Making Sense Community Interest Company was set up by Creative Director Ticky Lowe in 2013.

Making Sense is passionate about providing opportunities for people to experience arts and heritage in a multi sensory way. This approach is great for people with learning disabilities but it is also great for small children and families and people who don’t like reading and older people with dementia in fact it seems that we can all get something out of experiencing things with our senses.

Ticky works with other creative people to make projects happen – long term collaborators include Ross Dalziel, Ant Dickinson, Naomi Kendrick, Dr Kate Allen and “Sensory Objects” Honor Pedican, John Merrill, Paul McCann, Leila Romaya, Craig Yamey, Penny Alexander, Tara Dean, Sioned Phillips, Donna Jones, Lisa Heledd Jones.

Engage Marsh Award for Excellence in Gallery Education!!

In 2021 Ticky won a Marsh award for her work with Making Sense CIC for excellence in gallery Education

Marsh Awards 2021

Creative Partnerships

Times are hard for museums and galleries at the moment – Making Sense CIC is looking to form partnerships with venues and with communities to create temporary exhibitions, interpretation or handling resources in order to reach wider audiences or engage more people through hands on creative experiences.

As a CIC Making Sense can work with you to develop a project, apply for funding and run projects that will engage with wider audiences.

Training

Making Sense CIC can provide tailor made training for staff and volunteers.

Consultation

Access consultation and way finding reviews are also available through Making Sense working with partners such as Mencap Liverpool. Contact Ticky for more information.

Some of the projects that Making Sense CIC has initiated or been commissioned to run

2013 – Natural Numbers

Using the natural environment and resources at The National Wildflower Centre to develop self led learning activities. Including Spiral Lounge a pop up learning zone and the creation of Bluebell Hunt – a sensory-outdoor-numeracy-learning activity for early years and people with learning disabilities.

2014/15 – Who went to Pentredwr ?

We Rescued and celebrated local Heritage alongside a rural community in North Wales with interactive desks and a pop up Victorian School.

2015 – Ticket to Ride

A pop up immersive “travel pod” at Museum of Liverpool so that everyone can experience travel from the perspective of someone with a disability.

2015 – Time to Remember

Three object handling boxes to help care staff and people living with dementia and their families get the most out of a visit to Llandudno Hospital.

Commissioned by Conwy museums and Archive Service and BCUHB ‘Creative Well’ Arts in Health and Wellbeing.

2017 – Floral Deconstruction

An on going project to create a “handling archive” of wildflower parts for education and exhibition – Floral Deconstruction is an on going project  – new flowers being added annually –  Ernest Cook Trust funded a Creative Laboratory  – residency at Ruthin Craft Centre and World Museum Liverpool in June and July this year – more information on the projects page.

Thank you ECT! 

Making Sense CIC is a community interest company that works with museums, galleries and other public spaces to run creative projects that make exhibitions and collections accessible to wider and more diverse audiences. This can be by providing workshops, co-running events, making new interpretation and resources for outreach, and providing training for staff.

Making Sense CIC has a multi sensory approach to all projects, working to benefit people that may not other wise access museums and galleries and other cultural venues due to disability or social isolation. Creative Director Ticky Lowe is an artist and creative project manager. Before setting up Making Sense as a Community Interest Company in 2013 she ran a project called Access to Heritage for Mencap Liverpool where she worked along side a forum of people with learning disabilities and with Liverpool’s heritage venues as access consultants and coordinating the making of multi sensory interpretation that showcased accessible design. Ticky has researched and developed handling collections as a way for people with profound and multiple learning disabilities to engage, communicate and learn. Making Sense does not work exclusively with people with disabilities but its multi sensory approach means that everyone will be able to engage with and enjoy our work.