Quaker Cottage, North Belfast
Project: ‘Our View’ Teenage Project
Artist: Rita Duffy
Age Group: 14-19
Participants: x 21
Special Project over 6 months

Funding from BBC Children In Need enabled us to build on our partnership with the Quaker Cottage. It facilitated a 6 month arts project giving 21 teenagers from North and West Belfast, aged 14-19, the opportunity to explore and express their story. ‘Our View’ is the culmination this project.

“How often do we allow ourselves the time to reflect upon our lives? How often are young people given the opportunity to be heard? And how often do people really listen?”

Quaker Cottage provided a safe place where young people were given time, space and support for critical reflection. This art project has provided each teenager with an opportunity to delve into their past and put this experience into words and pictures. Through short interviews with artist Rita Duffy and youth worker Rory Doherty, each teenager was given the chance to capture and share their story.

Creative Paths gave these young people at Quaker Cottage the opportunity to use art as a tool to explore aspects of their own past. Through the artistic process, they produced a visual re-enactment of their experiences. It is not always easy to ‘tell your story’ especially if the story deals with the pain, loss, despair or trauma that these young people have experienced on a daily basis. The project became a means of communicating feelings of isolation and suffering, but also hopes for the future.

Artist, Rita Duffy worked closely with the young people to help them become the author of their own personal story expressed through text, drawings and photographs. Each person felt empowered and listened to by taking a central role in the storytelling, editing and publishing of the book illustrating their lives. At a time when they are often ignored, neglected and simply not heard, it has been a personal healing journey for each participant. It has allowed them to connect with their own inspirational courage.

What emerges from ‘Our View’ is a powerful sense that these young people feel left behind by the system there to support young people, but in reality it has allowed many of them to simply fall through the gaps. They often find themselves with no qualifications and limited opportunities. They live in a society divided with peace walls and locked gates keeping communities apart. For them Belfast has been experienced as a place where the emphasis is on divided lives, and happy lives seem to have been forgotten.

Their hope is that their stories will make a difference to other young people and serve to promote an understanding of young Belfast lives.

Ligoniel Community Centre, North Belfast
Project: Kids Arts & Crafts Club
Artist: Shauna McCann
Age Group: 7-10
Participants: x15
12 hours, over 8 weeks

During the course of the year Creative Paths worked with 10 different Belfast City Council centres.  The programme supported their play work activities as well contributing to You Can Play 2 Day annual training event, and gave children and young people across Belfast access to experienced artists to develop a wide variety of arts projects.  This is the story of one of them…

The children from Ligoniel Community Centre came up with the idea of creating the Giant from the Jack & the Beanstalk fairytale to use as a height measure for the Sure Start infant group in their centre. After meeting with artist, Shauna McCann, it was agreed to create a 3D piece that would seem ‘giant’ in proportion to the children using it!

One of the children lay on a large piece of card and the rest of the group traced around him to get a rough outline of the Giant’s body.  Crushing up balls of newspaper they attached them using Papier Mache techniques to give shape to the Giant’s body.  Once dry, the body was covered in masking tape before the whole group took turns painting different parts, adding details like t-shirt, boots, hair and face.  Gradually he took on the appearance of a ‘real’ Giant.

The beanstalk was made using the same method.  The background was painted blue and clouds were added along the bottom, using cotton wool for texture.  This gave the impression of the beanstalk coming up into the sky from beneath the Giant’s feet. Finally the height measure was added. The children used a measuring tape to mark out different heights up the side of the beanstalk.

The project was a great success not only giving the children and opportunity to have fun, it had the added benefit of contributing to the nursery. The completed piece was exhibited at the Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast.  The children were proud of their entry to the No Limits Art Exhibition facilitated by AdaptNi, an organisation helping to Build Equality and Inclusion for all in culture, arts and leisure venues.

Ligoniel Giant

Ligoniel Giant

Ligoniel Exhibition 2

St. Patricks & St Josephs Primary School, Garvagh
Project: Mosaic
Artist: Dawn Aston
Age Group: 8 -11
Participants: x 40, x 2 teachers
20 hours

The federated primary school is based on two sites, and lucky to be located in a rural site close to areas of natural beauty surrounded by a bog, mountains, forest and river. This project grew out of the school’s desire to link art with the local environment, as well as giving children the chance to develop their artistic skills by creating a piece of art that would be enjoyed for years to come by them, their siblings, relatives and school community.

The idea was for P5-P7 pupils to participate in a project in small class groups, creating a mosaic and painting inspired by their local environment Garvagh Forest, the Agivey River, the Glenullin Bog and hills. Their teachers were keen to access the skills of professional artist through Creative Paths to learn more about mosaic and support their pupils to create a permanent work of art. They were paired with artist Dawn Aston who specialises in mosaic, painting, and environmental art.

“At our initial meeting we discussed using the environmental theme, I was very impressed with Dawn’s professionalism. She listened to my ideas and carefully explored the area around the school in search of further inspiration. Dawn combined my ideas and her own, as well as the children’s thoughts about combining a mural and mosaic for the wall at the entrance of the site”.
Claire Kelly, Teacher

“When Dawn began working with our P7 class, their enthusiasm was immense. They thrived on doing art that required them to develop new skills and work with unusual materials. The glass tiles were exceptional and Dawn also brought along some with patterns that the children used for eyes and other details. The mosaic project grew from strength to strength, as children developed their own individual mosaic designs.”
Mrs McGill, Teacher

As the project progressed and evolved the main focus fell on the completion of the mosaics which combined each child’s individual piece; a bird, leaf, flower, bug, ladybird, hedgehog and butterfly. The overall effect was fantastic! Clearly taking their inspiration from local wildlife each child revealed a great eye for detail, good use of colour and design which together produced a mosaic that all passers by could enjoy and admire!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fane Street, Donegall Road & Botanic Primary Schools, The Village – South Belfast
Project: Parents Workshops to Inspire
Artist: Anu Sundaralingam
Participants: Adults x30, 4 teachers, 3 schools
20 hours, 6 weeks

This project designed to enthuse and inspire parents and give them new skills that they could bring back to their After Schools Clubs, also proved good for building links between the teachers and parents from 3 local primary schools.  By working collaboratively it served to enhance community relations too.

Teachers and parents working alongside artist Anu Sundaralingam, and a tutor from the Chinese Welfare Association, created a piece of felt art based on a Chinese theme.

The group met over a number of weeks rotating the venue to each participating school. Working collaboratively they produced six wall hangings, two for each school.  The outcomes for teachers and parents were very strong. They included new found knowledge and confidence, which could be transferred to their teaching and learning environments.  It fostered good team work and a sense of pride, and has given them the enthusiasm to follow up the training with creative felt-making projects with children.  Ideas will no doubt be developed and integrated into their Extended Schools Programme to give arts activities a new lease of life.

Fane Street Felt

Fane Street Felt

Fane Street Felt

Fane Street Felt

Cranmore Integrated Primary School, Finaghy Road North South Belfast
Project: Staff Skills Training in Art
Artist: Caroline Jeffrey
Age group: 8-10
Participants: x 60 pupils, 2 teachers
30 hours, over 12 weeks

This project was conceived with the goal of providing fun and engaging lessons for the pupils in a creative and stimulating environment, at the same time as developing the knowledge and skills of their teachers.  The aim was to make more cross curricular links and promote connected learning experiences for the pupils, linking with the revised NI Primary Curriculum.

The art mediums and techniques teachers wanted to explore were clay, ceramics, fabric and printing. In P5 the focus was clay, and P6 worked with fabric using resist techniques to produce batik designs, wool to make felt, and screen printing. Papier mache and puppet making were also mastered!

Planning between the artist, Caroline Jeffrey and the teachers, was an integral part of the project to make optimum use of classroom time. The teachers preparation and participation in each lesson alongside Caroline meant that by the end of the project they both felt enthusiastic and confident that they could repeat similar processes and projects with their pupils in future, without the artist.

“I have learnt so many new skills and feel confident to implement them in a school setting. I have a better understanding of how simple materials can be used to create fabulous pieces e.g. newspaper and masking tape for mask making.  I feel more confident about allowing the children greater freedom with their thoughts and ideas, and have great ideas for future art projects now!

“Artist, Caroline has a great way of always allowing the children to take the lead and follow their own ideas….within reason!! This meant they thoroughly enjoyed the project and were completely immersed in the creative process at all stages, the result was they developed their skills and confidence too”.
Teacher, Grainne Dobbin

The legacy of the project is that the school has additional art resources for the future, two members of staff received excellent training in a practical classroom environment. Now this can be disseminated to other colleagues so that pupils throughout the school will benefit.

“I think there is incredible potential for this kind of ‘in situ’ teacher training that has a strong element of professional development that has a real far reaching impact on the pupils in years to come”.
Caroline Jeffrey Artist

Clearly, both teachers and pupils gained a lot from the sessions, and the finished art pieces were of a high standard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holy Child Nursery School, Andersonstown, West Belfast
Project: Art for all Seasons
Artist: Laureen Magill
Age Group: 3-4
Participants: x 52 children
30 hours, over 15 weeks

This ‘Art for all Seasons’ project sprang from a long held desire to ‘brighten up’ the front of the nursery school with artwork created by the children, that would stimulate interest and discussion throughout the year between parents and children. Using the theme of the Seasons gave the children an opportunity to engage with the natural world in a creative way.

“We were extremely fortunate through Creative Paths to be matched with artist Laureen Magill. She was an inspiration, full of ideas and enthusiasm which in turn rubbed off on our pupils who loved getting involved in sticking, painting, decorating, and creating each Thursday morning.

Autumn saw the children collect leaves and twigs outdoors in the school grounds which they used to take rubbings from, and make drawings which were laminated to produce a colourful group piece of artwork for the wall outside. They had great fun and were very proud of their finished work!

Over the Winter the artwork outside really grabbed both children and parents’ imagination.  Being greeted by a full size 3D reindeer sculpture made from recycled plastic bottles certainly fuelled lots of interaction and discussion.

Springtime brought with it a full farmyard of animals outside the front entrance of the nursery school including pigs, goats and sheep, all made by the children with Laureen using recycled scrap materials.

The project certainly had the desired effect. It was a great source of conversation in the morning and afternoon as parents frequently stopped to look, as their children pointed out which bits were theirs how they were made. This is a great example of scrap materials used to inspire future artists, architects, engineers, and animals lovers!
Geraldine McCleneghan, Principal

“By actually working in 3D the children built their skills and grasped the concept more readily. All the staff that worked alongside me in the nursery acquired new skills and greater confidence. They learned how to turn all the free scrap materials from Play Resource into something…giving it a new lease of life. Like a pig made from an old trolley! The staff all felt they could carry on working in this way even without me there. The nursery is a very relaxed, colourful, inspiring learning environment. They quickly make curriculum links from their activities. Like how their visit to a farm translated into our Spring artwork theme!”
Laureen Magill, Artist