ARTIST TAKEOVER: MAKE YOUR MARK BY THE STOODIO
Making and participation: Wednesday 14 October to Sunday 1 November
Completed artwork viewing: Tuesday 3 to Sunday 8 November
Opening hours: 12pm to 6pm, closed Mondays
ArtHouse Jersey at Capital House, 8 Church Street, St Helier
This autumn, Islanders are being invited to help transform ArtHouse Jersey at Capital House into one large, evolving artwork. From Wednesday 14 October, Jersey artists and long-time friends Hayley Gibaut and Sophie Harris, known collectively as The Stoodio, will take over the town gallery for Make Your Mark, an evolving exhibition that will be created by the artists together with the people who walk through its doors.
Rather than opening with a finished exhibition, the gallery will begin as a space ready to be worked on. Over the following three weeks, visitors of all ages and abilities will be invited to draw, paint, make, build, write, experiment and respond, gradually transforming Capital House into one large collective artwork. The exhibition is presented as part of ArtHouse Jersey’s New Work Programme, sponsored by Coutts Crown Dependencies
Alongside the drop-in opportunities to contribute, a programme of workshops and creative sessions will explore everything from experimental painting, graffiti and cardboard sculpture to movement, sound, fabric and sensory art. Guest artists and practitioners will also bring music, performance and other creative experiences into the space, with collaborators including artist Emilie Knight and DJ David Gaspar.
Some activities will result in individual creations; others will feed directly into the gallery itself. The idea is that no two visits should feel quite the same: as more people contribute, earlier marks will be added to, surrounded, responded to and incorporated into something bigger.
The participatory phase will run until Sunday 1 November, including throughout the October half-term. Then the making stops.
From Tuesday 3 to Sunday 8 November, visitors will be able to return to see the completed artwork and experience what has been created collectively over the previous three weeks. The final week will turn the usual exhibition model on its head: rather than presenting an artist’s finished work at the beginning, the finished exhibition will be the culmination of hundreds of encounters, ideas and contributions from across the Island.
At the heart of the project are The Stoodio co-founders Hayley Gibaut and Sophie Harris, school friends who have developed a shared commitment to making art accessible, social and open to experimentation.
Jersey-born Sophie is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, drawing, digital illustration and printmaking, with work exploring identity, memory, intimacy and embodied experience. Hayley is an award-winning artist and ceramicist whose practice draws on both her Madeiran heritage and Jersey upbringing, combining influences from Jersey’s floral heritage and Portuguese traditions through ceramics, tiles, sculpture, pattern and symbolism.o
Together they established The Stoodio, a community creative space developed with the support of Andium Homes and ArtHouse Jersey, where their individual practices sit alongside a shared interest in encouraging people to make, experiment and connect through art.
Pictured: Artists Sophie Harris & Hayley Gibau from The Stoodio
Hayley Gibaut and Sophie Harris of The Stoodio said: “We want Make Your Mark to feel open from the moment you walk through the door. There’s no right or wrong way to take part and you don’t need to think of yourself as an artist. We’re creating the starting point, but we genuinely don’t know what the finished work will look like because that will depend on everybody who comes in and contributes. That unpredictability is a huge part of what excites us – watching the space change, seeing people respond to each other’s ideas and eventually stepping back to see what we’ve all made together.”
Make Your Mark was selected through ArtHouse Jersey’s Capital House Artist Takeover, an open call inviting artists and creative practitioners to propose bold, public-facing ideas for the gallery. Rather than commissioning a predetermined exhibition, ArtHouse Jersey asked artists what they would do with the space if they were given the freedom to make it their own.
Tom Dingle, Chief Executive of ArtHouse Jersey, said: “The idea behind the Artist Takeover was to give artists genuine freedom to rethink what Capital House could be. Hayley and Sophie’s response takes that freedom and shares it with the public. Instead of asking people simply to come and look at art, Make Your Mark invites them to become part of its creation. We hope that opens the doors to people who might not ordinarily think an art gallery is for them, as well as giving regular visitors a completely different experience of the space. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing the finished work and discovering what Jersey has created together.”
Make Your Mark forms part of ArtHouse Jersey’s New Work Programme, sponsored by Coutts Crown Dependencies, supporting artists to develop ambitious new work and creating opportunities for audiences to encounter and participate in contemporary art.
Dennis Howard, Head of Coutts Crown Dependencies, said: “We’re pleased to support Make Your Mark through ArtHouse Jersey’s New Work Programme. The project is a wonderful example of how supporting artists can also create opportunities for a much wider community to participate, experiment and experience something new. We look forward to seeing Capital House evolve over the course of the project and, ultimately, the collective artwork that emerges from the contributions of people across the Island.”
Artist Takeover: Make Your Mark by The Stoodio
Public exhibition: Wednesday 14 October – Sunday 8 November 2026
Making and participation: Wednesday 14 October – Sunday 1 November
Completed artwork viewing: Tuesday 3 – Sunday 8 November
Opening hours: 12pm – 6pm, closed Mondays
Venue: ArtHouse Jersey at Capital House, 8 Church Street, St Helier
Admission: Free, no booking required
Full details of workshops, events and ways to take part will be published on arthousejersey.je.
Make Your Mark is part of ArtHouse Jersey’s New Work Programme, sponsored by Coutts Crown Dependencies.
