Working with Schools Seminar
Case Studies
St Rognvald Banners project, part of ‘Riders of Sea-horses’ –
a celebration of Earl Rognvald on the 850th anniversary of his death:
This project was a collaboration between the Pier Arts Centre, St Magnus Festival and Orkney’s schools working with primary class teachers and itinerant specialist art teachers.
Visual artist Sarah Maclean was commissioned by the Pier Arts Centre to work with 8 classes from 6 schools to create a series of 8 banners that formed the visual component of a wider Orkney schools project ‘Riders of Sea-horses’ a dance drama performed as part of the 2008 St Magnus Festival. This children’s performance was written by a local author and was based on the life of St Rognvald of Orkney.
The ‘banners’ project took place over a 3 month period with the selected classes undertaking initial research with their class teachers into the life of Earl Rognvald, who was responsible for the founding of St Magnus Cathedral. This was followed by visual art work with the specialist art teachers looking at specific aspects of Rognvald’s life and finally a 1 day workshop with Sarah Maclean to create the banners using simple printmaking techniques, with the final designs based on drawings made by children from the 8 participating classes. The children were aged between 9 and 12.
DIGI Artist Residency
DIGI was an artist residency based in the Bannockburn Cluster of Schools in Stirling during 2008 and 2009 and was developed to give children and their teachers the opportunity to work alongside an artist using digital arts. The residency was developed in a partnership between the schools and Stirling’s Cultural Coordinator programme and was funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
The aim of the residency was to increase the awareness of the digital arts in schools and encourage and support both teachers and children to develop new skills in filmmaking, animation and photography and consider how they may be integrated across and used to explore the curriculum.
Artist, Lisa Fleming, spent 18 months in the high school and six primary schools developing a host of exciting visual art, photography, film and animation projects alongside the children and their teachers producing work that both motivated, challenged and introduced a multitude of new ideas and skills.
To ensure sustainability the work undertaken was tied to the topics already being taught in class, suggesting how the digital arts could support class work beyond the residency. This, importantly, enabled the teacher to be fully involved with the creative process, learning how to use the equipment and software alongside their class, delivering the project with the artist with the hope that both the teacher and children would feel confident to use the equipment and software to make films and animations after the residency.
The philosophy behind each of the projects was the artist as facilitator allowing each participant to realise their creative goals. Engaging in meaningful cultural, creative and artistic experiences can create a learning environment that a young person can thrive in, transforming levels of aspiration, enthusiasm and motivation in learning, building confidence, self esteem, group working skills, critical thinking and openness to new ideas at the same time as encouraging new ways of expressing and communicating.
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