Results tagged “Ambassador Focus” from Culture & Creativity

Year One pupils at St. Aidan's C of E Primary School have been working with Cultural Partner Lapwing Crafts to creatively explore their farm topic.

In pairs, the children worked with ceramic artist Sally Danys to create a range of colourful farm animal tiles. These were fired and glazed by Sally, and returned to the school to make a stunning display.

Lapwing Crafts deliver workshops in a range of arts and crafts, including felt making, textile collage, hooky and proggy mat making, silk painting, mosaics and much more. For details visit the Lapwing Crafts website. Don't forget to tell your Network Coordinator about your creative activities (Caroline.pearce@newcastle.gov.uk if you are in Newcastle or Hannahmackay@gateshead.gov.uk if you are in Gateshead).

Bensham Grove Nursery School have recently visited Seven Stories, The Centre for Children's Books, for a special session with The Tiger Who Came To Tea. Here Cultural Ambassador Rose Davies reflects on the experience:

At Bensham Grove we ensure all children are offered a visit during the year before they go to primary school. The visits enhance the nursery curriculum by expanding children's experience. There is a special excitement about going on a coach and having a first packed lunch with nursery friends.   It is an important event which builds their self esteem.  We believe it is a key experience which helps prepare them for the transition to school the following September.  The first school trip is also a milestone for parents as they trust their children to the care of the nursery staff.

In preparation for the visit we read the story The tiger who came for tea to the children.  We didn't have duel language versions but we lent the children who speak English as an additional language a copy of the book to take home so that they could become more familiar with the story, translated into their home language by their parents.   In the home corner we set out the porcelain tea set and a soft toy tiger.

Kells Lane Primary School have been working with South African dance group, Caliber, as part of the Swallows Partnership. This forms part of a project linking artists and performers from Port Elizabeth, on the Eastern Cape of South Africa, with communities in North East England.

Fifty-eight Year 5 children worked with the dancers over two days. The dancers performed for the children which instantly engaged their interest, although their focus was on the children's creative expression. Teacher Paul McIntosh said, 'The dancers' enthusiasm was infectious and made the children feel like they could achieve anything, and gave the children lots of confidence and encouragement. I liked the fact that there was a team of dancers and that they worked with small groups of children rather than it being a class focus'.

The children were divided into girl and boy groups and worked with some of the dancers, who focused on the children's ideas and brought out their creativity. During the afternoon, the class put each of their dances together and created a final dance, followed by a question and answer session with the dancers. The dance was performed for a full audience of parents at the Spring Concert on Friday, alongside other year groups who have been focusing on various countries. These included the African drumming afterschool club, which has been led by Cultural Partner Arts Isiziba.

The children thought it was an amazing experience and enjoyed creating their own dances, with some of them commenting that it was the best thing they've been a part of in Year 5.

Susan Warlock, Artist in the Community has been delivering environmental art workshops at Bill Quay Primary School. Here Susan describes the project:

I had been asked to run a series of art workshops with Year 2 based loosely on the environment. For this first session I focused on introducing the children to land art, using two English artists; Andy Goldsworthy and Richard Long as inspiration.

The children enjoyed looking at the images I had brought as I explained to them how these two artists used natural materials such as wood, bark, grass, and stone to create often very temporary sculptures only leaving behind photographs of the work as a record.

I provided the children with a selection of natural materials including paper straws, wooden sticks and ceramic beads and they set about creating their own individual patterns. The class took to this task very well and made lots of beautiful and quite complex work. They made and remade their work and didn't mind that it was temporary as I assured them that I would take photographs of it as a permanent record.

Crossroads Care for Young Carers have been working with artist Ruth Gowland to create a felt wall hanging. Here's their report of the project: 

The group decided that the theme for our hanging would be based on caring (positive and negative aspects), 'helping hands' and the local area and environment.  Many hands went into this creation.  The felt was handmade from marino wool.  Each piece is different and an expression of the individuals creativity.  Much of our inspiration came from personal caring experiences, walking in the local countryside and discussing what it is like to be a carer from the viewpoint of being a young carer and from the parents who are 'cared for'. 

As we walked around our centre we saw Red Kites which became very inspirational for the group as a symbol of 'freedom'.  We saw rainbows and sunshine as a reflection of 'hope'. 

We decided to express some positive words and phrases on our banners so that everyone could see them and the more negative feelings which came up have been written on cards and sealed within the small 'purses' stitched onto the banner and hidden away.  A couple of our young carers weren't able to come to the sessions but were still able to contribute as we provided the materials and instructions for them to use at home.  Some of the clients who attend the Daybreak service at our centre have also been part of this project, thoroughly enjoying the whole process of making the felt and seeing their finished pieces as part of our banner - spanning the generations!  Sitting alongside others who are in similar situations created an atmosphere of understanding and support.  Many of the mums really benefited from a time of sharing difficulties and common problems. 

Well done to everyone involved - we are very proud to have such beautiful art work to enjoy and many thanks to Ruth for all her hard work, dedication and patient spirit!