Jean's Bothy Community Group come for Inspiration

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It's lovely to see our community groups begin to return after lockdown, including this wonderful group who came from Helensborough to learn more about Mackintosh before starting their creative arts project. We'll let the feedback speak for itself!

"Jodie gave us great insight into what it would have been like living in the early 1900s, you really got a sense of being there! Her enthusiasm and knowledge was brilliant. She was able to answer all of our questions, one member of the group who has been before and thought her knowledge of Charles Rennie Mackintosh was pretty good said that she learnt so much more about him and it also renewed her interest, something she was quite surprised about...a few are already planning to come back with family members 😊'

"What a gem of a place! The tour was so interesting and our guide was fantastic and very knowledgable she made the building come alive. Thank you so much for a great day!"

If you run a community group and would like to visit give us a call. Everybody is welcome!

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Take A Seat: Mackintosh and Chairs- podcast edition

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Episode 7 of our podcast, Time For Tea:1903 is now up on the website and this smonth we are learning all about Mackintosh Chairs. We're very proud of the brilliant Scottish furniture makers Kelvin Murray (Character Joinery) Bruce Hamilton and Angus Ross, who together made 400 pieces of furniture for this building.

If there' a heritage topic you'd like us to cover in future episodes feel free to drop us a line and we will see what we can do.

Tactile Tours For Deafblind Visitors

It's been a longtime coming but we're delighted to be able to launch our special tactile tour for blind and deafblind visitors! It's been an absolute revelation to plan the touch-based tour as it turns out this building is full of incredibly tactile objects. Starting in the main tearooms there's the baldaccino, the fireplace and sconces, the ceramic tiles, the chairs, the linen walls, the stencilwork and the stained glass. Upstairs in the Salon de Luxe of course the main focus are the outstanding leaded glass kimono doors, but let's not forget the coat stands, crockery, window handles and of course more original stained glass! We finished off in the Billiard Room, where Miss Cranston's silk dress and Mackntosh's wool coat proved big hits for dressing up, and the tea smelling station added that extra sensory experience to round off the visit.

Thanks so much to Deafblind Scotland for visiting and for Flynn and Sia, the VIP guidedogs, for helping to guide visitors through the building and let us pet them. Who doesn't love a guidedog?!

Out With The Paint for Family Workshops

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Our summer holiday workshops continue to prove popular, with every place being snapped up so far. These workshops are free and it's been lovely to hear kids and parents chatting about how they feel getting ready to go back to school after Covid19 disruptions of the academic year 2020-21.

Since Mackintosh is often on the curriculum, a visit to the building to do some art inspired by the architect and artist is the perfect way to bring this Glaswegian to life.

SUMMER HOLIDAYS STENCILLING FUN

It's the summer holidays so we've been running some free stencilling workshops for kids and grownups in our Creative Learning Room. The key is to remember you don't need too much paint! Mackintosh used stencils throughout the building to create wonderful decorative effects and the Gallery area is probably the best place to sit if you want to admire his handiwork. During term-time our stencilling workshop is one of main reasons teachers and pupils love to come visit.

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MACKINTOSH AT THE WILLOW CAPTURED ON FILM

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We're delighted to show off our brand new film giving viewers a glimpse of what it's like inside this internationally renowned Art Nouveau building. Originally it was going to be 60 seconds but there was so much to capture it's now twice that length! Thank you so much Alexander Waddell, our brilliant film-maker and recent graduate of our neighbours The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Also a huge thank you to Glasgow composer Scott Twynholm for the specially commissioned music.

WHAT CAN HOSPITAL DESIGN LEARN FROM MACKINTOSH?

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We've been working for the last year with students studying the NHS Design In Healthcare module at The Royal Hospital For Children, Glasgow. Young medics learn all about how Mackintosh, Macdonald and Miss Cranston created spaces that make use of the soothing power of nature, plus the uplifiting effects of art, to come up with their own approaches for how to make hospital interiors more welcoming for kids. We can't wait to see their results!

SUNFLOWER CUPCAKES WITH DALMARNOCK PRIMARY!

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We were delighted to welcome the P1s from Dalmarnock Primary in for a sunflower cupcake workshop (thanks, Head Pastry Chef Sarah!) and a colouring eye spy tour of the building. It’s possible most of the delicious icing ended up not making it to the cupcake and some of those cupcakes didn’t make it home (“I liked eating my cupcake decorated like a sunflower.” ) but what mattered was everyone had lots of fun!

ERASMUS +

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We have been working with Light on The Path to support international students through the Erasmus + programme. Just before lockdown we welcomed some young trainees into the kitchen and Front of House to hone their skills and share their international outlook, and during lockdown we turned to digital learning, showcasing the building, creating workshops about Mackintosh, Glasgow and of course tea.

In the Autumn we hope to welcome in person some new students from Latvia to begin their training. If you are a teacher who works with international students (either in a vocational or academic capacity) and think Mackintosh At The Willow can be a helpful resource to your learnings, please get in touch.