Reflections on the Year 3 Project 1 Participation Begins With Me: Reflections From 2 Tate and School Headteachers on Year 3 David Parker with Kate Atkins, Maria Balshaw, Jackie Benjamin and Anna Cutler Reflections on the Year 3 Project This essay is one of nine commissioned by A New Direction to reflect on the Tate Year 3 Project and provoke thinking about future projects. For the full set go to www.anewdirection.org.uk/year-3-reflections Reflections on the Year 3 Project 2 David Parker David is a freelance researcher and evaluator with an interest in arts and creativity programmes for young people. Recent evaluations have focused on work for the British Council, Arts Council England and Sorrell Foundation. Formerly he was Director of Research for Creative and Cultural Skills, Creative Partnerships and the British Film Institute. Participation Begins With Me: Reflections From Tate and School Headteachers on Year 3 June In Conversation with... Kate Atkins Headteacher at Rosendale 2021 Primary School, Lambeth EDITED BY Naranee Ruthra-Rajan Dr Maria Balshaw CBE Director of Tate COPY EDITED BY Marina Lewis-King Jackie Benjamin, Head teacher at Tyssen The term Tate Year 3 Project Community School, Hackney in the first instance and Year 3 thereafter refers Anna Cutler to the whole project Director of Learning and latterly including planning and Director of Learning & Research production stages. at Tate (2010 - 2021) Steve McQueen Year 3 refers to the artwork and exhibition. For clarity, we have referred to the school year group of Year 3 as Y3. 2 Reflections on the Year 3 Project 3 Kate Atkins Jackie Benjamin, Headteacher at Rosendale Head teacher at Tyssen Primary School, Lambeth Community School, Hackney Kate has been teaching in Lambeth for Jackie has been teaching for over 20 over 20 years. She began her teaching years in schools in Tottenham and career in Early Years, which is still an Hackney, becoming a head teacher 6 ongoing passion. In addition to being years ago. After leaving school with no a Headteacher she is CEO of the Great qualifications, Jackie started working North Wood Education Trust, a Multi as a hairdresser and later a chef. She Academy Trust with a local secondary has always had a passion for working school and 3 children’s centres. Kate with children and at 30-years-old, she led ReflectED, one of the first school- graduated as a fully qualified teacher. led research projects in the country as She strongly believes that there is a well as leading Connecting Knowledge, real need for children to see teachers a London based research project who represent the community they which resulted in Rosendale being live in and see that, no matter where an Excellence Hub for lesson study. you start, there are no limits. Rosendale is an EEF Specialist Partner for Research, supporting schools in London and beyond to use evidence- Anna Cutler based practice in the classroom to Director of Learning and latterly improve outcomes for all children. Director of Learning & Research at Tate (2010 - 2021) With 30 years’ experience working in Dr Maria Balshaw CBE education and cultural settings at a Director of Tate local, national, and international level, Maria has held the role of Director Anna’s central purpose throughout of Tate since June 2017. As Director, her career has been to explore and Maria is also the Accounting Officer improve educational interventions appointed by the Department for in a range of cultural and cross- Digital, Culture, Media and Sport disciplinary arts environments. (DCMS). Previously, Maria was In September 2016 she initiated Director of the Whitworth, University Tate Exchange, a civic space of Manchester; Director of Manchester aimed at building dialogue around City Galleries; and Director of Culture art, society, and the urgent and for Manchester City Council. Maria complex issues facing us today. is Chair of the National Museum Directors’ Council and is a Trustee of the Clore Leadership Programme and Manchester International Festival’s Boards. In 2015, she was awarded a CBE for services2 to the arts. Reflections on the Year 3 Project 4 Participation Begins With Me: Reflections From Tate and School Headteachers on Year 3 Why did schools engage with the Tate Year 3 Project in such numbers? What were their motivations for participating? And what did Tate learn as part of that process? David Parker with Fundamentally Year 3 must be attributed venue explore ways of revaluing exhibition Kate Atkins, Maria to the artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen space and democratising the gallery. Balshaw, Jackie Benjamin whose vision for the project and the artwork “ When I looked at the photographs as a and Anna Cutler it became contains a beguiling surface collection, I saw several different ‘Londons’, simplicity, allowing inner complexities to filled with a huge mix of limitations and slowly emerge over time. Yet the warmth opportunities. And I was aware that not of feeling and personal engagement felt everyone portrayed would consider Tate by so many who experienced the Steve as their space. Year 3 was a chance to McQueen Year 3 exhibition at Tate – challenge that. By placing the images along with the eye-catching billboards of those young people up on the walls, spread across London in 2019 – is also hopefully, it began a process of them due in no small part to the schools and feeling that the Tate might be for them children that participated. They were and their families in the future.” the stars of this particular show. Responding to this idea, Jackie But what motivated them to join in? On Benjamin, concurred. the face of it this was a simple idea with somewhat controlled content, a mass “ We probably had several motivations participation project with rigid logistics as a school but overall, it was very much and timescales which were for the most about the children being represented and part entirely inflexible: everything needed valued. And about them being involved in to happen with a particular year group the process, making the artwork happen. within London boroughs within a single It wasn’t just a visit in that sense. The academic year. Yet, at the same time, it children were partners, and they were really had a choral quality, ceding elements of invested in the idea; they felt involved.” individual control in order to enjoy the It was interesting to hear these interrelated overall impact of many young people expectations articulated from quite joining together in a shared endeavour. Maria Balshaw and different vantage points. The ideas set This was in essence a work of aggregation; Anna Cutler from out by Maria and Jackie speak directly to an example of how the whole really can Tate spoke with what we know to be important principles be greater than the sum of the parts. two headteachers about participatory practice. Participatory from participating To explore some of the dynamics projects aren’t just about empowering schools, Kate Atkins underpinning the process, A New Direction visitors. Every project has to address and Jackie Benjamin, organised two online discussions between three constituencies – the institution, to explore possible key participants from Tate and from participants and the audience and Year 3 reasons behind schools, the key themes of which are set did this very well. A theme that was also Year 3’s success. out below. Maria Balshaw, Director of picked up in the conversation between Anna Tate, explained that Year 3 had helped the Cutler and Kate Atkins. As Anna explained: Reflections on the Year 3 Project 5 “ I think a lot of value came through the the case of the core photography element, This was in fact that for Year 3 the whole concept while there were spin off activities to help cut through directly to the cohort the children understand how that day’s essence a work themselves. They are the piece. They photo would form part of an artwork at of aggregation; are the relevance. The entire concept Tate and follow up work teachers could was about the participants.” engage with, the creation of each class an example of image was a traditional interaction Kate Atkins also saw a large part of the between professional photographers and how the whole value in Year 3 generated by this sense children and teachers who were subjects. really can be of young people inhabiting the project. So far, so orthodox. Yet, as Anna pointed greater than the “ It was absolutely clear this was a ‘school’s out, ‘they are the piece’. The children project’ as opposed to a project to which occupied the halls and walls of Tate Britain sum of the parts. schools were invited… the project simply and therefore participation not only took didn’t exist without the participants.” the form of hands-on activities, it was The concept of participation was a deep also an aspect of each child’s identity, the feature within this work. It was also affirmation of their place within their multi-layered. Participation began with city and the possibilities their collective the individual, seeing themselves within generational representation suggested. the context of their classmates and the That schools embraced this concept so timeless nature of the school photo which enthusiastically, potentially broadens what is so relatable for us all. But each class engagement with art museums can mean, photo was set in the wider context of transforming mass participation with year group cohorts, which in turn were young people as a core element of high- scaled to include many other Year 3 profile conceptual works. This extended (Y3) children from the same borough. to the role of Steve McQueen working as Finally, as this process multiplied, a whole a partner with schools via Tate, Artangel, generation of 7- and 8-year-olds were A New Direction and ArtsMediaPeople.