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A Woodland Wonder comes to Hartlepool Art Gallery Written By Adam McLean
Kicking off 2025 Hartlepool Art Gallery has had its children’s play space reimagined to be a wonderful woodland corner by The Northern School of Art MA Design History and Arts Practice students Adam McLean and Kelsi Lees. The pair were featured in the Artists in Focus section of the gallery in early 2025, a space that shines a spotlight on up-and-coming creatives from various disciplinaries. Both featured work in this space inspired by their own creative stories, Adam curated a group of artists to read his story ‘A Ferry for Frogs’ and produce work to bring to life the characters and world, while Kelsi focused on her own self-published story, Mallory Mouse and the Yellow Monster, which she wrote and illustrated herself and then produced an interactive board based on it.
The exhibitions brought magical new energy to the gallery and both stories featured some relevant topics such as industrialisation and environmental issues that are threatening local Hartlepool habitats. The pair joined forces to pitch a children’s area redesign to keep the conversations flowing once the exhibitions were over, featuring fun information about habitats and froggy facts. One important element for the pair was that the redesign has a sensory element added which included soft and textured blankets, pillows, and a gathering of new forest animals for visitors to cuddle in our corner of coziness. Adam even had his story turned into an audiobook so visitors who are hard of seeing could scan and be whisked away on a journey.
The main attraction to this redesign was Kelsi Lees’ interactive board which allows children to move characters through different backgrounds and encourages them to get creative before climbing into the new cosy teepee to hug some animal teddies and try on some mouse ears! For eagle-eyed visitors some might even notice a wonderfully constructed Insect Hotel created by Harmony Gardens Designs and painted by MA Arts Practice student Beth Hinde, an addition that hides some hopping green friends for you to enjoy and some important information about how Insect Hotels help local ecosystems.
“The transformation of the gallery play space has been extremely well received by children and adults alike! We are very keen on supporting local wildlife here at the gallery, so we were thrilled when Adam and Kelsi approached us with the idea of using local ecology to create an immersive space especially for our youngest visitors. We are extremely grateful to Tees Valley Museums for supporting us with funding to carry out this project and hope you enjoy it!” – Caroline Smurthwaite, Gallery Manager
It was important to the pair that the redesign had lots of secrets for children to discover such as animal stickers on the walls, a family of tiny mice who hide here and there, new sensory pillows and carpets and an updated collection of books to educate and inspire. Speaking to Kelsi and Adam they had this to say about working on the space.
“Although Hartlepool is famous for the Monkey story, I really wanted to bring in exciting new stories for children to be inspired by. I wanted us to create a space they could get lost in and gave them a sense of wonder. Deciding to use sensory elements has opened my eyes to
how inclusive we can make spaces such as this and getting to collaborate with Kelsi and other creatives has proven to be a rewarding experience. This project also gave us the opportunity to work with a budget and helped put some things into perspective for future collaborations.” – Adam McLean, Writer/Curator
“Working on this project has been really fun, it’s something completely different from the usual work I do. Seeing my work in the children’s area has been great, especially seeing people interacting with the illustrations and the area in general.” – Kelsi Lees, Illustrator/Curator
The pair are very proud and delighted about how the new children’s play space looks and to hear about how much fun people are having there. They are happy to hear their hard work is paying off and children and adults alike are having fun and learning new things on their trips out. The space is now open, so, if you’re looking for a safe and cost-effective outing this summer for your family then why not pop down for a cup of tea, browse our toastie selection and see what woodland secrets you can find!