Friday 21 March 2014

Newsletter Issue Seven Has Landed

The Education Officer at 20-21 Visual Arts Centre tries to design and deliver two Newsletters each term. These usually include opportunities on the horizon and a brief round up of some key workshops from that term.

Issue Seven has just landed and should be in email inboxes in the next few days. This issue includes:

  • Crowle Primary's Arty Aztec project with years three to six
  • Oasis Academy Henderson Avenue Primary's whole year one project with artist Dominic Heffer
  • The Art Superheroes of Grange Lane Infants
  • A rare artist lead Teacher Training session including the chance to WIN a FREE workshop at 20-21.
  • Upcoming Opportunities for schools to engage with exhibiting artists


  • If you're yet to recieve a copy of Issue Seven or would like to be included on our mailing list, please get in touch with us on 01724 297070 or email education.2021@northlincs.gov.uk

    Tuesday 18 March 2014

    TEACHER TRAINING Delivered by an Exhibiting Artist!


    We are always coming up with ways for schools, their pupils and their teachers to engage with our exhibitions. We believe this is one of our best opportunities yet:

    Alexis Rago's exhibition Chaos Contained opens in 20-21's Chancel gallery on 3rd May and promises to be one of our most popular shows this year. 

    Join Alexis in a Teacher Training session held at 20-21 on Tuesday 6th May 2-5pm.

    · Be inspired by a tour of Alexis Rago’s exhibition “Chaos Contained”.

    · Use simple materials and ideas to realise limitless possibilities.

    · Delivered with a clear and structured method that can be taken back to any classroom

    · Leave with your own clay sculpture created with guidance from the artist.



    At only £17 per teacher, this Teacher Training session guarantees a quality spend working with a highly esteemed artist.

    Each attending teacher will be entered into a Prize Draw for the chance to win FREE two hour workshop held at 20-21.
     
    Spaces a limited, so book early to avoid disappointment. Call our Education Officer, Hayley McPhun on 01724 297070 or email education.2021@northlincs.gov.uk for more information or to book your place.

    The following flyer should have landed in your email inbox to promote this rare opportunity for teachers. If it hasn't, get in touch to be added to our mailing list aimed at education events and workshops.




    Monday 17 March 2014

    Doctor Beans and his Bean Making Machines meets Oasis Acedemy Henderson Avenue!

    Have you met Doctor Beans and his Bean Making Machines? Almost 90 of Oasis Henderson Avenue's year ones have! Over the last few weeks the schools have made several visits to 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, to snap up a fabulous opportunity to work with highly esteemed artist Dominic Heffer.
     
    Dominic's exhibition Extensions is currently on display at 20-21 and is going down a storm with our young visitors. The year one pupils of Oasis Academy were all very lucky to have a private guided tour of the exhibition, given by the artist himself.
     
     
     
    We all talked about what we could see in the paintings and what we thought they meant. 
     
     
    All the pupils had lots of questions to ask Dominic. Questions like "How long did it take you to paint it?" and "Why is there a chicken with no head?"
     

     
    The tour with Dominic made us see things we probably wouldn't see if he weren't showing us around. Like this big black and white painting, hung high in the hallways.
     
    
     
     
    "Why has that man got worms coming out his head?"
    "Where is that man walking to?"
     
    All of Dom's work inspired lots of creative thinking and interesting questions. They made us think about characters and situations.
     
     
    At the end of the tour, Dominic told us a story he'd written about his friend and inventor Dr Beans. 
     


    Everyone sat and listened intently to the story unfolding and what was going to be required of us later that morning.

    Back in the Education Room we were being asked to undertake a very importnat job for Dr Beans. We had to decorate all of his Bean Making Machines.


    We had loads of materials given to us by 20-21 and Dominic, in order to make the most colourful, most exciting pieces of artwork that the gallery had ever seen.


    There were pipe cleaners, paints, sponges, stickers, googly eyes, lollipop sticks, pens, crayons and feathers to help us on our way.







    Dominic helped us in using a mixture of materials to get different colours, effects and textures.



    Once we had finished our spectacularly colourful, weird and wonderful Bean Making Machine's for Dr Beans, we had a very special visit from the man himself! The lady from 20-21 told us how he never normally came to visit the centre, but that he'd been keen to meet all his helpers that morning.

    Dr Beans was asked to judge all the Bean Making Machines, after they'd been tested for practicality and usefulness by pouring lentils down the top and through the special pourer.


    Dr Beans had a very tough decision to make with each visit he made to the centre. On the first week, he chose a young girl called Lily to win a signed Dominic Heffer catalogue. Here she is shaking hands with Dr Beans and Mr Heffer.

     
    The second week, Dr Beans couldn't make the journey, so he sent his cousin who's also called Dr Beans!
     

    We were so lucky to have members of the Beans family come each week to judge our art works! Dr Beans became quite the celebrity with the pupils of Oasis Academy Henderson Avenue.

     
    From the artist:

    'I like to use my imagination to make all sorts of different scenes and funny characters in my paintings. I always use bright colours and often the people in my paintings are doing silly things like riding an ostrich or carrying a giant jar of pickled onions....if you use your imagination, you can make anything, that's what excites me!'
    From a year one teacher:

    "Great tour of his [Dominic's] work and explaining them in an age appropriate language. A warm approach."
    "It was a fantastic opportunity for the children to work with a real artist. Dominic was fabulous with the children!"
     
    Henderson Avenue teachers spotted the rare and exciting opportunity for their children to work directly with our exhibiting artist, by reading through our blog and twice termly newsletter. If you would like to sign up to this newsletter, please send an email to education.2021@northlincs.gov.uk






    Monday 10 March 2014

    Grange Lane Infants are Art Superheroes!

    Last week was a VERY busy here at 20-21 Visual Arts Centre! We had almost 60 of Grange Lane Infants' year threes and fours visit us for the whole day on Wednesday.

    They were here to look at David Hancock's Cosplay exhibition, which features lots of people dressed as characters, who David photographs and later paints or draws into these exquisite pieces of art work.

     
     
    Pupils spent quite some time in the galleries answering questions about the exhibition, to get them thinking about how artists operate; the tools they use, why they might want to be making this artwork.
     

     
     
    We paid a lot of attention to the design of the costumes that the characters were wearing, as we were about to embark on creating our very own Superheroes!
     
    Back in the Education Room, children thought of themselves as Art Superheroes, stepping in to save art in Scunthorpe. We came up with some really great super hero names that had special powers, like invisibility, the power of electricity and laser eyes that destroyed our enemies in their tracks.
     
    We put some of these words and super powers into drawings, making us think creatively around our characters. Apologies for the bad quality of these pictures, our lovely camera wasn't available on the day.


    Once we had in mind what our character would be like and act like, we started putting together some logo designs for our Art Superhero capes. The logos had to be simple, effective and bold in their shapes.




     
    The logos were the turned into stencils for the screen printing techniques, which is why the shapes had to be large so they were easy to cut.
     
    The stencils were used for silk screen printing which is a really special way to reproduce an image.
     
    Our final capes were so bright and colourful that the Education Officer had to wear sunglasses while taking the following pictures!




     
     
    We are really pleased with the final result! If you or your school would like to become Arts Superheroes for the day, please get in touch with the centre on 01724 297070, or email our Education Officer on education.2021@northlincs.gov.uk