Star - The National Society for Education in Art and Design

22
Community art
On Monday 25 February, children from
Lucas Vale Primary school in Lewisham,
south east London, returned after halfterm
to find that their bleak, ugly stairwell
had been transformed into a magical fourtiered
world of silver unicorns, dancing
fish and shooting stars. This was thanks to
changing:spaces, a project designed and
run by the dynamic creative arts charity
Create, with funding from the Royal Bank
of Scotland (RBS).
Founded in July 2003 by Nicky Goulder
and Samantha Lodge, Create uses the
creative arts to help transform the lives of
those who are disadvantaged and
vulnerable. Using the expertise of
professionals across all the art forms, the
charity aims to give people of all ages
access to the therapeutic, educational and
social benefits of the creative arts.
Visit
www.createarts.org.uk
changing:spaces
Transforming a learning environment
Three years ago, Create began formulating
the idea for changing:spaces, as Nicky
Goulder explains: ‘We are passionate
about the environment in which children
learn and play. The project was designed
to enable children to engage with their
environment in a creative and positive
way, using their poetry and artwork to put
a personal stamp on the school space and,
in doing so, reclaim it as their own.’
The first school to benefit from changing:
spaces was All Souls CE Primary School in
central London. In partnership with Hilton in
the Community Foundation, changing:
spaces transformed the school’s bleak
rooftop playground into a dream world of
technicoloured palm trees and cupcake
cars. The teachers were so inspired by the
result that they decided to use it as a
springboard for further creativity: ‘We are
going to put a writing table in the
playground so the children can use their
artwork as a stimulus for creative writing’.
The success of the first changing:spaces
led Create to run the project again on a
larger scale. In late 2007, Create and RBS
ran a competition to find the state-funded
inner London primary school most in need
of a free changing:spaces makeover
(covered in the START news section
October ‘07) To enter, schools had to submit
a photograph of the space they wanted to
transform and a ten-line poem – written by
one or more pupils – describing what the
space looked like now and how they
imagined it could look if their school won.
The quality of the entries was impressively
high, but there was one that stood out
above the rest. Lucas Vale Primary School
had sent in a picture of the gloomy stairwell
that led from the playground into the heart
of the school and pupils from Years 5 and 6
had written a poem.
The judges were unequivocal. ‘The pupils at
Lucas Vale sent in such a wonderfully
inventive poem and their passion for the
competition just shone through,’ said one of
the judges Esther Freud. ‘Now they are
going to get a chance to make their poem
into a reality’.
changing:spaces started in February, with a
series of workshops led by a visual artist
and a writer from Create. Using their
winning poem as a starting point, children
from Years 3 to 5 were encouraged to think
of visual ways to characterise the four
different levels of the world – the sea, land,
sky and space – which would be
represented on the four different stairwell
floors. Using their artwork as a stimulus,
Create’s writer worked with the children to
develop their creative writing skills,
exploring the representation of imagery,
rhythm and sound.
The workshops gave the children the
opportunity to put their creative skills to the
test. ‘Children from this very low socioeconomic
area often lack self-esteem and
confidence in their abilities,’ said
headteacher Alexandra Hardy.
‘The workshops provided opportunities
for children who may perhaps struggle
academically to achieve. Children
complimented each other and looked for
positive things to say about each other’s
work. They worked effectively together
and supported each other practically
and helpfully.’
Before the workshops began, one nineyear-old
pupil admitted that art had never
been one of her favourite subjects. After
having created an urban underwater scene
complete with a disco for fish, she changed
her mind. ‘At first it was really difficult,’ she
admitted, ‘but now it’s really good fun. You
get to create a masterpiece that you never
thought you’d be able to’,
The idea that their artwork would be seen
by everyone coming in and out of the school
was a particularly special one for the
children taking part. ‘It’s really exciting that
our work is going to be on the wall and
everyone will see what we’ve been working
on’, said another Year 5. ‘I think the mural
will be welcoming for people who come to
the school and it will give all the children
who’ve worked on it lots of confidence’.
‘I would feel really proud if I saw my artwork
painted big on the school wall because that
was the first time I have enjoyed art. I think
people will see the mural and think “I’m
going to have a really nice day today”’.
When the children broke up for half-term,
Create’s artist and forty RBS volunteers
took advantage of the quiet and got to work
transferring the children’s words and
pictures onto the walls. For two full days,
the volunteers swapped their briefcases
for paintbrushes, flexed their rusty
creative muscles and began bringing the
children’s imaginations to life. For many
of these novice painters, it was a steep
learning curve.
‘I imagined myself painting the walls of the
school from floor to ceiling – you know, up
down, up down, that kind of movement
with a big brush or roller,’ said RBS
employee Debbie, who travelled to Lucas
Vale all the way from the bank’s office in
Paris. ‘I admit that I was quite nervous
when I found out that we were expected
to recreate the children’s drawings on
the walls.’
But, with the artists’ guidance, Debbie
and the rest of her colleagues
soon got into the swing of it and
the stairwell quickly turned
into a hive of creative activity.
‘These are guys whose daytimes are
usually spent juggling phones, meeting
clients, doing paperwork, etc.,’ said RBS’s
Sharon Barbour, ‘and there they were lying
on the floor, painting a butterfly or a bee,
chilling out. It was such fun. To take a day
out of your working life to do something like
this – you gain so much personally.’
On Monday morning, the first day back after
half-term, the new stairwell was revealed to
the children for the first time. There were
pink jellyfish on the ground floor, prehistoric
purple mammals on land, silver unicorns
flying in the sky and technicoloured stars
shooting through outer space. Lines of the
children’s poetry were carefully painted
around the images on every level.
‘Our pupils are proud of how exciting,
colourful and cheerful the stairwell is now,’
said Mrs Hardy. ‘You can see the pleasure
they get from spotting another creature or
identifying their own work or that of one of
their friends.’
changing:spaces seems to have had a
profound effect on the children who took
part. ‘It has given them a greater belief in
themselves, which is apparent in their
behaviour and attitude,’ said Mrs Hardy. ‘It
has resulted in greater cohesion amongst
them and a more positive attitude. They can
actually see the benefit that working
together has had and are happier working
together in class and encouraging each
other rather than showing negativity.’
‘I’m delighted that changing:spaces has had
such an important impact at Lucas Vale,’
Create’s Executive Director, Nicky Goulder
said. ‘I hope it’s a legacy that these children
and future generations of children will be
able to enjoy for a long time to come.
www.createarts.org.uk
23
Community art
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