TAKEOVER 2013 Follow-Up

A few weeks ago, we were graced the the presence of some fine young artists from John leggott College, as part of Takeover Week, North Lincolnshire. We wrote a blog post about it, here.

We've since had some feedback from some of the students who took part on the day.

Laura Chafer:

Our takeover day at 2021 visual arts centre was a very interesting and useful experience. We started the day with a short presentation from a current working artist from the local area, Jo Smith, who showed us images of her work and explained some of the ideas and inspiration behind her projects. We were also joined by Hayley McPhun, who gave us some interesting tips and ideas about applying to university and which courses we might find interesting. We also had a discussion about career options within the creative arts and how both Jo and Hayley got where they are today.

Next, we presented our work to the rest of the group. We each chose two of our themes to talk about and showed our ideas and starting points, what work we had created and some artists that have inspired us. The feedback from the presentations was very useful as we were given feedback, constructive criticism and ideas for future development from Jo Smith, Hayley McPhun and the other students on the course.

In my presentation I talked about my projects on ‘Deconstruct’ and ‘Space’. In my Space theme, I decided to explore the idea that people’s perception of space may become distorted if they have a mental illness. To show this, I created several wire men and placed one inside a mirrored box to emphasise that this may make him feel trapped and distorted, and separated from the ‘normal’ world.

 

http://laurachafer.deviantart.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laura-art/

Karolina Koston:

For the takeover week I have visited the 2021 gallery in Scunthorpe. Due to the brief of the course I am studying at John Leggott College I was required to get a professional critique. I have presented pieces that in my opinion are the strongest out of the work that I have produced since September. The feedback I received was very useful when it came to decision making on my final pieces for this term. The work I have stuck by was for the theme of 'Self', this and my other works can be viewed on following blogs:

 

http://www.tumblr.com/blog/karolinakostonphotography

http://www.pinterest.com/kokokaro/

 

A big thank you to everyone who came along. We look forward to seeing you all in the future!

TAKEOVER 20-21 2013

It's been that time of year again! The Children's Commissioner encourages the country to get involved in Takeover Day, an opportunity for children and young people to have their say on services and issues that affect them.

Here in North Lincolnshire, we like to step it up a few notches! The Participation Team for North Lincolnshire Council run Takeover for an entire week, meaning young people are able to take advantage of a truly engaging experience in companies, agencies and offices across the area.

You may remember last year, that 20-21 had some John Leggott College A Level students come in for a few days and take part in feedback sessions and helped us shape our offer for young people in the future. Click here for a write-up of last year's events.

The same opportunity was opened again this year, but with an offer developed around feedback from last year's event.

John Leggott's Art and Design Foundation students came along to have a review of their current practice, looking back at successful projects. To enrich the experience for the students, our Education Officer Hayley McPhun and Jo Smith were invited along to speak about their current practice, how they came to work in the arts and to help offer a professional critique of their work. Jo is a recent graduate who has had a huge amount of success achieving solo exhibitions and scholarships. Jo exhibited her critically acclaimed solo show "Two Brothers, Three Sisters, A Mouse and Some Unfortunate Birds" at 20-21 in 2013.

The students delivered a 10 minute presentation of their work, which was then critiqued by their peers and the professional arts workers. We saw some truly impressive pieces and were introduced to some new methods of working.

North Lindsey College Art and Design students also came along for a critique of their work. We discussed their hopes for future education choices and where they would like to go to university. North Lindsey had our Audience Engagement Officer, Joy Buckley and dressmaker and designer Lucy Markham to provide a professional arts perspective of the work they were seeing. North Lindsey students ranged from across the entire art and design cohort, meaning there was a vast variety of working styles and interests, which was a great thing to see.

Both college groups fed back that they had a really interesting experience and that the day's events were greatly appreciative of some professional feedback about their current practice. John Leggot also run a blog, where they've spoken about their experience and featured some images of our input into Takeover Week. Take a look at what they say, by clicking here.

To find out more about how 20-21 can accommodate your college students, please don't hesitate to contact us on 01724 297070 or email education.2021@northlincs.gov.uk

Helen Snell gives an Artist Talk

We had the delight of welcoming a group of John Leggott's Foundation students to the galleries today. The group were being introduced to the various cultural spots around North Lincolnshire, and we were one of them!

Education at 20-21 thought it would be a great opportunity for the students to meet one of our exhibiting artists and luckily, Helen Snell has been on site for the last few days, installing her beautiful exhibition Burnt Out.

Helen very kindly took some time out to speak with the students about her practice, the artwork being installed and how she came to become an artist. Students asked questions and got to handle some very delicate and beautiful artworks.

This short and impromptu artist's talk is a great example of how flexible and spontaneous our Education Officer and staff can be in the gallery. Artist talks and tours are something that 20-21 already offer to schools and colleges as part of our Education Offer.


Helen Snell is delivering a paper sculpting workshop on Saturday 5th October, in our education room, by way of celebrating the opening of her much anticipated and highly ambitious Burnt Out exhibition. For a mere £25 you will work with a prolific and well known artist, be inspired by her intricate and beautiful artwork and go home with your own paper sculpture.

To book your place, please call 01724 297070, places are limited.

TAKEOVER 20-21

It's TAKEOVER DAY today! A day where children and young people across the country get to have their say on issues and services that affect them and their future.

Here, in North Lincolnshire we're lucky enough to have Takeover run as a week long event, for young people to get the maximum experience out of the opportunity.

20-21 were really keen to be involved in such an exciting week, so asked art students from John Leggott College and North Lindsey College, to come along to our centre to help us think of new ways to bring young people into the centre, and encourage students to use our facilities in their studies.

Biffy and Aiden, wrote a report about the sorts of things they got up to and what they think to 20-21. Below, is their article and a few photos taken during their time here:

During takeover week we have had discussions about the progress of 2021 Visual Arts Centre and how it could be improved to accommodate for teenagers. The ideas that we came up with were student open, competitions/fundraisers for charity, photography and fashion exhibitions and more publicised workshops.

On the first day we discussed the ideas above and how we would improve the amount of visitors to the centre. A variety of problems such as publicity of the centre and its location mean that the general public are unaware of its presence. The need for convenience means that the centre is not an ideal place for people to congregate and it is hidden by the library. We suggested that ‘posts’ could be placed in front of the library and at the bus station in order to draw attention to what the centre has on offer.



First impressions of 20-21

Why people maybe don't come to the gallery

An idea to drive forward?

Ideas for targeting young people

Activities and events suitable for young people

Pros and cons

 The second day was more practical as we worked in a team to create a Christmas tree out of cardboard and general craft materials.

Tomorrow we plan to present our findings in ‘The Great Debate’ to other young people. We would like to inform people of our opinions that will hopefully make the 2021 Centre more successful as it is an important part of our community. Offering expressive freedom to the general public, from children to adults 2021 enables community integration but also the ability to explore thoughts and ideas.

The atmosphere at 2021 is relaxed and professional which allows for comfortable viewing of exhibitions (of contemporary artists), which are refreshed every few months to maintain public intrigue/interest.

The students Christmas tree is on loan to the stand at Great Debate, before coming back to 20-21 to be included in our Winter Wonderland exhibition, alongside some prestigious local artists.

The staff at 20-21 really value the input of our group of Takeover students, and were suitably impressed with some of their creative talent! We are looking to develop a few of the key points raised during their time with us. If you are interested in being a part of the student focus group, or have any ideas for the name of the group, please get in touch with our Education Officer, Hayley McPhun: hayley.mcphun@northlincs.gov.uk