Priory Lane Community School visit Australia for the day!

Shadow Puppetry has triumphed once again!  We spent a day with year fives of Priory Lane Community School, this week. The year are studying Australia as their classroom topic and approached Education at 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, to help them embed their topic in a fun and engaging way for the end of term. 

Our shadow screen with its plush and swanky red velvet curtains.

We began the sessions with discussions about Australia; the types of animals we find there, the sort of sport and recreation people get up to in that continent and places people might visit if they go on holiday. 

Luckily, almost all of the answers featured in the story that had been written by 20-21's Education Officer.

Pupils began making their puppets. Wallaby and koala templates had been made, but children were also given the opportunity to create their own animals and story sections, too. 

The boys' table concentrating on their wallabies and making effective use of the card they'd been given

Teacher assistants were really getting into the spirit!

This table were excellent team payers, helping each other out at various stages! They should be proud!

Some of the wallaby mums and babies and koalas waiting to go on trees.

When all the puppets were made and ready. Demonstrations were given as to how we create scenery and different effects, using a light source and a variety of objects. 

The Education Officer acted as casting director and we all had a few practice runs of telling the story, while the pupils acted out their parts. 

Then the performance was ready to begin:

The Goodchilds took a holiday last year. They went to Australia on an aeroplane! 

When they got there, the Goodchilds got into the spirit of things! Mr Goodchild wore his Australia hat and Mrs Goodchild put on her sunglasses.

They really looked the part as they headed off to Bondi Beach, where they saw lots of surfers and took lots of selfies with their modern camera, with the glistening sea in the background. 

Next, they hopped on a bus tour to explore Australia’s wonderful places:

They drove through the TV set of Neighbours

They drove passed the Sydney Opera House

They drove passed the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Then they got off the bus at the Australian Outback. Where they saw:

A family of koalas in the trees.

A court of wallabies hopping in the distance.

A slippery snake.

Some creepy poisonous spiders.

And they met a big friendly kangaroo.
The Goodchilds made friends with this kangaroo, who convinced them to move to Australia forever. 

One oft he year five classes has learned the words to the song "Land Down Under" and even had dance movements for each of the lines. This was a really special treat for the staff at 20-21, so we decided to add this mini performance onto the end of our shadow play. 

It was an honour to have seen the children acting this song out again! 

Shadow Puppets remains our most popular workshop, because we are able to embed class topic, science, literacy, drama and a lot of fun! Here's some of the feedback from children:

"I enjoyed the shadow puppets and acting out the play and there was nothig that could be better!!" - Brooke, 10

"I thought it was amazing and I loved it." - Anna, 10

"It was good team work. I liked everything." - Jessica, 10

"Everything was amazing and fun. I really want to do it again!" - Callum, 10

"I abserlutely loved it, the scenes was really good and all the sound effects was really good. Everyone got a part and it was just great fun. I would definately reccomend it. It was totally worth it!" - Amy, 10

"I don't think I can say anything bad about it. Haley and Anya do a very good thing to make children happy and laugh. Thanks for coming" - Katy, 10

And some feedback from Mrs Dickens-McCreight, Class Teacher of Year 5s -"A very successful workshop which fully engaged the children. Akk children enjoyed the making and the producing of the shadow puppet workshop."

What did Red Riding Hood find in Frodingham Infants' Garden?

When Frodingham Infant School called us to tell us they had Red Riding Hood on her way to see their school garden, we thought we better help them out with decorating it.

 

Over two days the school's year one classes came into 20-21 Visual Arts Centre to visit our one week special exhibition Flowers In The Gallery. The exhibition is a selection of flower arrangers' artworks that respond to various pieces of artwork in David Hancock's Cosplay exhibition.

 

We were a very lucky group this week, as one of the flower arrangers was spending some time in the gallery, ensuring the exhibitions were tidy and well watered. Caroline Jackson is a member of NAFAS which is the National Association of Flower Arranging Societies.

Caroline answered lots and lots of questions about Flowers In The Gallery:

"Why do flowers need water?"
"How many types of flowers are there?"
"Why do we need flowers and plants?"
"Where is Red Riding Hood?"

All very important and interesting questions, we thought.

When we were finished grilling Caroline on biology and the wonders of life, children were set the challenge of becoming Red Riding Hood and finding themselves a creature made out of wire that had been hidden amongst the exhibitions. These wire creatures had been made prior to the visit, for children to decorate into beautiful butterflies. The children had excellent observational skills and displayed exceptional team work to help each other find their bugs.


Using the wire frames, we covered tissue paper strips in glue and wrapped the softened paper around the frame, making solid wings.

We thought a lot about symmetry, repetition and colours to make sure our butterflies looked just right.

 

We decorated the wings with sparkly bits, so the bugs and butterflies shine in the sunshine.

Children were extremely creative and loved learning new words and methods of crafting.

Below is a very happy young man who worked tirelessly all day to smile and ask lots of questions about the gallery.

Some more shining examples of boys enjoying making butterflies and bugs for their school garden.

Below is the drying line that we hung our creations on to dry, while we got started on the next part of our project.

 

While our bugs were drying, we started creating some HUGE flowers that we could carry around with us in the classroom. We used tissue paper and basic craft techniques to create fans that cleverly turned into flowers. 

 

 

Lots of careful and quiet thinking time. 

 

 

Here we with all our bugs, crafts and flowers. Let us know what you think! Scroll down for some of our thoughts on the day.

 

 

"10/10 I likt it when we did flowers." - Alice aged five

 

"10/10 I love all of it." - Megan aged six and a half

 

"10/10 it was fantastic! I liked the extabishun" - Jaydan aged six years old. 

Great news for arts education

All the hard work of teachers and agencies seems to have paid off!

We have just heard via an email from the Cultural Learning Alliance (CLA) that Michael Gove has announced a bit of a turnaround in decisions toward the curriculum.

Art & Design, Dance, Drama and Music GCSEs will be reformed in time for teaching in 2016.

Gove made some very encouraging remarks about the value of cultural learning:
"I am passionate about great art, drama, dance, music and design, and I am determined to ensure every child enjoys access to the best in our culture. I also want all schools to be able to nurture creative talent in every child."

Read more on the news from the CLA here and from the BBC's announcement, here.

Take a look at one of our old blog posts, on how prolific campaign artist Bob and Roberta Smith hosted the Art Party Conference alongside members of the NSEAD, in a bit of a backlash against decisions being made on the future of arts education.

Get in touch with us for how we can help support you in the delivery of Art & Design in your school, right up to college education: 01724 297070 or email education.2021@northlincs.gov.uk

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.

Arts Opportunities for Schools

Welcome back and a big Happy New Year from all here at 20-21 Visual Arts Centre.

We are starting 2014 off with a huge amount of enthusiasm regards Education at 20-21, because we have so many tempting offers for school engagement right through the year. 

Firstly we have three major opportunities to work with internationally acclaimed artists, for this term and next:

Dominic Heffer is offering an enormously exciting workshop. His bold images and sculptures currently adorn the halls of our galleries, and we are working with him to get as many schools and children involved in his new project as we can.

Have you class work with Dominic to design and create a fantastic Baked Bean Making Machine, using skills in design and technology, art and creative and critical thinking.

This offer is open to Primary and Secondary schools but is only available until April 2014! We predict that this workshop will be very popular, so we advise getting in touch as soon as you're able.

David Hancock's workshops at 20-21 have proven extremely popular in the past. Children and adults alike get the opportunity to work alongside a prestigious artist to create a self portrait using artist skills such as scaling up and colour blending.

 

 

 

David will tailor the workshop to cater for a half day or full day booking, with a maximum of 20 pupils from Secondary schools only.

A full day booking will include the opportunity to dress up, have your photo taken by the artist and then scale the image up to go away with a colourful self portrait.

For information on how to book this popular workshop at a time convenient for you, please contact us to check availability. This workshop is running from February to May 2014.

Virtual World Workshop and Volatile Light

Highly esteemed theatre company IOU are bringing one of their most exciting exhibitions to 20-21 for two weeks only in May 2014.

 

 

"Volatile Light is a mesmerising sound and light installation. Featuring an array of specially made machines, LED lights will be attached to rotating arms, levers and cranks to weave a series of eccentric curves, sweeping arcs and hectic scribbles in the darkened gallery space.

The IOU Virtual World workshop allows participants to learn about 3D design and architecture, physics and mathematics, along with the ability to gain and understanding of computer programming, virtual reality and the gamification of theatrical mechanics."

Prices of all the above workshops vary from artist to artist. Contact us as soon as you're able to ensure a booking can be made to suit your school and our artists' availability. Email education.2021@northlincs.gov.uk or call 01724 297070

Last Newsletter of 2013!

We have just sent out our latest and last newsletter of the year! Our first ever four pager is jam packed with information on some of the things we've been up to and what opportunities are available for the new year.

 

 
This issue features all the successes of this year, including details of our now award winning services, our new Teacher Training offer Finding the Rs in Arts and opportunities to work with some exciting artists!
 

First  opportunity up, available until April  2014 only:

The Baked Bean Making Machine, with artist Dominic Heffer

 

 

Winner of our Open competition, international artist and maker extraordinaire, Dominic Heffer is offering an outrageously exciting opportunity for school engagement.

 

Dominic's bold images and sculptures currently adorn the halls of our galleries, and we're working with him to get as many schools and children involved in his new project the Baked Bean Making Machine, as we can.

 

Work with Dominic to create a machine that uses skills in design and technology, and creative and critical thinking.

 

 

 

Our second very exciting opportunity comes in the shape of lots of electrical wires, light switches and technological thinking:

 

 

Virtual World Workshop and Volatile Light

Highly esteemed theatre company IOU are bringing one of their most exciting exhibitions to 20-21 Visual Arts Centre in May 2014.

 

 

 

“Volatile Light is a mesmerising sound and light installation. Featuring an array of     specially made machines, LED lights will be attached to rotating arms, levers and cranks to weave a series of eccentric curves, sweeping arcs and hectic scribbles in the darkened gallery space.

 

“The IOU Virtual World workshop allows   participants to learn about 3D design and architecture, physics and mathematics, along with the ability to gain an understanding of computer programming, virtual reality and the gamification of theatrical mechanics.”

 

Please contact our Education Officer (details below) to book this truly fantastic experience, or to find out more about how our award winning services can support art in your school.

 

 

If you or your school haven't received a copy of the end-of-year newsletter and would like to know the latest news and arts education opportunities, please don't hesitate to get in touch with a relevant email address for us to forward on a copy: education.2021@northlincs.gov.uk or 01724 297070

ART PARTY CONFERENCE 2013

Saturday 23rd November saw a very exciting time for the arts. Prolific campaign artist Bob and Roberta Smith organised a great day for artists to come and celebrate being creative as well as supporting arts educators across the country.

The first ever Art Party Conference was held at Scarborough Spa, a venue known for party political broadcasts. The entire venue was filled with performance, music, discussions, activity, opportunity and ART!

20-21 Visual Arts Centre were really excited to have the opportunity to host a stall of our own, advertising the great work we do with our exciting exhibition programme and education menus.

Our Education Officer and Exhibitions Officer, Hayley McPhun and Dominic Mason took a selection of our touring exhibition brochures and some samples of Helen Snell's Burnt Out work.

 

The venue overlooked one of Scarborough's greatest views, along which artists were invited to promenade their artworks and celebratory placards responding to changes to the arts curriculum and increase in university fees. Hayley and Dominic stood at the top of the steps watching all the events unfold on the beach. They were joined by Fox Cam from Scarborough Museums Trust!

The central masterpiece was this raised platform, from which artists and speakers delivered their responses to changes in the arts over the coming years. Many of these speeches were greatly inspirational and empowered arts educators like ourselves. After the beach promenade, this masterpiece was added to, with all the brightly coloured artworks created by artists, venues, societies, galleries, politicians and creators; some of whom were well famed artists such as David Shrigley (nominated for this year's Turner Prize). What a spectacle it became!

Jessica Voorsanger MC'd the day's events between speakers and activities. She took the opportunity to dress as various great artists, here she was Salvador Dali. It was great fun watching Voorsanger change into these different personalities.

Cape UK introduced two young people to deliver their experiences of learning art and being positively encouraged into arts professions by art educators.

Panel talks included some high flying names in the arts world. Jeremy Deller and Cornelia Parker, along with Stephen Deuchar and Pavel Buchler, were invited to answer "What first turned you onto art?"

The panel was asked by an audience member whether artists should run for politics, where after some collective giggles it was decided that however fun it may be, the country may end up in rather a shambles.

Now onto the nitty gritty: Head of NSEAD, Lesley Butterworth was joined by a panel including artist Richard Wentworth and Axis Director Sheila McGregor, to have the conversation "How should art be taught in school?"

Panel member Mark Hudson opened with an interesting quote from what Hudson referred to as the "Scarborough Philosophy" developed by Victor Pasmore on opening the Scarborough Foundation course in Art and Design in 1953/54; Pasmore said of his work "It is determined not by the end, but by the beginning. It is determined not by the answer but by the questions."

Sheila McGregor then went on to speak about how art education should definitely include and celebrate the transferable skills of art:

• problem solving
• idea development
• exposure to materials

For McGregor, children should:

• leave school with vast portfolios of artwork
• visit work by living artists in galleries
• be taught by teachers who take part in regular teacher training

Sam Cairns of the Cultural Learning Alliance said that the question should not be How we teach art in schools, but Why we teach art in schools, and posed the following:
We should teach art in schools because:

• there is a legal obligation to do so
• art improves children's lives
• art improves our futures - children's problem solving skills improve, meaning our future's will improve as a result of this

Cairns quoted some interesting statistics, one of which being that children and young people who are exposed to and engage in the arts are 20% more likely to vote, which has a big knock on effect for our economy.

Richard Wentworth was the final person to speak on the panel.

"Richard Wentworth has played a leading role in New British Sculpture since the end of the 1970s. His work, encircling the notion of objects and their use as part of our day-to-day experiences, has altered the traditional definition of sculpture as well as photography." - from this link.

Wenworth expressed his interest in arts to be taught with a slant of professionalisation. In a world where everything is attached to status and titles, art should be taught as a ladder that one can climb and learn from. Children should be encouraged to answer "I wonder what would happen if..."
Wentworth strongly believes that there needs to be a shift in the atmosphere to which schools approach teaching; there should be the opportunity to go outside and be shown how to light fires. Humanity exists on basic skills, and Wentworth believes that these basic skills aren't being taught in schools early enough. "There is nothing like witnessing. Most learning by children is SEEN and DONE."

Wentworth believes that we need to give time to each other, time is cultivated space and that children need both of these to learn and exist.

Whatever we choose to believe about art and however we choose take it into our lives, it is important to remain positive about teaching art in schools. We need to remain positive in using art as a tool of expression, as well as a means to educate on the many wonders of a child's world; history, science, geography, literacy and ART all centre around what makes us human, what makes us individual and what makes us make decisions. These subjects should all be celebrated equally and teachers should be empowered by art and empowered to teach it well with curiosity, excitement and intrigue at the core of delivery.

Hayley, our Education Officer with one of her heroes, Bob and Roberta Smith, who engineered the entire day.