The Beautiful Game was a series of free workshops for children in August 2025 that combined two of the great things in life: art and football!
Using the chaos, culture and comedy of the world’s most loved sport, The Beautiful Game focussed on making great artworks, getting creative and having a good time!
The Beautiful Game: bring your imagination, leave your allegiances at the door.
Everything made in the workshops was presented in an exhibition at the gallery. Click here to see more →
Penalty Spot Paintings was a workshop designed to create a collaborative mural that would form the backdrop of the exhibition. In a breaking of the traditional art gallery rules, (foam) footballs were allowed in the space, soaked in paint, and placed on our astroturf penalty spot. Participants were then given protective coveralls, football socks and rubber boots, and blasted the balls at the taped off goal. At the end of the sessions, the tape was peeled off and the net and mural revealed.
We ran 3 sessions of the Penalty Spot Paintings over the opening weekend of the project.
In the Screenprint Your Own Kit session, participants learned the basics of screenprinting; from exposing images, to prepping screens, through to pulling and curing prints. Each was able to print their chosen design onto football shirts – they were all able to go home with a new custom kit, as well as printing some extras for our exhibition.
Sessions were held at NewBridge Print Studio, and we thank George Stewart for his help with the workshop.
Football Net Printing saw us reinvigorate tired, old, beaten-up footballs that were past their best, and use them to create beautiful abstract prints. Participants cut up the spherical footballs using scissors, and flattened them out into nets. These were then inked up using etching ink, and rolled through the print studio’s giant heavyweight etching press.
Sessions were held at NewBridge Print Studio, and we thank George Stewart and Oliver Hoffmeister in their help during the workshops.
In Giant Subbuteo Sculptures participants each had the opportunity to design kits and paint a giant 30cm tall 3-d printed Subbuteo player. Participants had the opportunity to furnish their kit designs with some iconic sponsors from the 80s and 90s, as well as numbers and badges. The painted players were then mounted on their domed bases, and turned into freestanding sculptures for our exhibition.
Our thanks to Harley Kuyck-Cohen for help 3-d printing.
Utilising the iconic imagery and collectable appeal of Panini football stickers, in our Panini Pastel Portraits workshops, participants could immortalise themselves or their favourite players as stickers. Giant templates from different iconic tournaments were printed out, and participants could use a projector to trace out any player of their choosing on to the paper. We used pastels to create rich saturation in colour, and to reference the lo-fi quality of the original stickers.
We ran 2 Panini Pastel Portraits sessions during the project.
A Table Football Tournament will be held on Saturday 30 August from 2 – 4pm. This is a drop in session, so there is no need to book! All ages and abilities welcome!
Slugtown are grateful to the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Fund, The National Lottery Community Fund, Arts Council England and Malings Community Fund for supporting The Beautiful Game. Thanks to Joe Bone for the image credit used in the promotional material.
