Leon Hughes of Artfunkle

Leon Hughes own and runs Artfunkle, providing bespoke canvas painting and art workshops: “We bring the art studio to you- Fun and interactive workshops for all abilities.”

Monday 15 June 2020

Leon Hughes own and runs Artfunkle, providing bespoke canvas painting and art workshops: “We bring the art studio to you- Fun and interactive workshops for all abilities.”

Leon has always enjoyed being creative, by reusing materials to create new pieces. As a qualified youth worker, Leon has worked in the field for over 20 years and is also a qualified Further Education teacher; having been employed by the South West College for 12 years delivering personal development programmes for marginalised young people.

In 2015, Leon attended a paint and sip evening in America while visiting her sister and it ignited her passion for creativity and working with people, from which Artfunkle was born. It took a further year of deliberating before the business officially launched, for the first few years, Leon ran the business part time in conjunction with her full time job. The opportunity to take early redundancy from the college arose and she is now fully self employed since June 2019.

Through her role at Artfunkle, Leon delivers workshops and programmes to children, young people and adults, with public events, paint and sip evenings and birthday parties. The wide customer base of Artfunkle has grown with clients from the youth service, local councils, local schools, youth clubs and community organisations. Utilising her wealth of youth work and teaching experience, Leon blends the curriculum into the delivery of her workshops and programmes, in particular, using art to discuss issues such as bullying, body image and to promote positive mental health as this is such a prominent issue in Northern Ireland.

For Artfunkle, Leon has felt the impact of lockdown on her business as all bookings have been cancelled. Leon reflects on the learning curves that she has faced throughout lockdown, “I’ve had to think of new ways of doing things and embrace technologies that I was unfamiliar with, the most difficult thing has been producing videos of myself, which previously I just couldn’t do.” However, Leon is now adapting and building upon the opportunity as she is currently in the process of launching online workshops and creating personalised gifts to sell to future proof her business!

We wish Leon continued success and if you would like more information about Artfunkle workshops or programmes, Leon can be contacted via:

Mobile: 07826852650

Email: artfunkle2015@yahoo.co.uk

Website: www.artfunkle.co.uk

Facebook: @ArtFunkleDungannon

Monday 15 June 2020