PAINTERS of roleplay models, matchstick shipmakers, scarfknitters, cushion embroiderers – your moment to shine has come!

Local people are being invited to exhibit their creations, conventional or otherwise, at the John Hansard Gallery Central in Southampton.

The aim of the exhibition, Juneau Projects: I Am the Warrior, is to celebrate and promote creativity in its widest forms. All you need to do to get your work on display is take it along to the gallery in Civic Centre Road.

The exhibition is a collaborative project with artist duo Phil Duckworth and Ben Sadler, aka Juneau Projects.

It is the third time they put on such a show. At other exhibitions they have had chutney, poetry and even a model of Battersea power station made out of toilet rolls brought along to be displayed, as well as more conventional arts and crafts.

“We’re really interested in what makes people want to make things, and we wanted to create a situation where people could bring along things they’ve made themselves and show them all together, whether they’re craftspeople or artists or they just have a creative hobby of some kind,” says Phil.

The pair hope the exhibition will help people to recognise and celebrate their own creativity. “What we’re interested in is what that creative impulse is in people that makes them want to make something, whether you label that art, a hobby or something you almost do for survival,”

says Ben.

“There seems to have been this urge running through humankind since prehistoric times to make a mark or make something.”

Unlike many open art exhibitions, I am the Warrior has no selection criteria, as the aim is to make taking part in the exhibition as easy as possible.

“People may not see what they’re doing as creative but when you look at it from a different angle, there’s a lot of skill going into a lot of the things that people are doing,”

says Ben.

The exhibition starts on Tuesday as an empty space and will fill up as people begin to bring in their pieces to display.

The hope is that by the end, on April 27, it will be crammed with work.

At previous exhibitions, around half those taking part had never exhibited their work before.

“It feels really rewarding being able to facilitate them exhibiting their work,” says Ben. “It’s also exciting – the unknown factor.”

Often people visit the exhibition and then either come back a few days later with a piece of their own to display or send a friend in to exhibit a piece.

The pair hope that as well as encouraging people’s personal creativity, it will help unite them with others in their area who are also creative.

“For this reason the exhibition has a closing party, so that all the participants can meet each other.

“You can live in a community for a long time and not be aware of what other people get up to in terms of creativity,” says Phil.

The first such exhibition had 150 pieces on display, the second 300, so Phil and Ben hope Southampton will have even more.

“We’ve always had a good response from what you might think of as more traditional art and we’re really keen to see that again but we’re also very interested in more domestic hobbies and things that don’t get exhibited in institutions,” says Phil.

“We also really like things like the Battersea Power Station model, which was displayed in Battersea – things that are from the local area help give the feeling of uniqueness to a particular version of the exhibition,”

adds Ben.

“What that might be I’m not sure, but we weren’t expecting a toilet roll version of Battersea power station, so who knows what we’ll get? Maybe some ships made of toilet rolls!”

Juneau Projects: I am the Warrior is at John Hansard Gallery Central from March 19 to April 27. Entry free