Meet Kent's Advisers: Nova Marshall

Here at the Forum we thought it would be nice to catch up with some of Kent's Advisers who are out there delivering Arts Award in different settings. Please use their experience and ideas when delivering the award yourself as it always helps to see ideas passed on.

Our first adviser to be interviewed is the lovely Nova Marshal

Name	Nova Marshall
Company/School/Group	Aim4 Partnerships
Artform(s)	Visual art – ranging from sculpture, printmaking, photography, collage, collaborative painting, textiles, graphic design, site-specific art installations
Where are you based	Margate, Kent
Registered Centre Name(s)	Aim4 Partnerships (I am also linked to Turner Contemporary and Kemsley Community House)

Hi Nova, to begin with can you tell us in what settings have you delivered Arts Award?

I have delivered the arts award in a number of settings:

• Working with a youth group (6 – 11 years) as part of a housing association (informal setting)
• Working as part of Turner Contemporary, in an outreach youth setting (11 years +)
• Working with a Young Adult Parents group as part of a Children’s Centre 

What has your best experience been?

Working with the children from the youth group within their community was a rewarding experience for me and for them. I had gone into the project to be an additional youth worker/artist, however during the time I was working there I wanted to be able to make a really positive impact. Through discussions with the staff, we created an art project around World War 1 that would enable the children to achieve Arts Award Discover. Many of these children visited an art gallery and took part in the gallery’s creative workshop for the very first time.


Do you have an arts award story?

As an adviser, I worked with a young woman who was part of a Young Adult Parents Group. Whilst she attended each week, she was fairly hostile about what she was prepared to do and what she wasn’t. One week, an issue regarding taking photographs became apparent. She explained to me that she was very unhappy about her photograph being taken as she had body-images issues. I explained to her that we needed to take photos as proof of her involvement as part of the wider project. I suggested a way that we could take photos of her that didn’t have to include her whole body, in which she agreed. Each week she would look at any photos taken of her self, delete the ones she didn’t like and keep the ones she did.

At the end of one particular week, she came up to me and said that I was the first person to really listen to her and to understand her needs. From this moment onwards, each week she became more confident and her self-esteem began to grow. By the end of the 13-week project, she had lost weight through a process of healthy eating and started to really consider her future, not only for herself but her children too. She achieved her Bronze Arts Award and took part in a celebration event.

She is now doing an apprenticeship at a health and beauty salon and is really enjoying learning skills, meeting new people and earning some money.

This is not a typical arts award story but just by listening and supporting her, she was able to take the next step in transforming her life.


What is challenging about the award?

The structure of each award can seem quite ‘fixed’ but with some creative thinking you can find different ways of tackling this and documenting work.

Children and young people work at different paces and can be working on different elements of the award, so it can be challenging to keep up with where they are in their arts award journey.

Time – making the best of the time that you have with the group is vital so they remain on track to achieve the award.


What advice would you give other advisers?

• You need to be very organised so you have a grip on where each person is in their personal learning journey.
• If you don’t already, get to know each child/young person so you can best advise them when working on their award.
• Being open and flexible is essential.

Nova is a freelance practitioner and able to deliver Arts Award in you setting, she says: As a visual artist I can offer a range of creative workshops in various art forms as well as visits to artist spaces and studios.  Contact Nova at novamarshall.org

January's Arts Award forum is all about reviewing arts events with Becci Smith of Total Theatre magazine. Book your places here.

Gallery oppurtunity from an Arts Award Supporter

 
For anyone looking for an opportunity for young people to engage directly with with artist and gallery there is a a private exhibition viewing in Ramsgate next Thursday for young people. There's a chance to talk to the artist and meet the gallery director to know more about galleries. its a really good opportunity for anyone doing arts award or studying arts subjects. Click the link below to find out more.

http://artsawardvoice.com/magazine/events/inside-art-gallery

Artsbox, Objects, Stories and Puppets

In March we had two forums so we also welcomed Peter Morton, from Knuckle and Joint Theatre, to the second session with his great Puppetry workshop. Peter demonstrated some fun and interesting tasks on how to transform an ordinary object into something creative and imaginative.

Rose, from Artwork, provided everyone with fliers and leaflets and a look into the new 'ArtsBox' concept. ArtsBox is an online dropbox service whereby you can link and collate any photos, videos or imagery to portfolio's, viewed by a Moderator.

Please see our earlier post on signing up to Artsbox here

Peter lead the creative activity...

Using Objects:

1. Pass around an object, eg; an umbrella, a book, a shoe
2. Each person had to respond with "This is not a ...","It is a ..." In which people were invited to think creatively of a different object instead, i.e; "This is not a shoe, this is a ship, sailing in the sea".
3. Change the object for new ideas.
4. Pass around again without repeating and of the previous objects already mentioned.

Secondly, Peter split the group in two to create our very own puppets, simply out of a mug and a dish cloth. The key was to:

1. Accentuate the body stance with detail to movement and breathing.
2. To establish a point of focus on the puppet from the puppeteer/puppeteers. This enables the audience to focus on the puppet.
3. Add an objective; a daily routine for the puppet to move to i.e. getting out of bed, getting dressed, etc.
4. Change the object and do the same.

The outcome of the sessions were great and we look forward to welcoming everyone to the future Forum sessions.

Arts Award Advisers Forum: 26 March 2014

How to become a Supporter

The last Arts Award Forum welcomed Rose Kigwana who is the Programme Manager for Arts Award. Rose covers the South East and is connected with the Arts and Cultural sector. She helped to explain how to become a Supporter with a step-by-step guide. During the session, Rose went into fine detail about what it meant to be an Arts Supporter, with all the additional information of what it entails.

The best place to start is here with this short guide.

So what are the pros of being a supporter? If you are an arts venue or heritage organisation you can attract more visitors by displaying the supporter logo on events which are suitable for Arts Award participants alongside talks with experts and artists, exhibitions and more. By offering discounts and incentives to groups you can join the Arts Award Supporter map to promote your centre to schools and groups undertaking the award in your area.

The activity comprised of the group splitting in two; each group were asked to discuss and plan a hypothetical situation, e.g, how one School or Youth group can be a Supporter to others; where they would start, and what the plan of action would be. The two groups were then asked to report back to each other to share ideas.

The Gift of Gold

Our last forum welcomed artist, musician and facilitator Peter Cook. Peter lead a thought provoking session stimulated by GOLD! We listened to music, viewed pictures and played games before launching into the main activity.






I always find other people's games really interesting and have 'borrowed' 3 of Peter's already.









One great game for warming up was 'Pass the Clap':

Group size: 5 or more players Group age: 5 up (may need to be adapted)

1) Ask the group to stand in a circle
2) Start off a clap that gets passed around the circle from player to player, you can slowly build up speed. Make sure it is passed consecutively and no one claps too soon!
3) Introduce the two clap rule. If someone claps twice on their go the clap gets sent the other way around the circle (Peter advised us to only let each person use this once or it tends to get stuck).
4) If the group get the hang of it introduce the 3 clap rule. If a player claps 3 times on their go the clap skips the person next to then and jumps to the next player!

A great simple and fast paced focus game.



We continued the session exploring poetry and comparing our feelings on Gold to the actual award.



We really got into discussing how gold is a precious gift, showing maximum effort and dedication. It is also a gift that is passed on the next person. This is exactly one of the aims of the Arts Award, in creating young creative leaders to pass on their gifts to the next generation.



We discussed how the progression of Bronze, Silver and Gold could be used in this way to pass on experiences between groups. If you were running them simultaneously, in schools for example, you could have the groups delivering to eachother i.e. the taking part of bronze could be a project run by silver or gold particiapants.

 

Thanks to Peter's diversity as an artist and facilitator, we were easily able to grasp sing cross art forms from poetry, to drama to music. This really relates to the challenge set in Gold Award in participants finding  new art form or challenging their existing one.

Artsbox has arrived!

Artsbox for online portfolios was released last week. I have just had a quick look around it and its looking good.

Firstly I would say if you're planning to use it sign up in advance as it can take up to 48 ours to register.

To begin with you are greeted by the rules of Artsbox, clearly laid out and with templates for letters etc.

The first thing I saw was the chance to make an avatar, so without looking anywhere else I began. The graphics made me chuckle straight away and much fun was had making my mini me!

On with the serious business! Next I made a practice page for the forum. You can upload Pictures, Video and Text. This is going to be great for our reviews which we have always shared online.

Over all it looks simple to use. I'm not sure how the comments box works, I'm wondering if this is open to all? I will watch what happens.

Vicki

What is the value of Gold?

February's Arts Award Forum

Wednesday 26th February
5-7pm
@ The Gulbenkian

Join us for an evening of creativity, inspiration and Gold!

On Wednesday 26^th February, Wide Eyed Theatre will be joined by the talented Peter Cook who will be leading a fascinating workshop on the value of gold. Come along and explore the representation of gold using music, poetry, drama and colour!

Book your place today through the Gulbenkian's website. You can join in the fun!

We will also be joined by Leanne Macdonald, Artswork, who will be showing participants how to use the new Artsbox to get their Arts Award evidence together.

This is February’s Arts Award Forum and it is open to one and all. Not only will you have the opportunity to experience an inspiring workshop, but there will also be the chance to share ideas with other Arts Award Advisers, including our resident Advisers, Vicki and Emma of Wide Eyed Theatre.

Do you have questions about the Arts Award?
Do you want to learn some creative skills?
Do you want to be inspired?

The value of gold materialises when it changes hands, and that is what the Arts Award is about: Passing on something valuable.

And bring a friend! Thanks to our brilliant location in the Gulbenkian, there is room for all. Free to attend, but please book in advance so we can supply materials for everyone.

Come and create with us.
Come and learn with us.

Best wishes,
Wide Eyed Theatre

The Third Arts Award Forum - Discovering Arts Award in Folkestone...

On Wednesday 23rd October, we visited the Quarterhouse in Folkestone to deliver our third Arts Award Forum. This time we were looking at the Discover and Explore program and got a chance to discuss ideas and they way the program runs with Leanne Macdonald from Artswork, South East.

Please feel free to share and use our ideas in your Arts Award Delivery...

Discover:

The Discover program is designed for younger children and there are different workbooks for a different variation of age groups( KS1-KS3). Here are an example of some of the books :

There are three parts of the Discover program, these are:

A) Discover - What can you learn about/discover?
B) Explore- What artist can you research?
C) Share - How are you going to present it? (Can be one to one.)


OUR ACTIVITY 

In groups we planned how to run an Discover programme both in an education setting and outside.

WITHIN SCHOOL

The 'school group' decided they would theme their work around nature, forest schools and their local environments.

Discover:

• Out door workshops to gather natural materials and using them to create art.

• Kites - history and DT/design elements

• Use of local areas such as a church - grave stones, stained glass windows etc.

Explore: 

• Nature artists
• Historical aspects of local area
• Religious artists

Share: 

• Use of church, assemblies, presentations, arts evenings and open afternoons where children can take parents round and share what they are doing.

Extra Curricular

The 'outside of school group' decided to look at Gulbenkian Youth Theatre and the Youth Service. Here were some of the points they discussed:

• We decided the Youth Theatre are already discovering the Arts by participating in weekliy session. They look at a number of different art forms e.g. mask making, poetry, technical theatre. Incorporating all skills.

• The group decided that the Youth Service could run taster and drop in sessions so that young people could discover the Arts and make their own choice of what they would like to focus on.
•  The use of Pintrest was discussed as an effective method of keeping different ideas on.
• The group felt that there needed to be greater awareness of Arts Award within the host organisations so thatcould be effectively run with assistance from non trained staff.

Explore:

• The group thought a buddy systems with Arts venues for tickets to shows and day trips to visit places would improve the cultiral offering

• Youth Service to encourage more visits to different arts venues identified by the young people.

Share:

• Pinterest - easily and quickly share ideas with people

• Gulbenkian Youth Theatre can share with their group in session tme

• Awards ceremonies, press coverage ... BUFFET!

WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR ARTS AWARD DISCOVER AND EXPLORE STORIES...

An answer to some of our school questions?

An interesting article from Arts Professional on how to use Arts Award in school, a hot topic at many of our forums! http://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/269/feature/arts-accreditation-schools?utm_source=Weekly-Good-Reads&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Arts-accreditation-in-schools&utm_campaign=14th-November-2013

How can we encourage good leadership skills?

Maidstone Museum’s beautiful Library was the setting for our second Arts Awards Advisers’ Forum.  During the short two hour session we managed to cram in a huge amount of information, discussion and debate, which I will aim to summarise here.  This session focused mainly on the Bronze ‘Sharing an Arts Skill’ component and Silver Unit 2, ‘Arts Leadership’

The attendees had a huge range of experience from those that had not yet managed to run the Award to those trained in all stages. This was fantastic as it meant that we could start to envisage a ‘buddy’ type system where more experienced Advisers could assist those not so practised.  If this is something you would like us to develop further please let us know.

The session began with Sam Sladden leading the group in a drama session. Sam is a young person who completed the Silver Arts Award two years ago, and has since gone on to speak at regional conferences and be considered for the privilege of being the next Arts Award Case Study.  We asked Sam to demonstrate an example of what could be considered appropriate for the leadership sections of the award. He took the group through some drama warm ups and then gave us a piece of his script (written for his Arts Award) and asked us to work through the design elements of it. This was an insightful task that allowed the attendees, who work in all different disciplines, to play to their strengths and interpret the activity in their own unique ways.

This lead to a follow on from last week’s session where we came to the conclusion that in a school setting where Advisers feel they must encourage the whole group to work on the same project, using a stimulus could be a fantastic way of encouraging individuality, without providing lots of extra work for the Adviser. A stimulus could be presented, such as a script, a painting or piece of music and individuals could then focus on it in their own way, or smaller groups could be set up to focus on a particular aspect.

After Sam’s workshop we discussed the concept of ‘leadership’ and what qualities we can look to build on to create young leaders (see below for the group’s interpretation of a leader).  There was a huge list, most of which you should be able to see in the images below. 

       

We also discussed examples of when a student had done the majority of work for an award without realising it. For example, Vicki discussed her experience of a group of boys at a youth centre who had organised DJ workshops for others. They had managed the whole event, and had evidenced it all in the form of photography and so had only a small amount of work to put in to achieve an award. Other attendees also mentioned that this had happened with students they know. For some people the leadership qualities are absolutely already there, it can just be a question of drawing attention to them. For others it can be a little more difficult but by focusing on some of the qualities below they will soon become aware that they are in possession of at least a couple of them.

We also discussed a number of different ways of ‘passing it on’ including mass cross-teaching (as suggested by Turner Contemporary in the last Forum), including a q&a after a performance and a summer fete where students can teach a craft etc they have learnt.  There are many, many more ways and we would like to compile a list. If you feel like you can add to this discussion, or expand our list please let us know.

A book binding tutorial from our first forum

I first learnt how to ‘book bind’ with Jo Dyer at Animate Arts , and the addiction began. Just about everyone I know has received one of these wonderful little books from me. Whether receiving them or making them everyone is amazed at how lovely they are. So I decided to share the tutorial with you.

I frequently use this workshop as a starter to The Arts Award as they make fantastic and personalised portfolios that everyone wants to fill.

For our first Kent Arts Award Advisers Forum we decided to pass the skill on once again to ‘encourage’ people to share the award with more people.

This is me looking proud with my first ever creation!

Here is the tutorial...

You will need:

•  card (this can be nice spangly new card or even better re-purposed from packaging like cereal boxes and the back of pads of lined paper)

•  Scissors

•  Glue (stick or spray is best as it doesn't wrinkle the paper)

•  Gummed tape (the kind used in mounting pictures) or masking tape

•  Paper for pages

•  A needle and thread

•  Paper for your cover (wrapping paper or something special that you have saved)

•  materials to decorate

First you begin by placing two pieces of card together with a small gap between them (this allows your book to close better and not gape open). Create the spine of your book by taping the two pieces of card together.

Lay your cardboard on top of your chosen cover paper and cut out the corners as though you are wrapping a present. If your paper is to small to cover both pieces you can always do the covers individually as in the picture.

Once the pages are cut you are ready to glue.  Do one side at a time gluing the paper down to create the front and back cover (smoothing any bubbles) then glue the flaps. Make sure the covered side is neat, don't worry about the inside at the moment as you will neaten this later. 

Now leave this section to dry...

Next to make the pages! Fold the size of papers you wish to have inside your book (It's best to fold them separately as they sit together nicely). Use a pin to prick some holes down the fold, at about an inch apart, depending on the size of your book. With a needle and thread do a basic in and out stitch down the length of the spine then come back up filling the gaps. ‘Wow I can sew!’ says anyone who can’t sew. As a tip start and end on the outside so you don't see any threads inside your book.

Now it’s time to glue the first and last pages to your book. Cover the surface of your first paper page with glue. Position your paper pages inside the cardboard cover making sure the spine sits in the gap. Stick the first page to the cover. Then you do the same with your last page. Your book is almost there! 


Where the pages are glued to the book glue some other paper over it if you wish to make it look really smart and hide the binding.

Now comes the best bit, decorating! We used stamps to personalise the books and scrapbooking/card making supplies to add embellishments. You can make fastenings to close the book from ribbon or string.

This is an example of one of the first Arts Award activities inside the portfolio.

And here are our finished books waiting to be used:

Participants: Wide Eyed Theatre, Kent Arts Award Advisers, and Fran and George who are doing their Arts Award

Venue: Turner Contemporary, Margate

Tutorial written by Vicki from Wide Eyed and Fran who is doing her Silver Arts Award