Bow families: creating your own paper lanterns and brightening mid-autumn stories with Alison Lam
Sunday 27th September 2026 , 11:00am to 1:00pm
What would your light say if you didn’t speak? Join artist Alison Lam for a cozy, hands-on workshop making your own paper lanterns telling your stories during the Moon Festival. Open to children and families of all ages – all materials provided.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival, family and friends gather under the full harvest moon to share stories. Lanterns are lit to serve as decorations, festive toys for children, and a way to honour the moon, symbolising family reunion and happiness. They also create a joyful, illuminated ambiance for moon-viewing. In this workshop, children will learn about the possibilities of making paper lanterns with folding, cutting and decorating techniques. They will also draw symbols or patterns instead of using words.
This event is an inclusive, friendly environment which is accessible to all abilities and age groups.
Bow Families is a series of free, drop-in family art workshops that take place on the last Sunday of every month in the Bow Arts Courtyard Room. These sessions are a wonderful opportunity for local families to get creative and try something new! Each session is led by a Bow Arts’ Artist and all materials are provided.
More about Alison Lam
Alison Lam is a London-based social practice and interdisciplinary artist working across porcelain, metal, glass, paper and sound. Identifying as neurodivergent, her practice is shaped by her experience as a British-born Chinese mother of two autistic sons with complex needs. She explores themes of grief, care, exclusion and resilience through hands-on processes she describes as “drawing with her hands,” where making becomes a way of thinking and holding experience.
Her work centres participatory and socially engaged methods, creating spaces where communication can happen beyond words. Alison is particularly interested in gesture, silence, repetition and sensory experience as forms of language, especially within Cantonese and diasporic contexts where meaning is often high-context and easily misread. The Cantonese proverb “A ghost covers one’s eyes” (鬼揞眼) underpins her approach, reflecting on how things can be present yet unseen.
Alison has been Artist in Residence at Lauderdale House and a Guest Lecturer at Brighton University, Middlesex University and the MASS Sculpture Course. Her recent solo exhibitions include This is Where I Leave You (Studio KIND, 2024) and Conversation Starters: Suspended in Time (Espacio Gallery, 2023), alongside group exhibitions including Fresh Air Sculpture (2024) and Ugly Duck (2023). Her work has been supported by Arts Council England.
Through workshops, installations and zines, she explores how material, gesture and participation can hold space for ambiguity, care and new forms of recognition.
Access information
The Bow Arts Trust courtyard room has step-free access throughout from street level, including to the accessible toilet, and is service animal friendly. This venue does not have a hearing loop system. Accessible parking is not available on-site.
If you have any questions regarding accessibility at this venue or event, would like to make us aware of any access requirements that you have in advance of visiting, or would like this information in an alternate format including Easy Read, please email nunnery@bowarts.com or call 020 8980 7774 (Ext. 3)
Access requirements could include things like providing equipment, services or support (e.g. information in Easy Read, speech to text software, additional 1:1 support), adjusting workshop timings (e.g. more break times), adjustments to the event space (e.g. making sure you have a table near the entrance) or anything else you can think of!
Transport Information
Opening hours: Mon-Friday, 9am to 5pm
Address: Bow Arts Trust, 183 Bow Road, London, E3 2SJ
Nearest station(s): Bow Road (District and Hammersmith and City lines) is a 6-minute walk away, and Bow Church (DLR) is a 3-minute walk away.
Bus: 205, 25, 425, A8, D8, 108, 276, 488 and 8 all service the surrounding area.
Bike: Bicycle parking is located at Bow Church Station. The nearest Santander Cycles docking station is at Bow Church Station.
