months and have been leading some monoprinting activities with some of our group.

Can you tell me about a moment in the studio that has stayed with you?

I will always remember when we were recording Sebastian’s radio play and the Bigfoot character attacked the other characters – there was a lot of dramatic screaming and a lot of laughing.

How would you describe the atmosphere in the studio?

The studio is buzzy and busy but also can have moments of calm when everyone’s focusing on making their work.

What do you feel you bring to the studio and what do you get back from it?

I bring a lot of facilitation and art experience, as well as friendliness, kindness and fun chat (I hope!). I get back a lot of happiness, new skills and rewarding relationships.