October – December 2006 and March 2006

In the 2nd and 3rd year of my BA Honours in Fine Art I participated in the GOALS Project (Greater Opportunity of Access and Learning with Schools). GOALS aimed to introduce the idea of higher education to primary and secondary pupils who, due to their socio-economic backgrounds, may not have regarded higher education as an option for further studies. I worked in two primary schools, both of which were located in significantly deprived areas in the West of Scotland.

March 2006

Bellsbank Primary School, Bellsbank, Ayr, Scotland

I worked with 25 Primary age (Year 6) pupils in collaboration with artist Alice Howard, we worked with the children on the development of a project called ‘Aromatic Portraits’.

Due to its deprivation, the inhabitants of the area of Bellsbank encounter difficult social and economic problems on a daily basis. The children come across the effects of unemployment, violence, alchohol abuse and drug addiction in their social and private environment, resulting in them having extremely poor self esteem and low aspirations for their futures. We also noticed that the children had a tendency to eat junk food, not helped by its provision within the school.

The children were encouraged to make a future portrait of themselves using different kinds of  healthy dried foods and spices including pasta, pulses, rice, pepper, salt, curry, cinnamon sticks, anis seeds and turmeric. The children also used pencils, paint, glue and card. They could do whatever they felt with the food; paint it, draw on it, cut it. Although we encouraged them to use the food, some of the pupils decided not to and we agreed on an alternative method for their creations.

Our target was to give them a chance to think about themselves and their future in a relaxed and friendly way, to familiarise them with the ingredients of healthy eating and to reconcile them with the idea that good food can help them to live to the age that they imagined themselves in the portrait and beyond!

October – December 2006

Chirnsyde Primary School, Glasgow, Scotland

In Chirnsyde Primary School, the children were shy about expressing themselves at first and my challenge was to show them ways to think creatively. The walls of the school are full of art, however, the work was relatively repetitive and unimaginative.

The project ‘My world in a cardboard box’, involved the children making boxes containing creations from their imagination including puppets and maps of their own worlds. They were fascinated by the fact that they were left free to experiment with painting, sculpture and puppet-making within one project, eventually managing to gain confidence and creating some very inspiring results.