Project: A New River’s End
Project Partners: Bow Arts Hugh Myddelton Primary School, Islington Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Charitable Foundation
Project Artists: Corinne Felgate Nic Deshayes
Images:
Location: Hugh Myddelton Primary School, Islington
When: March – July 2010
Participants: 400 participants - pupils from Nursery to Year 6, parents and staff
Number of Sessions: 20
Opportunities for Participation: 1,000
Project: A New River’s End
Activity: Artist-led workshops for every class in the school focusing on the history of Hugh Myddelton and the themes of fish, water, silversmithing and cloth making. A selected group also worked with Corinne and Nic to create a commissioned large-scale hanging installation for the school reception area, inspired by the outcomes of the class workshops. Pupils worked as artists – researching the history of Hugh Myddelton and experimenting with processes, materials and ideas Year 1 visited Thomas Heatherwick’s hanging sculpture at the Wellcome Trust Classes learnt about Hugh Myddelton’s project to transfer clean water from the River Lea in Hertfordshire into the New River in Islington Children made sculptures from food, clay and wax. They drew fish from direct observation and experimented with printmaking and watercolours. Some classes made casts of whelks and mussels which formed part of the final sculpture Corinne and Nic used the childrens’ ideas in the workshops to design the hanging sculpture, made by casting real fish and suspending them from the ceiling The title ‘A New River’s End’ was chosen by the school council
Outcomes and Impact: Increased knowledge of Hugh Myddelton with curriculum links to science and history New practical skills in 3D and 2D and experimenting with new materials Whole school involved and included – encouraged teamwork and meant everyone had ownership over the final piece and a shared sense of achievement Children developed research skills, visited galleries and worked as artists to test out their own ideas and designs and improve them when there were problems Staff inspired to use creative activities to teach in all areas of the curriculum and confidence in using artistic techniques boosted
Outputs: Hanging installation in main reception area of school School displays to document the project – photos and artwork Worked with a film-maker to produce a DVD documenting the process; making, installation and finished sculpture Private view of artwork and finished sculpture for funders, press, local authority and parents
Contact: Rob Smith, Head of Education and Learning
Bow Arts Trust, 183 Bow Road, London, E3 2SJ
T: 0208 7095295 M: 07967 714238 E: [email protected] W: www.bowarts.org www.londonsartistquarter.org