RAW NEWSWelcome to the latest newsletter of RAW (Real Arts Workshops). We showcase all the work we did over a very busy Summer, some recycled arts projects, our involvement in Wolverhampton Learning Platforms 'Covid Champions' project and a poster for our newest project funded by Arts Council Englands #ThrivingCommunitiesFund. We still have places available for 13-17 year olds in Wolverhampton so please spread the word! If you view the attached PDF version of the newsletter in Adobe Reader, you will be able to click relevant web links - and our own website has many resources and information too. The preview image is below. Please do get in touch with any queries / feedback on any of the articles or if you think we can work with your organisation on some uplifting and engaging creative projects. Thank you and stay safe, Alex, Gary and the team. 
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 The final whale with the RAW team and helpers It's not everyday you make an 8ft tall whale! We had lots of fun working with the local community in Warstones, Wolverhampton on Sunday 25th July 2021 - including young people and our extended RAW team - on this huge recycled plastic sculpture. The project was organised by Penn Climate Action as part of Plastic Free July 2021 and supported by Creative Black Country. Local people delivered plastics for us to use to make the sculpture to show how much plastic we throw away in a day. #plasticfreejuly #GivingPeopleACreativeVoice #finleeslegacy #BigLinkUp #plasticpollution
Watch a video of the whale 'skeleton' going into the ground
 'Stevie Stingray' Alex Vann from RAW did a 2 day of art workshop at Spring Vale Primary School, Wolverhampton on 30th June and 1st July 2021. The focus was on plastic pollution and the effects on Marine life. Working with a Year 6 student bubble, Alex encouraged every student to draw a stingray using soft pencils, create an origami stingray, and think about recycling using drawings and statements. Oh and of course they built a huge sculpture using recycled materials the children brought in from home and the children named it 'Stevie'! Alex also did a series of assemblies to the whole school and talked about his career as an artist, designer and workshop leader and as a lead artist on the Wolves in Wolves public art project. It was a great way to use creativity to address serious issues and also have lots of fun creating colourful and interesting new work. Here's what the school said:This year we decided to celebrate the Art curriculum by holding an arts week in which the whole school could enjoy. Welcome to the latest newsletter of RAW (Real Arts Workshops). We remember our friend Leigh 'Finlee' Saunders (see earlier Blog about that) - continuing his creative legacy by using his art materials in our projects with various groups. If you view the attached PDF version of the newsletter in Adobe Reader, you will be able to click relevant web links - and our own website has many resources and information too. The preview image is below. Please do get in touch with any queries / feedback on any of the articles or if you think we can work with your organisation on some uplifting and engaging creative projects. Thank you and stay safe, Alex, Gary and the team.
 High Quality Art Materials gifted to RAW Leigh 'Finlee Russell' Saunders was an extraordinarily talented Birmingham based artist, sculptor, musician and film maker. He was a good friend of Alex Vann, founder of RAW and the pair worked together on music and video projects and met through mutual friend, Birmingham singer song writer Rich McMahon, who passed away in 2015. Leigh created an army of plasticine characters called 'The Smiley Dudes' which spread a message of fun and positivity around the globe. Below is a video of him delivering a hundred Smiley Dudes to children at the Rare Disease Summer Party in 2017. Unfortunately Leigh lost his battle with cancer in March 2021. We were overwhelmed when heard from the family that they'd like to pass on his art materials so that we can use them with our groups and in that way keep his creative legacy alive. We'd like to publicly thank the family and will continue to post examples of work on our social media channels using his materials using the hash tag #FinleesLegacy Above are just a few examples of work Alex has created, either as examples on virtual art sessions with various groups including British Deaf Association, Deaf Plus, Mossley Community Arts Club, or face to face at Percy Shurmer Academy, Birmingham or commissioned work. The Pop Art painting of The Man On The Horse is on show at The Chindit pub in Wolverhampton until August 2021.
RAW Goes National!
Welcome to the latest newsletter of RAW (Real Arts Workshops). This is our ‘Superhero’ issue as we seem to have done lots of workshops on that theme lately and, of course, most of our colleagues are Superheroes too! We’ve been working with some other arts practitioners recently, which we love: collaboration is one of our key values along with inclusion. We’re pleased to see recognition for one of our volunteers too. If you view the above PDF version of the newsletter in Adobe Reader, you will be able to click relevant web links. Please do get in touch with any queries / feedback on any of the articles or if you think we can work with your organisation on some uplifting and engaging creative projects. Thank you and stay safe, Alex, Gary and the team.  Histrionic WaterAlex Vann from Real Arts Workshops (RAW) was delighted to get the call from Heather Wastie from Alarum Productions, to add British Sign Language and subtitles to the film of her wonderful poem ‘Histrionic Water’. Alex is hearing and signs to level 6 and sometimes does communication support work in education and has previously added BSL to films and live performances. However, when it came to this project he asked his partner in business and in life, Gary O’Dowd, to do the signing. This is because the words of the poem are so expressive and visual that it made sense for a native Deaf BSL user to perform the poem. Most people who have studied BSL will quickly learn that it isn’t just about doing things with your hands and arms. Rather, it uses the whole body to communicate and in particular facial expressions and it was felt that a Deaf signer would convey this with maximum authenticity.
When it came to translating ‘Histrionic Water’, it was vital to Alex and Gary that a Deaf audience should understand what it meant. It wouldn’t do just to translate the English straight into hand gestures, like others forms of communication, for example Makaton and Sign Supported English. It had to go further and tell the story and almost act it so that a Deaf audience would understand not just the words but the meaning. Alex and Gary worked on translating the poem on paper first, and Gary practiced and practiced until the poem flowed. Filming was problematic because Gary obviously can’t hear the poem so Alex had to use hand signals and pointing to sections of the poem off camera. Even then – trying to match the timing of the spoken word was near impossible. So they shot it in small sections, in front of a greenscreen, and Alex had the unenviable task of ‘stitching’ the pieces together in video editing software to match the film of the poem. There are some fades between the signed sections because one thing BSL must do is flow – and not jump from one sign to another. Initial feedback from Deaf audiences is very encouraging:
Alex Vann from RAW said: We love working in collaborations with other organisations and artists so when Heather got in touch about this project we were very excited. One of our key values as a business is inclusion so making a film Deaf accessible is right up our street. We hope Heather’s film is a huge success and that we get to work together again in future. We were delighted to get funding support from the City of Wolverhampton to provide online art and craft activities for young people aged 10-16 as part of their February Half Term #WVVirtualSquad offer. We did a wide variety of accessible activities that saw them creating 3D cardboard sculpture, air dry clay modelling, origami paper crafts, drawings, paintings, T-shirt designs, and pop art landscapes among many other creative things.
There were sessions every day of the holidays and we provided 3 extra sessions in the evenings for 13-16 year olds, who learnt about more advanced art techniques. Art packs were made up and delivered to families in the week before the live sessions. These included all the resources required to do the projects together with a step by step workbook about each art challenge for those who weren’t able to join all the live sessions. Photo Gallery of work created
Alex Vann from RAW said: “We had a really great time leading this project and hope to do similar sessions in future as we consider the Arts to be beneficial in many ways and especially during times of lockdown”. What the Young People said: MONDAY 15th Feb A compilation of some of the stand out moments of 2020 for RAW (Real Arts Workshops).
We adapted our business in the face of a global pandemic and were able to reach many people with our (now largely online) workshops. We are grateful that our staff and volunteers remained fit and well and hope that the Arts will be recognised as one of the heroes of 2020 in terms of people's sense of wellbeing. It has been so for us. We wish all our Facebook followers a Happy New Year and hope that 2021 is a year of sustained growth for everyone. Now, so long 2020! 
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AuthorAlex Vann is an all round creative. He formed RAW in 1997 out of a University project and restarted it in 2018 after working as a graphic designer for agencies and in-house for many years. Archives
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