Workshops
I have both conducted and assisted with a range of different types of workshops, working with both children and adults. As my practice actively encourages interaction and participation, introducing workshops feels like a natural progression. The workshops that I have led have all been arts based, some with the desired outcome pieces of art, others the outcome more evaluative based. I have found it interesting that when posed with something creative, no matter your age, you feel able to engage with it.
Outreach Workshops
A recent project I have been involved with is a series of creative workshops in a school in the Bath and North East Somerset Area. Aimed at encouraging disadvantaged children to pursue education and then from there, a career in the art, myself and 3 other Bath Spa students, created our own workshops. Over the course of 4 workshops, we all took a lead in making, organising and leading a session. Using the school’s curriculum as a guide we decided to use our experience of art school to get them making in a way that children usually don’t get an opportunity to in school. We got them printing, drawing exquisite corpses, building using verbs and using clay.
Not only did we get to make with them, but each workshop allowed us the opportunity to chat about going to art school and the opportunities in the arts we have had. They seemed excited yet shocked by the freedom that they had been allowed, getting excited to use the clay and surprised when told they didn’t have to be precious with the work, to just enjoy it and have fun.
This was such a insightful experience, having to navigate working with 12-13 year olds, a school curriculum and the unpredictability of it all. It has allowed me to develop communication, organisation, planning and budgeting skills, learning to constantly be more adaptable and to be prepared for anything.
Evaluation Workshops
I have been involved with several evaluation workshops that have formed a wider part of several organisations’ projects. This sort of feedback is vital for funding, from the likes of the National Lottery, to be granted for future projects. I have worked as a part of LMW Training and Research, an Community Engagement and Wellbeing Consultancy. In conjunction with events by organisations by the likes of The Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Norfolk Coastal Partnership and The Norfolk Rivers Trust, I have aided in the design and creation of multiple evaluation orientated activities.
Getting feedback can be very difficult, especially from adults, that is why creating unusual tasks for them to engage with is important. A questionnaire is always helpful and included in these events, however the data they provide is limited. To get wider feedback on what went well, anecdotes and specific information you need to let people have some freedom, that is what these activities instigated.
Some activities included graffiti tables or walls, comment lines and a response. In each section, participants were given prompts to respond to their given project. The response to this differs greatly but on the whole people did engage with our activities. The more specific and distant from the evaluation what we were asking seemed, the better our responses were. For the Norfolk Rivers Trust I created a series of illustrated animal cards for them to respond on, this was very successful.
These workshops provided me with a different kind of experience as I was interacting and designing tasks for a different audience. I had to be inventive and intuitive, quick-thinking and being open and engaging were very important to the success of these workshops. I learnt to listen and interact with this varied audience, assuring I was knowledgeable about why they were there and what I was trying to achieve too.