School Without Walls was a week-long residency and workshop at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, delivered as part of the gallery’s Education Lab: Open Art School. I was the lead artist, working alongside artist Holly Le-Var, to develop and facilitate a creative learning programme with a class of 5–6 year olds from St Aldhelm’s Church School.

Over the course of the week, learning moved out of the classroom and into the gallery, where children co-designed inquiry-led activities with artists and academics from Bath Spa University. Responding to the exhibition Phyllida Barlow: unscripted, the programme prioritised imagination, experimentation and play, allowing ideas and activities to emerge from the children’s own interests rather than pre-planned lessons.

The residency reimagined ‘school’ as an open, immersive and collaborative space, placing children at the centre of their learning. Working closely with teachers, the project demonstrated how art-based approaches can operate across the curriculum, valuing process over outcome and supporting confidence, communication and collaborative thinking. The week concluded with a pop-up gallery of learning shared with family and friends.

School Without Walls is part of an ongoing initiative that began in 2010 as a collaboration between The Egg Theatre and House of Imagination, reflecting Phyllida Barlow’s long-standing commitment to arts education and independent ways of thinking.