Visual arts opens doors to discussion about other subjects, so interacting with or creating a piece of visual art is a great tool to engage people.

As part of the Real Skills project, visual artist Kate Sully worked with a group of unemployed adults to create a table setting to show the real opportunities for work in Doncaster and showcase the real skills of participants.

A giant colour map of the borough of Doncaster became a tablecloth. Kate used it to physically show the distance to job opportunities and then challenged participants to think about how they could remove barriers, be mobile and access more work opportunities. 

The group created different artefacts to represent different job opportunities in Doncaster such as mini top hats to link to Doncaster racecourse and hospitality, mini wire baskets for retail, model planes to link to Robin Hood airport, toy trucks for freight opportunities and recycling took the form of flowers fashioned from waste materials.

All these pieces were attached to wires and worked into a centre piece to resemble flower-like decorations.  Napkins displayed in glasses listed the real skills needed by employers and the skills the group could offer both individually and collectively including transferable creative skills.

Over the lifetime of the project the table was seen and used by many organisations including Success Doncaster, Mental Health Partnership Board, Job Centre Plus and other local businesses.