03/02/2010 by James.

Things are busy again at the moment, with artists selected for the new Kingston-Upon-Thames 5×5x5=creativity cluster, and a professional development day happening with them and the schools on Friday.

I’m also in the process of setting up the Stonehenge Young People’s Panel with English Heritage, and have got an Art & Identity project next week with a secondary school in Highworth, so will add info and images from those as things develop.

Meanwhile, I’ve been grabbing calm moments to get out and see what’s happening. The light is changing now, I can feel Spring in the air and the bulbs are pushing slowly up out of the frozen soil.

I was up on a hill near us the other day, getting my dose of clear cool air and wide open space above the Vale of Pewsey.

The ground was frozen solid, and in the woods that cling to the side of the hill, the cold had frozen the most beautiful patterns into puddles and footprints in the once wet, sloppy mud, now frozen so hard that wet chalk grew stems of ice crystals and the imprints of raindrops that had fallen a day or two before, had been captured like miniature spiky, volcanic landscapes.

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14/12/2009 by James.

An opportunity for artists to join the new 5×5x5 cluster in Kingston… 

London Paid (£40k-50k pro rata) Part time Artform: combined arts, dance, music, theatre, visual arts   Contact: Penny Hay penny@5×5x5creativity.org.uk

Description

5×5x5=creativity in Kingston: call for artists (12 days work Feb - June 2010)

5×5x5=creativity is an action research organisation dedicated to supporting children and young people in their exploration and expression of creative ideas. Starting in February 2010, we are looking for five artists to work with five educational settings in Kingston in collaboration with five cultural centres. The project aims to demonstrate ways in which creativity can be fostered in all children and fire their interest in learning, will explore ways in which boys can be involved in, motivated by and succeed in their learning environments, influence educational practice by establishing creativity as an essential foundation of learning, produce research to demonstrate the value of creative enquiry, relationships and environments in helping children develop as confident, creative thinkers, and share the research findings as widely as possible, creating a legacy for the future and to provide integrated training and mentoring for participating teachers, artists and schools, including opportunities to collaborate.

Artists will be invited to apply for the project through Arts Council England and London Schools Arts Service. Artists will be paid for the equivalent of 12 days @ £200 per day. Artists will be responsible for their own national insurance and tax. All artists will need to be police checked.

Schedule
Selected applicants will be interviewed on Thursday 28 January 2010 at King Athelstan Primary School
First meeting with settings will be on 5 February 2010 at King Athelstan Primary School
Placements will run from February – June 2010.  Artists will work in settings for the equivalent of 10 days and will be involved in professional development and reflection for the equivalent of 2 days.  All participants will have access to and the support of a mentor.

Applications
Send a CV, images of work and a statement of your interest in this project to:

Penny Hay, Director of Research
5×5x5=creativity
PO Box 3236
Chippenham  SN15 9DE
penny@5×5x5creativity.org

Closing date: 31 December 2009

For a full description please download from our website: www.5×5x5creativity.org.uk

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09/12/2009 by James.

I went in to the studio today to have a bit of a blitz… to clear out old images on the walls and generally de-clutter. I wanted to clear the space and clear my mind and to focus on what’s really important in my work.

But that’s just the point, when I start to think about it I know what’s important to me in terms of my focus and my values, but its not all that easy to work out if/how that comes across to others.

I can know that my participatory work supports people to explore themselves and their environment creatively, because I’m there with them, I get the feedback and I can get involved in the evaluation. And I know that this work feeds me, that I learn about how people can use art to learn in creative and ‘joined-up’ ways.

BUT… when I make more individual work, how do I or any other artist for that matter, know what effect it has on anyone else, unless you are actually there with them?

I had an interesting conversation with one of my 5×5x5=creativity colleagues yesterday, about the relationship of participatory and individual practice. In some ways it worries me that my work on projects such as 5×5x5 is focused on the importance of the creative process, and yet the next day I might be in my studio making a wall-based piece for exhibition, that I will leave and walk away and never really know if it is having any positive impact.

And yet, I reassured myself today that its okay, because, as I wrote in my sketchbook…

the artwork acts as an indicator of the level of personal/environmental awareness, whilst the process of exploring that leads to and informs the creation of the artwork supports the development of such an integrated awareness of self & environment.

The artefact is the evidence of the process and of its effects on the perception of the individual (me).

The creation of the artwork also further supports a sensory exploration of the world in a more focused way, and (if made in the right way) can act as a conduit for the flow of life energy, through the senses, through the individual and into the artwork.

So, as I came to realise after clearing the clutter, and (s)crawling across a rolled out sheet of paper to get my ideas ‘out-there’, how the different areas of my practice link up and relate to each other…

I am researching culturally influenced perception  (its impact on our learning, our behaviour and the ecosystems on which we depend), and its relationship to more direct, individual, sensory engagement. My resulting work supports the development of greater understanding of the relationship between the two, and the gap between them.

I am breaking down the perceptual barriers to direct engagement with ‘the one’ and ‘the now’… my research and my explorations inform my own understanding, which in turn supports my work’s ability to engage with its audience.

In other words I don’t need to make someone feel anything or think anything specific. I just need to provide the audience of my work, whether object based or participatory, access to a place where they can engage with the stuff of the world, and the issues that I am interested in, and allow them to gain from that experience in whatever way they need to at that point in time, as part of their own learning journey.

…Phew!

(by the way, the scruffy dog at the top is Moshi, who often accompanies me on my adventures, and was patient enough to wait in my studio, so I thought I’d include her too.)

Since writing this post I came across the following article on twitter (via @dryearth) which looks at the experience of the artwork by the artist/ audience, and the context within which the work is created/experienced -

Situated Cognition, Dynamic Systems, and Art: On Artistic Creativity and Aesthetic Experience - Ingar Brinck

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01/12/2009 by James.

I was in Kingston yesterday for 5×5x5=creativity, talking with a group of heads, teachers, and early years practitioners about creative learning and the inclusion of boys.

Its a tricky path to follow, providing for the needs of boys, without putting them into a box, and reinforcing any stereotypical ways of seeing and working with them. I know I didn’t enjoy my time at a traditional boys school and didn’t respond to the emphasis on outdoor sports and the controlling  almost dictatorial approach followed by some of the teachers. But there is research to suggest that a lot of boys do learn best through a more active full-bodied approach, and greater access to the outdoors.

My take on things is that if statistically more boys are seen to be ‘failing’ or not achieving what’s expected of them, then we’re doing something wrong, and that we’re probably doing something wrong for all children, not just the boys, but maybe (statistically speaking) the girls are more able to cope with a tradition of top-down, crowd-control, teaching methods.

Are we planning experiences for boys that build on their interests and value their strengths as active learners and problem solvers, or are we simply expecting them to be compliant, passive recipients of new skills and knowledge?

Confident, capable and creative: supporting boys achievements - DCSF

Now to me you could swap the ‘boys’ to ‘children’ and it would be even more pertinent - the reason children ‘fail’ is because our education system fails them.

I’m not a teacher, I am an artist and a creative learning consultant. I have loads of respect for teachers and learn from them each time I work with them. I am excited by the way in which I can work in partnership with educators and children, we can learn from each other, and by allowing the child to take the lead, they can show us how to work with them, where to work with them, and what they need to succeed.

But the difficulty is how to support teachers to put into practice this kind of creative, child-initiated approach when they are given so many hoops to jump through and class sizes that seriously inhibit opportunities for 1 to 1 contact with and observation of, individual children.

If each and every child was given the opportunity to learn in a way which is relevant to their needs and interests, through valuing and working with their own innate creativity, and if every child was encouraged to explore their local environment through their bodies and imaginations, then how can anyone fail - and why would we even need to teach or learn in specific ways according to gender?

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25/11/2009 by James.

Its been a while since I got chance to get back on here and share what I’ve been up to.

First of all I went to the Brecon Beacons for a few days of space, air, and mountain views, a beautiful area just along the M4 and up a bit, gorgeous!

It was great to be amongst the last of the Autumn colour, to be out walking and watching Red Kites, and come to a log fire. Here’s a photograph I took of the reflections on the canal near where we were staying, this reflected view for me gives the woods a much deeper, darker, mysterious, almost primeval quality, like a fairytale wood of dreams and stories.

Since then I’ve been busy with the Stonehenge Young People’s Consultation Project again for English Heritage, and have set up a blog for the participants. As soon as that is made public I’ll be sure to put the details up on here.

So far I’ve worked Years 5, 7, and 10, looking at designing the interior of the new education space,  creating a booklet for Geography students on the changing visitor experience past and future, and developing ideas for new face-to-face tours and workshops for Travel and Tourism students.

So its been a case of taking time to explore the monument and its surrounding landscape as it is now and then using discussion, drawing, writing and other creative ways to help everyone share their ideas for the future visitor centre. Here’s a couple of before and after shots of the changes planned for the area immediately around the monument.

This last week I was staying and working up in Lancaster alongside children and staff at the University’s Pre-School Centre. We were using different media to encourage the children to explore and learn from their interaction with the outdoors, whilst supporting the staff to develop their own skills in facilitating child-initiated learning.

We used mark-making materials, clay, natural objects, and a variety of recycled objects to explore shape, pattern, space, height, letter, numbers, and whatever else the children were interested in.

And finally, for today at least, I’m off to Kingston on Monday to run a professional development session with the new 5×5x5=creativity research cluster there. Its aimed at Pre and Primary School educators and will focus on Creativity and Inclusion, concentrating on supporting boys to learn creatively, especially in the outdoors.

So its busy at the moment, which is great, and its all connected and all so relevant to my practice, which is even better!

All I need now is a little time to get back in the studio and make some new artwork…

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23/10/2009 by James.

At the moment I’m working on a range of different creative learning initiatives and as always, and pondering the links between them all.

Firstly I’m consulting with children and young people in creative ways for English Heritage, using site visits, writing, and making to develop interpretation and learning materials for visitors to Stonehenge.

Through my ongoing work with Salisbury Museum, we are running a session at a MLA event next, a seminar exploring child-centred learning and working with extended schools.

Additionally I’m waiting to hear whether I’ll be working with a Primary school with an outdoors focus for 5×5x5=-creativity next year, or a special school.

And to top this all off I am sharing my own learning through individual pieces of evaluation for art in education projects and professional development for early years practitioners, on the value of creative and child-led approaches to learning.

Now individually, all of this work is inspiring and challenging, but looked at together its the cross-sector links and the bigger picture that I find fascinating.

As extended schools services seek to connect schools with families and communities, and Museums look to work in more responsive ways with those families, and early years settings seek to build on the new EYFS and embed creative learning practices within them, I feel a lot more positive for the future.

To use an already over-used phrase, this kind of joined-up thinking - of valuing the individual child (and parent) whilst holding an awareness of the bigger picture of family and community - can only benefit our children as they learn and develop their own world-views. Children that learn in ways appropriate to their own needs and interests, within the context of their local environment (natural/cultural/social) develop in confidence, self-esteem, empathy, respect for difference, and with a greater awareness of their role within, and impact on that environment.

If we are to develop sustainable ways of being within our ecosystems and societies for the future, then for me the way that we learn is key.

We need to invest in and promote ways of learning that are creative (and recognise each of us as innately so) and which support each child to explore, reflect on, and re-interpret their natural and cultural heritage.

‘The potential for every child is stunted if the endpoint of learning is formulated in advance’                                                                                                                       Carlina Rinaldi

Children live through their sense. Sensory experiences link the child’s exterior world with their interior, hidden affective world… Individual children test themselves by interacting with their environment, activating their potential and reconstructing human culture.’                                                                                                                              Robin Moore

Images from Connect & Create Project with Salisbury Museum

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07/08/2009 by James.

I am continuing to read Conversation Pieces by Grant Kester at the moment (Uni of California Press), excited by the language and the confidence that the writing gives me to further develop and share my ideas on socially engaged practice.

I have been exploring recently (see the last post) how I can better articulate the relationship between art and learning and continue my research in the role of the arts within education.

Kester brings together examples of projects and theories that begin to provide a structure for holding and presenting such dialogical work and the research surrounding it.

Although the work that I am part of through 5×5x5=creativity is generally framed as a creative learning/educational project in which artists play the role of facilitators, I see no reason why it shouldn’t also be framed and shared as a series of socially engaged, dialogical artworks which take place within an educational context.

My art has never been about having the right answer, or claiming to know a truth that needs to be represented and shared, it has always sought to set up some kind of exchange and dialogue.

What Conversation Pieces does is to allow me to continue to construct a ‘home’ for my practice, a base from which to go back ‘out there’ and keep practicing as an artist who is fascinated by the potential for positive environmental and social change that comes from embedding dialogical arts practice within educational and community contexts.

‘In dialogical practice the artist, whose perceptions are informed by his or her own training, past projects and lived experience, comes into a given site or community characterized by its own unique constellation of social and economic forces, personalities and traditions. In the exchange that follows, both the artist and his/her collaborators will have their existing perceptions challenged…What emerges is a new set of insights, generated at the intersection of both perspectives and catalyzed through the collaborative production of a given project.’

Grant Kester

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04/08/2009 by James.

I ran my first session on the postgrad participatory arts & media course yesterday at UWE in Bristol. I was facilitating a group session around artists working in pre-school and primary education, called The Art of Learning.

I am fascinated at the parallels between creative teaching/learning practice and my own practice as an artist exploring the perceptual relationship between individuals and their immediate environment. I am excited at the idea of the artist’s creative process and the pupils creative learning journey echoing and informing each other.

Is art the documentation of an artist’s creative learning journey? Are children’s experiences of education as inspiring and adventurous as my own journey as I explore the world around me through my own creative practice? And if not, why not, when the reasearch shows the immense value of ways of learning that are centred around children’s needs, interests and innate creativity.

Through the various areas of my practice as an artist - individual, participatory, consultative - I am growing more and more to realise that the process that artists follow shouldn’t be a luxury, a thing confined to the artworld, it should be embedded within our society and our education system, supporting everyone to fulfill their creative potential in whatever area is appropriate to them.

Maybe that way we could evolve into a society that respects and values difference, and make use of what we have been given rather than striving to be something else, denying our true nature and blinding ourselves to the systems of which we are part.

 ’Ordinarily we aim for a literal picture of the world, but in fact we create a world according to our mode of participation, and we create ourselves accordingly. If we think in our present way, we will create the kind of world that we have created. If we think in another way, we might create a different world, and different people as well. Only the two together can change.’ 

David Bohm, ‘On Creativity’

(new work in progress)

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11/05/2009 by James.

A brief mention of a conference set up in partnership with 5×5x5=creativity. Follow the link at the bottom for more info.

Creativity and Culture The future of learning

Including Presentations by:

For more information download an application pack:

http://www.theatreroyal.org.uk/education/education-conferences

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24/11/2008 by James.

The online exhibition based on this year’s research, is now available to view on the 5×5x5=creativity website.

Please follow the link below, to view snapshots of the work carried out by myself with Pitton Pre-School and Salisbury Arts Centre, and some of the other settings involved in the 5×5x5=creativity creative learning research project, 2008.

Information and images from more of the settings involved will be following in the next couple of weeks…

http://www.5×5x5creativity.org.uk/?id=131

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