Katie Schwab

With a special interest in early-mid twentieth-century design and craft, Schwab’s practice is emphatically hands-on, collaborative and participatory. In the City Dome, she layered textures, touchable surfaces and sculptures to create an exhibition that invited tactile engagement and learning through play.

For The Seeing Hands, Schwab took inspiration from a number of architectural details found at Collective and twentieth century art & design reference points, specifically The Tactile Workshops book by Italian artist & designer Bruno Munari (1907-98). Munari’s book suggests making a touchable library for children – a collection of materials with different tactile qualities – something that was reflected in Schwab’s installation, which encourages children to experiment freely.

Since opening the Observatory in 2018, Collective has been exploring our site and exhibition programme with local families and groups using loose parts play theory. Through trails, play weekends and regular drop-in sessions, we work with artists and groups to create opportunities for creative learning through play.

People of all ages were welcome to drop-in to play, look and gather in the exhibition with facilitated sessions during our regular Friday drop-in Play sessions.

This artwork is a joint commission in partnership with Bluecoat (Liverpool).