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PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP, CAMERAWORK, LONDONA two-day introduction to black and white photography for adults. By the end of the course, participants had processed a black and white film and made some prints from it.
CRAFT WORKSHOPS IN SHOPPING CENTRES
Drop-in sessions in local shopping centres, where children would sit with their parents and make something to take home with them. Activities included kite-making, mask-making and making cards.
EXPERIMENTAL PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP, BOXMOOR ARTS CENTRE, HEMEL HEMPSTED
A week-long workshop for kids ranging from 8-16. By the end of the course, the participants had made their own pinhole camera, taken photographs using disposable cameras and made black and white prints. They had also experimented with a range of cameraless photographic techniques such as rayograms and sun pictures. The week ended with an exhibition of their work.
SALT DOUGH WORKSHOP AT GRANGE MUSEUM, NEASDEN, LONDON
A 2-hour family learning workshop which facilitated parents helping their children to respond to an object from the museum and make it out of salt dough.
PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP, JAGONARI CENTRE, LONDON
A photography project with girls between the ages of 13-16, conducted with a colleague. We aimed to respond to the needs of the girls in a fluid way, while introducing some basic photographic techniques. At the end, all girls had used a camera and scanner; one girl went on to make a quilt for her new child using transfers of photographs she had taken as part of the project.
ARTISTS ACCESS TO ART COLLEGES SCHEME, HOSTED BY UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE
A residency which gave me 100 hours access to the college’s facilities and a small materials budget. In exchange, I chatted to students about my work and being an artist. There was an exhibition at the end to publicise the work produced on the scheme.
ART WORKSHOP AT MILE END PARK FOR NATIONAL PLAYDAY
A 4-hour drop in workshop for local children at the launch of a new playground. At the end of the session participants had used pens, paints and stickers to decorate a paper hand, which we used to construct a large tree mural.
SIGN FOR SPITALFIELDS CITY FARM, LONDON
A project, in conjunction with the children users of the farm, to design a new outdoor sign. A drawing session was held at one of the playschemes which encouraged children to draw animals, which I then translated into wooden cutout figures. I then worked with corporate volunteers to paint the sign.
STUDIO ARTIST AT OXFORD HOUSE, LONDON
A residency at Oxford House, where I was involved with various activities including community projects, exhibitions and projected Film Sunsets as part of the launch of the ‘oh! art is out there’ season.
WORKSHOPS AT ST AUGUSTINE’S TOWER, HACKNEY
Organised and ran a series of six workshops, aimed at children and their parents, at St Augustine’s Tower to accompany a site-specific art exhibition. Children made work in the building which related to both work in the show and the site itself, using techniques that the artists used to create their artwork: photography, drawing and sculpture.
FAMILY LEARNING EVALUATION PROJECT
I was involved with a pilot project to explore alternative ways of evaluating family learning sessions in arts and crafts. Rather than filling in a questionnaire, children and their parents who had attended a course together, attended a mini-course which encouraged them to present their results, experiences and feelings in less formal ways. Participants used video cameras, pens and paper to answer questions and make a display about their learning – using visual and oral, as well as written ways, of evaluating the course.
WORKSHOPS AT BARBICAN
In conjunction with Barbican education and the Wellcome Trust, I organised and ran a series of practical workshops to accompany the Helen Chadwick site-specific ‘Blood Hyphen’ in Woodbridge Chapel, Clerkenwell (to complement the major retrospective exhibition at the Barbican Gallery). People of all ages made their own artwork, responding to Chadwick’s piece and engaging with the idea of creation within science and art. Activities were held in the former medical mission rooms, which encouraged participants to consider how their location affected the work they were making.
‘PICTURE THIS’ WORKSHOP
As part of the Summer University programme at a local college, East Side Education Trust commissioned me to plan and deliver a week-long art course for teenagers exploring photography, drawing and mixed media. Participants chose how to define themselves in terms of their character, interests and appearance and directed other group members to take their photograph. They also drew and painted each other. All the source material was collected and towards the end of the course, the young people worked on mixed media self-portraits combining techniques, poses and compositions explored earlier in the week. These were exhibited in a mini-exhibition to which family and friends were invited to celebrate what they had achieved over the week.
STORYTELLING EVENT AT ST AUGUSTINE’S TOWER, HACKNEY
As a follow-up project in the tower, I organised and delivered a four day art and storytelling event which was funded by Hackney Council. Local residents were invited into the tower to explore the building and to contribute drawings and stories. An accompanying education sheet was produced to suggest ideas and ways in which the project could be extended, and to open up the project to include a wider audience. Stories collected were placed on a dedicated website which aims to build up a picture of the tower and its surroundings from a number of different perspectives by gathering the experiences of the local community. A small selection of the stories collected are online and these will be added to as the project grows.
TEEN MUM PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT AT SURESTART, BATTERSEA
A project co-run by a colleague, Eileen Perrier, to accompany an exhibition at the Pump House Gallery. During a weekly drop-in support session for teen mums, we ran an informal six-week photography project engaging with ideas of identity and intimacy. Each week a new technique was explored and by the end, participants had worked with digital cameras on informal and studio portraits of their children and each other, had visited an exhibition and, using iron-on transfers, had produced a pillowcase featuring mementoes of their child. Work was exhibited in a showcase at the Pump House Gallery at the end of the project.
A two-day project as part of the Family Learning Summer Programme at Pump House Gallery. Children aged 5-10 and their parents brought along their favourite soft-toys for an intensive session exploring drawing, mark-making and painting in order to paint their portrait. Participants were encouraged to look at the current exhibition as well as examples from Art History and consider how composition, framing, background, colours and props were used to give clues about the person being painted. Both adults and children enjoyed the workshop which built towards each member of the group producing their own large-scale final piece on canvas. The event culminated in a 'teddy bear's picnic' surrounded by all the masterpieces we had created.
YEAR 5 CREATIVE PARTNERSHIPS PROJECT AT HORSENDEN PRIMARY SCHOOL
Working with a colleague and the Head of Year 5, this photography project with Year 5 has been funded by the Creative Partnerships Programme. We worked with 100 ten-year old pupils and their teachers, exploring many techniques from digital photography, through sun-pictures, to traditional black-and-white photographic developing. The ultimate aim was to produce a large-scale artwork to be displayed on the outside of this new-build school building. Children were involved in deciding on 'important' members of their school to be photographed, setting up a photographic studio, working with high-end digital cameras to take the portraits and digitally overlaying them using manipulation software. The work was completed and installed in 2007.
EVOLVING CREATURES WORKSHOP AT ST IGNATIUS PRIMARY SCHOOL
A workshop run with Year 2 as part of a school 'Art Day'. Children worked in pairs to make sculptures based on an animal type (e.g. mammal, mollusc). Periodically, each pair would draw a card giving an instruction and they would have to evolve their creature (e.g. 'your creature learns to fly - add wings'). Every now and again a major catastrophic card would be drawn causing a dramatic change (e.g. 'a major environmental change happens - drop your creature from a great height') and a major rethink of what they were making. This process based approach, designed to reflect evolutionary processes, encouraged children to work in an responsive/adaptive way and not be too fixed on a finished 'outcome', giving an insight into creative thinking.
KITE MAKING AT 'THE SHIMMY' EVENT, WANDSWORTH ARTS FESTIVAL
A one-day project at Pump House Gallery, working with year 12 and 13 pupils from a local school to explore their visions of a Future State. To accompany the 'Artistas de Vangardia' exhibition in the gallery, participants were encouraged to form 'government departments' in charge of health, education, crime, entertainment, transport and commerce. After discussing policy, they set to work on a large-scale model of their new state which was laid out outside the gallery.
As part of Pump House's exhibition timed to coincide with the expiry of the last batch of Polaroid film, I ran this 3 day workshop for kids. Taking inspiration from artists featured in the show, participants were introduced to techniques using Polaroid cameras and Pogo Printers their modern digital successors. By the end of the session, participants had all made work using some of the precious last polaroid packs - many for the first, and last, time.