Towards the end of May 2026, Professor Helen Mason (solar physicist), Geraldine Cox (artist and physicist) and Clare Dudeney (artist) worked with Jo Sliwa from the Comino Foundation to deliver a series of SunSpaceArt workshops with Year 5 pupils at Abraham Moss Primary School. Pupils learnt about the Sun and space and created space inspired suncatcher artworks, which were displayed in classroom windows as exhibitions at the end of each session.

Pupils gathered together, in the auditorium at Abraham Moss Community School and in classrooms at the other schools, and we began by asking two simple questions: “What does the Sun mean to you?” and “What does the Sun give us?” 

Students shared their scientific knowledge, and Professor Helen Mason gave a talk about the Sun. Pupils learnt about the age and scale of our Sun, how energy is produced through fusion as hydrogen turns into helium, and how solar energy can be harnessed using technologies such as solar panels.

Artist Geraldine Cox led pupils in a brief dance movement activity, inviting them to imagine they were the swirling aurora, expanding to become as large as the Sun and then shrinking to become as small as the turning Earth. She then gave a presentation about the African American artist Alma Thomas, who worked as a teacher for most of her life. She devoted more time to painting after she retired and went on to achieve significant recognition, with her work now shown in prestigious galleries and museums.

Pupils noticed that Alma Thomas’s brush marks looked like bricks or mosaics, with the white ground peeking through to create flecks of light across the surface. Each pupil saw something different in her paintings. For example, in Blast Off they identified a rocket, a mountain, pyramids, an upturned ice cream cone and even a gnome’s hat. They learnt that abstract painting does not aim to represent exactly what you see, but can instead suggest ideas, places or feelings through colour, shape and pattern.

Using what they’d learnt, artist Clare Dudeney led a workshop with pupils to create a suncatcher. The finished artworks were then displayed in classroom windows so that light could shine through them, creating exhibitions of colour and light.

Blog post written by Clare Dudeney on behalf of Manchester Comino.