Everyday Objects with Brumby Juniors!

As an ongoing project with Brumby Junior School, Education at 20-21 delivered an Everyday Objects workshop to year six's as part of the school's creative curriculum.

Mrs Musgrave was inspired by Jason Taylor's Everyday Objects exhibition, here at 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, and decided that her offer for the school's creative summer term would be for the children to get involved with recycling household objects into artwork!

We started by looking at some of the examples the pupils had made in the lead-up to our workshop:


Some really fun house plants made of household objects!

This one made us particularly hungry! A sports ball, crayons and packaging becomes a delicious hearty meal!

This crazed looking doll has mechanics that mean the head wobbles about all over the place!

The workshop set many timed challenges for the children to think outside the box, quickly. The class were split into groups of three and were expected to use their initiative and observational skills to recreate objects displayed. The workshop leader would hold up unusual objects for a matter of seconds. The children were expected to gather the correct materials and notice methods and patterns in the makings of the objects, before working as a team to recreate them.



The 20-21 Junk Shop

First up,  the Peg Bowl, a temporary small structure that followed patterns, repetition and direction:

Notice how the pegs are added in rows of colour/pattern and then another row of a different style/colour pegs is added in a particular direction. The bowls should stand sturdy on their own. Let's see how the children fared up!

An interesting example of pattern and repetition!

A proud group.



All children were asked to write words or phrases that came to mind when making all their objects, throughout the session. This was a good way of recording thinking process and decision making.

Starting again after realising it would topple over.

Working well as a team!

Some groups were more successful than others, noticing the patterns of colour and repetition. The outcomes were all beautiful and reminded us of lots of different things, including tarantulas and space ships.

Next up, The Straw Leaved Clover!  Thinking along the lines of Jason Taylor's humour regards titles for his objects, our Education Officer used straws and wire to create this "interesting" clover:



Children were shown this masterful piece for a few seconds, before fetching the objects they thought they'd need.

This group kept their straws straight and threaded the wire through in attempt to shape the leaf.

This group designed a very intriguing method of cutting along the length of the straws and flattening the curve of the plastic. This was then wrapped and tied together to form the shape of the leaves.

This group were nick named The Engineers after deciphering a very intricate and complex method to curve the straws... cutting them into small sections, but leaving the very end the keep them all joined together.

The Engineers, with their very successful Straw Leaved Clover!

Once all groups were complete, they were chosen to display and discuss their method of working as a team and the decisions they made as designers, to create their Straw Leaved Clover.

After a tidying up operation, the final creation session was for the pupils to work independently to create Flyer Flowers!

 

These fab creations were made using simple folding and stapling techniques to make some interesting geometric shapes.

Armed with a stack of old flyers from 20-21's archives, and a stapler filled with staples, the class created some truly lovely and greatly successful Flyer Flowers!

 

 

 

 

The highlight of the day was watching the class work together and notice the properties of various household objects. Some of the children really thought things through and recognised qualities in objects and each other, that they'd never seen before.

 

 

Thank you Brumby Juniors! we'll see on 12th at your sharing day!!

 

Creative Curriculum at Brumby Juniors!

A few weeks ago, we blogged about Brumby Juniors using our workshops and exhibitions as starting blocks for their creative curriculum for the summer term. Last week, our Education Officer went into the school to deliver a session on making puppets for Mrs Pitois' shadow puppet performance at the end of term.

Children have chosen to work on two stories. One story being that of the football game that took place on the front line of the secod world war. What imagery this conjurs up! This group are making lines of soldiers that march along to soundscapes of the world war, with air raid sirens and gun fire.

The other story is one of a woman and a flying head. The flying head tries to eat the woman during a trip gathering crops in the local forest. The woman spites the flying head after several failed attempts to defeat him, by cooking a hot stone and throwing it into his mouth. The children made some beautiful birds on sticks, that, as a result of our workshop are now flying birds, because we attached hinges for moveable wings.
One table of pupils worked especially hard to create a very large flying head, with a moveable jaw. The detailing was excellent!

All in all, it was great to be a part of Mrs Pitois' creative curriculum and to introduce shadow puppetry to some very interested pupils! No photos appear, because we have been kindly invited to the showcase day, at which we hope to take lots of photos and post them on our blog.

We are revisiting the school, this week, and are going to Mrs Musgrave's class who are studying Everyday Objects and recycling in art, as their theme. This class used Sharmanka and Jason Taylor as their starting point during a Self-Guided visit.

Stay tuned for most posts about how we are working with Brumby Juniors to enhance their creative curriculum, and for pictures of the beautiful work they're making!

Burton Primary become Andy Warhol!

Sometimes we get some really interesting requests for workshops, here at 20-21; so when Burton Primary School called with a request for a POP ART themed workshop based around Andy Warhol, we were really excited!

Andy Warhol is one of the most famous artists in the world, whose work continues to inspire creatives, today. His work is instantly recognisable and infiltrates the world of art, fashion and music. Some of the most iconic images and portraits in art were created by Andy Warhol. We used some of these images in our workshop with Burton Primary, last week:


Many of the children already knew who this lady was because of their studies of America, back in school. We spoke about how often we see this sort of portrait of Marilyn Monroe and how famous it is.

Some children thought this was Harry Potter, then insisted it was Daniel Radcliffe!
Our Education Officer explained who this man is and why Warhol may have made this portrait of John Lennon, given his fame at the time.
We spoke about the colours and lines in this picture.

This photo has been brought to people's attention recently, because of a lawsuit between Apple and the band The Velvet Underground. We spoke about how this image is easily recognised as Andy Warhol's work, even if it didn't say his name at the bottom.

It is said that Warhol was a sickly child, whose mother believed that soup would help make him better. The artist became known for recreating these soup can pictures, which soon became one of the most famous images of the pop-art movement.
We spoke about repetition and popular culture when looking at this picture.

Andy Warhol's artwork became so sought after and in high demand, that he opened an art studio called "The Factory", in which he employed many people to create some of the artworks for him. Warhol would surround himself with famous icons and celebrities, whom he would become obsessed with and recreate their images over and over again. He believed that by recreating someone's portrait repeatedly, he was helping to keep them alive, even after they whad died.
We focused themes of repetition, popular culture, colour, line and portraits throughout our Burton Primary workshop, last week. Ensuring that children understood what Warhol's aims were with over saturating the market with repetitive images and iconography.

In an attempt to replicate The Factory, we chose a wall to be our inspiration wall, and filled it with blu-tak. Children were given 20 seconds to draw something they associated with American popular culture and stick it on the wall. Then they were given 20 seconds to write a word they associated with Andy Warhol and stick it to the wall. 20 seconds more and the children had to draw something they associated with pop-art and stick it on the wall. We quickly filled our inspiration wall with all the things we talked about during the morning:

We told the pupils that Andy Warhol coined the term "super star" and that he thought everyone in the world would have their 15 minutes of fame.

Using some of the terminology we learned during the morning, we went to look at an exhibition in 20-21 Visual Arts Centre. Jason Carlisle's portraits, hold similar themes to Andy Warhol's work; repetition, line, colour and portraits.

Children were asked to fill in a worksheet to remind us of the similarities and to get them thinking about the artwork, critically:

Worksheets to one side, we began making our pop-art inspired creations. The pupils measured out four 10cms by 10cms squares and swapped with people around their table to make sure everyone had lots of different colours to stick down:

The artwork was left to dry. After a well earned lunch break, we all sat and carefully drew a picture of the person to our left. The pupils turned out to be excellent observers and very creative at drawing!

The pictures were photocopied and features were cut to create simple jigsaw type portraits of our fellow artists. These jigsaws were used as stencils for screen printing our portriats! The colours we used were so bright and vibrant, we all had to wear sunglasses to look at them!!

It was such a delight to work with Burton Primary School and especially to deliver such an interesting topic! A big thank you to all our helpers and teachers on the day, who made sure everything ran smoothly! A bigger thank you to the Burton Primary pupils who were excellent artists in our Factory on the day!

Bottesford Juniors Shadow Puppets

On May 2nd, Bottesford Junior School graced us with their smiley faces, excellent behaviour and impecable creativity. We walked through the halls of 20-21 and asked lots of questions about the building, why it was made of stone and why there were angels in the roof. We waited patiently to be allowed into the great big black tent in the Nave Gallery, but once inside we witnessed a wonderful show of moving objects and magical music; Sharmanka Theatre Company's exhibition Gothic Kinetic.

After the show, we discussed what Gothic Kinetic meant, what the words suggested and what the artist was trying to tell us. Some children thought the show was "spooky but magical", others thought it was "very clever indeed!" The children filled out worksheets with questions specific to the exhibition, that encouraged them to think critically about the artwork they'd seen.

Back in the Education Room, children were split into four groups and handed story lines that made up some weird and wonderful stories about dragons, tomb raiders and brave knights! The children played around with lots of exciting materials and equipment which was used to create some marvellous shadow puppetry! Unfortunately, we had a technical hiccup with the overhead projector, which meant Education at 20-21 had to quickly find another light source! We improvised with a powerful lamp used by our technician. The children were so patient in waiting for us to amend the lighting issue, we were very impressed!

There were four very different shows that had some interesting characters in, including Lucy The Explorer and some characteristic dragons. The shows were performed to the rest of the class who became an active audience. The teacher filmed the performances on his iPad for all the children to use back at school.

Feedback from the children was all very positive, despite the technical issues, and they all had such a good time that they wrote us all letters to thank us for the fun they had! Some quotes below come from these letters:

"I had a great time at 20-21 visioun. I wish it could happen again."

"I also enjoyed the Sharmanka show, it is realy imperesive what you can do with old junk! The show has made me wonder and think about the story of Edward and I've gone home and started to study the life of Edward."

"I come to 20:21 quite alot and it's never been more fun."

"Yesterday was really really fun, it was my first time at 2021 and I thought it was amazing. One day I'm going to go with my family. It was the best school trip I have ever been on. With the light issue I thought you handled it very well."

One girl drew her own logo for letterheaded paper

A really lovely THANK YOU message accompanied by a butterfly

An excellent recreation of the shadow puppet scenes!

PHEW! It seems Education at 20-21 was successful again, despite technical issues! We'd like to thank Bottesford Junior School for sending such lovely heart-felt letters with such beautiful handwriting and spelling, too! It's the first time we've ever received thank you letters, and we are really glad to have inspired so many children.

Brumby Junior School's "Starting Point"

Brumby Junior School are highly innovative when it comes to creativity. Each summer term on a Friday afternoon every single teacher becomes an inspirational artist, guiding groups of children through an exciting journey of a creative project.

Children vote for which project they'd like to take part in and study it for the whole term, until the showcase event end the end of the school year.

The ignite interest and enthusiasm, Mrs Pitois brought her children in to 20-21 to take part in a shadow puppet workshop and witness the possibilities of lights and darks telling a narrative.

We visited the highly acclaimed Sharmanka exhibition "Gothic Kinetic", we discussed what the show was about and what the words "Gothic Kinetic" meant.

 

Back in the education room, we explored the aims of the artist and what materials Sharmanka used to create their work. Children filled in a worksheet that asked them questions about the artwork:

 

 

After being given some story elements, children worked in groups to write short stories about ghastly dragons or brave and bold explorers in ancient Egypt.

 

 

 

The group had excellent imaginations that were used very creatively for prop making and set designing of their shadow performances.

 

 

Mrs Pitois will be using ideas started at the workshop throughout her summer term's creative curriculum delivery. If you or your school need an inspirational starting point for any topic, get in touch for a chat about how Education at 20-21 can help; Hayley McPhun, Education Officer 01724 297074 or hayley.mcphun@northlincs.gov.uk 

Eastfield Primary Project

A few months ago Eastfield Primary School contacted Education at 20-21 to request a bespoke project that would up skill teaching staff and inspire them to confidently embed arts throughout the curriculum. In the past Eastfield have worked with local artist Wendy Chan, who was brought in to help develop and deliver the project. 

The whole school are studying Tomb Raiders, looking at Egyptians, ancient artifacts and the histories uncovered by great explorers. An engaging topic to incorporate the arts!

15 members of staff came along to a teacher training day that spilled out into the cafe area, and saw the teacher's make books, print illustrations and take part in shadow puppetry demonstrations.

In the morning the group split into two and were taught different book binds and print techniques and how they could be used in the Tomb Raider topic as well as throughout the curriculum. Once binds and techniques were mastered, the teachers halved once more and taught the other group their book binding technique. This meant that teachers had the chance to remind themselves how the book structures worked, as well as realise how it could be taught to others in the classroom.

Egyptian imagery adorns a flag bound book cover

Flag binds with monoprinted images

Recognising the varying levels of success in mono printing and realising what issues may have occurred.

Lots of cutting, sticking and chatting about how it can be adapted to suit different year groups.

Working with artist, Wendy Chan to create screen printed tote bags to carry their creations home.

Using a basic stencil technique, the screen prints came out really crisp and sharp.

The day was one of inspiration, realisation and creativity; giving teachers a chance to explore their topic through the arts. It was important for teachers to have a thinking space and see how these workshops can be carried on into the classroom. Below are some quotes directly from the teachers about the day's activities:

"I'm looking forward to working with the artists in school."
"I thoroughly enjoyed the day, would like to have more of them!"
"The delivery was very good, very informative and gave lots of inspiration and ideas"
"Fantastic and enthusiastic leaders running the workshops."
"Delivery was fun, entertaining and light hearted. The leaders instilled confidence!"

The Eastfield project is the first time 20-21 have run a school-wide project that up skills teachers to deliver arts confidently in the classroom. Later in the year, Wendy and Hayley will be delivering workshops in the school, to ensure further embedding of arts throughout the curriculum. Follow the project on this blog or for more information on how 20-21 can deliver a similar project in your school/college, please get in touch with our Education Officer, Hayley McPhun, on 01724 297074 or hayley.mcphun@northlincs.gov.uk