Making Spaces 

A Proposed Community Engagement Project at West Horsley Place 2026

 Imagine a historic house full of nooks and crannies, light shining through torn curtains, worn-out carpets, and creaking floorboards, standing empty for so many years.

Now imagine this space filled with smaller spaces, a series of 3-dimensional structures, rooms within rooms, made by new visitors to this home, people who have never seen this place before. 

A vintage living room with dark red walls, ornate framed paintings, a fireplace, and eclectic furniture including tufted sofas, armchairs, and tables, all decorated with patterned cushions and throws.

These makeshift structures will be lovingly made and decorated, drawn and documented, touched and inhabited by participants of the Making Spaces Project.

These temporary dwellings will bring life and people into this historic space, in a wonderful exchange of ideas, storytelling, and drawings.

View of an old-fashioned, vintage room through an arched doorway with detailed wooden trim. The room has a wooden floor, a door on the back wall, and tall windows with drapes on the right side. There are two vintage rugs on the floor and a small white table in the corner with a picture frame hanging above it.
An ornate, vintage mirror with a curved top, leaning against a wall in an old room with vintage wallpaper, wooden floors, and a window with curtains.
Wood-paneled staircase with landing and banister, dim lighting, and a ceiling bulb hanging down.
An elegant vintage room with patterned wallpaper, a chandelier hanging from the ceiling, two framed pictures on the wall, an arched doorway, a closed door, and a small white side table.

Walk around, look, explore, peer in or out.

Come in, sit or lie down - connect it with your own memory and imagination.

Vintage living room with floral wallpaper, fireplace, armchair, small wooden stool, area rug, and canopy bed with drapes.
View through a small window with lace curtains showing a green lawn and blue sky with clouds, orange bucket with a handle near the window
An indoor room with floral wallpaper, a mirror with a damaged frame leaning against the wall, an open door, a tripod in the center, and various objects including pillows, a fabric, and a sewing box.
A room with a vintage penny-farthing bicycle, wicker baskets, a vacuum cleaner, and a wooden table with chairs near a window letting in natural light.

They may be filled with sounds, spoken stories in various languages. They may be filled with drawings, or the moving image, as ideas are projected into the space and mingle with your own as you move through and around.

Imagine being part of this project, making your own space, or visiting the exhibition.

Person with gray hair in a black and blue jacket kneeling on a wooden floor, working on a large black and white drawing of a landscape or abstract scene, with a mirror reflecting the scene.
Several people working on art projects at tables covered with blue tablecloths inside a room with large windows, curtains, and columns.
Two women drawing large black-and-white sketches on paper, working on a wooden floor in a cozy home interior, with art supplies nearby and a mirror reflecting one artist.
A woman with long blonde hair in a braid, wearing a red hoodie and jeans, crouching on a floor covered with an abstract art piece made of crumpled paper, with black, red, and blue lines and shapes.

 Be inspired: listen, dream, write, draw…

How to Make Space

A small, leafless tree with a bird perched on one of its branches leans against a makeshift background of white fabric sheets. There are cardboard boxes and wooden crates around, with some placed on top of each other. The scene appears to be a display or setup, possibly for a decorative or artistic purpose.

Step 1. Start with a simple structure, and basic materials: a stick, a packing crate, and a cardboard boxWhatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

unfinished wooden structure with a green ribbon tied on the front post, placed against a white wall in an industrial space.

Step 2. With sticks, delineate a space on the ground 

A makeshift wooden structure with painted silhouettes of people, a red and black striped blanket, and a yellow plastic tray. There is a green pillow and a white cloth on the floor in front of it, and a small portrait of a man on the wall behind.

Step 3. Add a vertical, join all these together; it’s a beginning, a framework

A mirror reveals a cluttered space with cardboard and pink border, some hanging hooks, and a striped fabric with a yellow object.

Step 4. Check stability, sometimes this is all it needs, and the structure is self-supporting; sometimes it needs more

A woman and a man working together to build furniture in a workshop. The woman is holding a wooden piece, and the man is kneeling inside the structure, using a screwdriver.

Step 5. Throw a blanket over the top, make a den

Indoor art installation with a wooden booth, colorful paper and fabric artworks on the wall, a woman wearing a striped beanie, and a small leafless tree.

Step 6. Add walls, a door, a window, if you wish

A cozy bed setup with multiple pillows and blankets, surrounded by decorative items, candles, a large clock, and hanging jewelry on a wooden frame. Colorful fabrics and wall coverings add warmth to the scene.

Step 7. Draw on the walls, inside and out, add colour, words, fabric, stitch, objects, details, change the lighting

Person lying on a bed inside a wooden frame structure, wearing dark clothing with paint stains, resting with hands on chest, eyes closed, with a closed book and red cloth beside them.

Step 8. Sit in your den, write, draw, document your experience, take photographs, make a film, record your voice

Making Spaces Workshops

Some examples of recent relevant workshops around the concept of space and sensory experience include:

  • Making Room for Drawing, a 2-day workshop at Seawhite Studio, February 2023

  • Embodied Drawing and Creative Play, co-facilitated with Marina Tsartsara - Somatic Arts Practitioner, Jan 2025

  • Drawing Interiors on a Large Scale - inspired by Chichester Cathedral - May 2024

Other examples of workshops and my own art practice can be found on my website www.katiesollohub.co.uk and Instagram profile @katiesollohub

Previous Making Space Projects

A mixed media artwork divided into four sections with different abstract scenes using chalk and paint on a board.
Person lying on the floor in a narrow, art-covered passage or tunnel with black-and-white abstract artwork on the walls. 
A visitor lying in the Space Pod, looking in from the side, and from above 2024

I have made several 3-dimensional spaces over the past few years. Most recently, Space Pod began as a creative space for me to sit in, to draw in, and to draw onto.

As part of the annual Adur Art Trail in June 2024, The Space Pod was reconstructed in my garden studio (The Artist’s Den). It became an interactive space where visitors were invited to lie and listen to the sounds of space - using NASA recordings of planetary sounds, and the Golden Disc sounds of Earth sent into outer space in 1977 on Voyager. A space to rest, a space to dream. 

Open garden shed with wooden doors, inside shelves and a black stove. Two black chairs outside, potted plants, and a small rug with shoes on it in front of the shed.
Group of five people sitting inside a small, decorated cardboard shelter in a room. 
Visitors to the Space Pod June 2024
Open wooden double doors of a small space or booth with handwritten signs on them, a pair of shoes at the entrance, and a glimpse of the interior including a fireplace and various items.
A woman with gray hair and earphones is painting white graffiti on a dark wall in a small, enclosed space. 
Drawing inside the Space Pod above, whilst listening to sounds of space

Other examples of my dens, spaces, and installations can be seen on the next page or on my website www.katiesollohub.co.uk and on Instagram @katiesollohub

Personal Relationships With Space

Art installation with various drawings and cardboard structures, including a mirror frame, on a wooden table. 
Making Spaces (detail) 2023

I have over 12 years of experience working in historic homes. My work has always been about the spaces I visit and inhabit, through drawing, painting, documenting, and making.

I studied Social Anthropology and am fascinated by the universal human relationship to domestic spaces, from the cave to the palace, as well as the ordinary everyday interior. 

My father was himself a refugee (from Imperial Russia), and his own stories, objects, and experiences have left a lasting impression on me and my own relationship to home and space.

The house I was brought up in felt full of ‘ballast’, the stuff of life my father needed to gather and keep around him, as a result of his own childhood loss and displacement, a personal museum.

All of this informs my creative and teaching practices, and I am passionate about sharing this with others through workshops, projects, and exhibitions.

A creative, mixed-media art installation on a wall with handwritten notes, drawings, and paper signs. Prominent signs read 'Witness me' and 'Because,' with other notes mentioning swimming and poetry. The installation includes natural branches, collage elements, and layered paper artworks. 
In The Beginning - Drawing Installation 2025

Previous Projects

People viewing portrait artwork displayed in an outdoor pavilion at sunset by the sea.
Woman sitting on a rocky beach holding a colorful portrait drawing of herself, wearing a white knit hat, gloves, and a brown checked jacket, with the ocean and a blue sky in the background.
Watercolor portrait of a woman with long hair, wearing a patterned top, with her hand resting on her chin.

“Immersed 2021” was a socially engaged project, in which I swam with, talked with, photographed, filmed, and painted over 70 sea swimmers during 2021, during the pandemic.

After the initial project (funded by Arts Council England) finished, the project was further supported by Worthing Borough Council and private sponsorship, culminating in a public exhibition on Worthing Seafront in 2022, seen by thousands of passers-by over a period of 4 months.

Previous projects about Interior Spaces in historic houses include “A Guest in Turner’s House” - An Arts Council Funded residency at JMW Turner’s house, Twickenham, 2014/15, which led to invitations to work in the following locations: 

Sketch of an elegant indoor space with a piano, round tables, a staircase, large windows, and intricate architectural details.

Normansfield Theatre charcoal drawing 2017

Black and white abstract sketch of an underground subway station with arches and movement lines

Drawing in Pope’s Grotto 2018

A black-and-white sketch of a bedroom with a bed, chairs, a mirror, and artwork on the walls.

The Blue Bedchamber at Strawberry Hill House, 2016 (won first prize in the Derwent Drawing Prize 2020)