EASTER HAF - for Young People in WolverhamptonWe are pleased to have been funded by Wolverhampton City Council and DfE to provide Easter HAF* Specialist Arts,Craft & BSL Activities (*Holiday Activities and Food Programme).
These are FREE sessions for eligible* young people in Wolverhampton aged 8-16 (25 with an EHCP). We are holding our sessions at The Workspace at All Saints Action Network (ASAN), All Saints Road, WV2 1EL between 10am prompt and 2.30pm on 4 days:
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We have been successful in securing funding from the Youth Engagement Strategy board in Wolverhampton to deliver a week of arts, crafts and BSL activities for all young people aged 8-16 (25 with an EHCP) living in Wolverhampton. The dates are: Monday 30th October to Friday 3rd November 10am - 2.30pm each day. See advert for details and you can book places for young people using the link below.
Incredible Half Term CreativityWe were very pleased to be awarded funding for a week of creative activity in Wolverhampton, over February Half Term Holidays. The scheme is part of the wider #YES (Youth Engagement Strategy funded by City of Wolverhampton Council) offer across many providers in and around the city. We worked with 8-16 year olds (18 with an EHCP) on a wide variety of creative projects and included some BSL (British Sign Language) teaching to boot. SurrealismWe always respond to feedback we receive from young people and in October they told us they'd like to do some Surrealism. So we showed a presentation of what the art movement was all about, who the main artists were and what the lasting influence on our modern day art forms is. They created some fabulous Surreal works (see pics below) British Sign LanguageGary, a deaf director of RAW delivered some British Sign Language including fingerspelling your name, basic 'meet and greet' signs and they played a few games of 'BSL Bingo' to make sure they'd learnt everything properly! Charlie Chaplin montageBecause of the connection between Charlie Chaplin and Wolverhampton and that he was another influential multi talented artist, we delivered a short presentation about him and his work and the young people created this wonderful sectioned piece. They each took a square of the bigger picture and did it in their own way (example of magazine collage shown). When pieced together like a jigsaw, the picture comes into wonderful focus Indigenous style dot drawingsSome beautiful and affective drawings done in an Aboriginal / African style Clay CreationsThe young people made some amazing clay creations, including a delightful daffodil, a wonderful wave and mini replica of the Support Life wolf painted by RAW's director Alex Vann as part of the 'Wolves in Wolves' public art project in 2017. Pop Art greetings cards and canvas tote bagsIt's a wrap!!Final Day: We've had a blast with the team, staff, volunteers and our hosts All Saints Action Network Ltd on our Feb Half term scheme supported by City of Wolverhampton Council’s #YES Youth Engagement Strategy. Donna, one of our volunteers showed the young people her beautiful portrait painting which will soon be displayed in an exhibition at Newhampton Arts Centre One of the young people brought in some cardboard sculpture with moving parts that he’d made at home. Here's what the young people told us in their daily feedback forms:I enjoyed today as it was a group project. Some of us challenged ourselves to get through it and we did! RESULTS OF ONLINE SURVEYS COMPLETED BY THE YOUNG PEOPLEWhen asked if they enjoyed taking part 100% said 'YES' When asked if they learnt something new 100% said 'YES' When asked if they felt more creative / inspired 100% said 'YES' When asked if they'd like to attend RAW sessions again 100% said 'YES' Comments from the online surveys:They made me feel creative and I had fun and I normally don’t like drawing very much and I don’t normally get creative at school or home #YES SUCCESS! February Half Term 2022We were grateful for funding from City of Wolverhampton Council to run Holiday Activity over February Half Term week, 2022. We delivered a wide range of creative activities for young people ages 10-16, SEND and Deaf friendly. The young people created some fantastic pieces of art including:
Alongside the creative activities they also learnt some British Sign Language Here's what they told us: “I enjoyed them because I liked making the cool monsters” Christmas Half Term Activities are 'educational and fun'Real Arts Workshops (RAW) were pleased to be awarded a grant from City of Wolverhampton Council to deliver arts, crafts and BSL activities over Christmas Half Term. The funding is from Department for Education for young people who are eligible for the HAF (Holidays Activities and Food) programme. Alex Vann, a director of RAW said: “This funding required RAW to incorporate some education about healthy food choices for young people and we did this in various creative ways such as still life drawing, poster design and decorating pots containing fruit and water. We worked with a fantastic group of young people aged 10-16, some with very complex needs so we needed to ensure our activities were engaging and fun as well as educational.” Here's what the young people told us:20.12.21 'Support Life' Art ExhibitionIn November 2019, RAW curated the ‘Support Life’ art exhibition at Light House Media Centre in Wolverhampton to raise awareness of the issue of Suicide Prevention. The exhibition was supported by Outside Centre, an organisation in Wolverhampton concerned with disability access to the Arts. This organisation were the driving force behind the hugely successful ‘Wolves in Wolves’ public art trail in 2017. Alex Vann, founder of RAW, decorated the ‘Support Life’ wolf which is concerned with Suicide Prevention and mental well-being. The wolf gives it’s name to the exhibition. We put a call out for submissions to the exhibition on social media and by word of mouth for example at our ongoing workshops and by attending events that were around mental well being. We set up a dedicated Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SupportLifeExhibition/ so could share the stories of the artworks, artists and exhibition updates. 32 artists submitted work -which was a mixture of drawings, painting, prints, tattoo designs, sculpture, poetry, video and performance. Here is a small selection: The exhibition also included a signposting section to agencies that are dedicated to suicide prevention The exhibition was opened officially by the Mayor of Wolverhampton and a percentage of sales went to The Mayors Charities which is 2019-20 were
Key Dates Exhibition dates 5 – 30 November 2019. Dates of events & workshops: 8.11.19: Official Launch event by Mayor of Wolves, Clarie Darke. MCee’d by local actor / theatre leader Tonia Daley-Campbell / with performances by local poet: Brendan Hawthorne and musician Alex Vann plus testimonials by some of the exhibiting artists. 12.11.19: Honesty Portraits Workshop: designing and painting a 3D mask which reflects how you REALLY feel – not a surface ‘I’m ok’ (the concept for ‘Honesty Portraits’ originally came from some work I’d seen by Becky Lawley a young artist who struggles with mental health problems. She and her sister (12) both had work in the Support Life exhibition). 16.11.19: Design a ‘5 Ways to Wellbeing’ poster: Using the NHS initiative as a basis for drawing / writing / telling others what YOU will do to improve your mental well-ness: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/improve-mental-wellbeing/ 23.11.19 : Design a Wolves in Wolves ‘Support Life’ wolf: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolves_in_Wolves http://www.wolvesinwolves.co.uk/artists/about/wolf10.html (the original wolf design by Alex Vann) 27.11.19: Performance evening: Hosted by Alex Vann, included performances by Billy Spakemon / Brendan Hawthorne and The Dissenters. The Dissenters are a group of vulnerably housed people who attend a drop in centre at SIFA Fireside in Birmingham, https://www.sifafireside.co.uk/
Videos from the Performance Evening are available on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmuIArtxp_fjuz5x-Msuh_A/featured?view_as=subscriber We know the exhibition had direct impact on individuals because of:
Exact numbers of people attending are difficult to quantify, however: We have 70 tags on the tree – (obviously not everyone who visited would write one) And 34 comments in the book. 40% of sales from artworks would go to the Mayor’s charities. In addition, Ben Vann (nephew of Alex and owner of a tattoo shop) designed some Support Life tattoos and 50% proceeds from people having these were donated to the charity. COMMENTS BOOK SELECTION:
SIGNPOSTING TO SUPPORT AGENCIES:
Our annual review video is now on YouTube! Please spend a few minutes out of your day to see all the ways in which RAW has grown in 2019. We have delivered AT LEAST 118 separate workshop sessions, reached 439 people directly with our work and collaborated with at least 19 different agencies Here are a few standout moments, though these get added to daily! Here are a few more images from what has been a 'full on' year, delivering high quality bespoke art sessions to all sorts of community groups:
We had an amazing (and busy) time over Summer with various activities aimed at enriching the arts experience of young people in the Midlands. Working with HeadStart Wolverhampton, we delivered the Summer Arts Programme at Low Hill Hub. We are hoping to enter some of the young people into the Arts Award 'Explore' qualification and part of that is visiting and exploring an Arts Organisation and the lovely staff at Wolverhampton Art Gallery facilitated a fascinating behind the scenes visit. Whilst we were there we bumped in the Mayor of Wolverhampton (as you do!) Claire Darke who invited them to visit her parlour a different day. Which we did, see more about that below. We also worked with our colleagues at BID Services Birmingham again, on a brilliant 'Messy Nature Art' workshop which started with the young people gathering natural materials from a local park and then creating paintings and 3D items. All the young people are Deaf or Hard of hearing and as RAW members Alex and Gary both sign, this is not an issue! We think their artwork looks great: Messy Nature ArtWe ran the Messy Nature Art session again with the young people at Low Hill Hub and again we were impressed with the results We also got them to paint the picnic benches outside which were looking a bit worse for wear! Knife Crime PreventionAn important issue to us is the prevention of knife crime. We have developed a highly creative and interactive workshop around that which gets young people asking themselves questions about their own paths: where they see themselves years into the future, what qualifications they will need to get where they want to be, who their role models are so that they can make positive decisions about their own futures. We used the huge interactive graffiti screen at Low Hill Hub, created a pop up art gallery with anti knife pledges and integrated sign language into it too. Here are a few pics: Day Trips to Wolverhampton Art Gallery, The Mayor and University of WolverhamptonWe wanted to take the young people out of Low Hill Hub on a cultural visit to the Art Gallery - as this would broaden their horizons and also go towards Arts Award evidence if they decided they'd like to do that qualification which is recognised on the government's framework. We had a fascinating behind the scenes tour from the senior curator, Carol. We learnt that there are about 18,000 items in the gallery collections, some of which have to be stored in stable humidity because they are so old, delicate and fragile. The young people then got a tour of the galleries, made drawings of what they saw and asked LOADS of questions! While we were at the gallery we bumped into Mayor of Wolverhampton, Claire Darke, who was happy to come and talk to the young people. she invited them to her parlour and as she and RAW founder Alex Vann are both University of Wolverhampton alumni we combined a visit with the university where the young people saw Alex's design 'Support Life' which was part of the Wolves in Wolves project. They made drawings of the sculpture and asked Alex questions about it. Again this can go towards their Arts Award qualification. Here are a few pictures from the day: A Song for Low HillWe were pleased to be invited to the Bushbury EMB annual festival. We had a stall doing arts activities for young people who drop in and we also performed a brand new song 'A Song For Low Hill' for which our regular group had learnt sign language for. Here is a YouTube clip of the performance: ...and a few photos from the day and of the artwork the young people created for the lyrics so everyone in the audience could join in singing.
Working with BID Services Youth ClubMay 6-12th was Deaf Awareness Week in the UK. RAW delivered several projects including one with BID Services Youth Club, Birmingham based around Deaf identity. It followed on from an earlier project we ran with adults in Wolverhampton where we created a giant (5ft high) cardboard sculpture of signing hands, decorated with posters, drawings and words made by Deaf and hearing people (see photos at the bottom of this blog). Young people with the final giant signing hands, now in the reception of BID SERVICES. Some of the brilliant creative work being made. Deaf Awareness at Mossley Community Arts ClubOur very own #DAWRoleModels2019 Gary O'Dowd led a Deaf Awareness session as part of our regular Community Arts Club on Tuesday evenings, 4.30-6.30pm at Mattesley Court, Walsall. Giant signing hands for DeafFest 2019A slideshow of closeups of the artwork created by mixed hearing and Deaf people at our joint Art Day with Zebra Access at Newhampton Arts Centre, Wolverhampton.
The sculpture will be on show at Deaffest at Lighthouse Media Centre 17-19 May 2019. RAW will have at stall 10am-4pm on Saturday 18th May. Come and meet us! We are excited to be working in association with Deaf organisation ZEBRA ACCESS on a unique art project at Newhampton Arts Centre, Wolverhampton WV1 4AN.
The day starts at 10.30am and finishes at 3.30pm with an hour for lunch (there is a cafe on site or you can bring your own). We will be making a 3D sculpture using recycled materials - exploring Deaf identity, culture and experiences. There are craft activities for children too. Hearing friends and family are welcome. This is a free event but please email [email protected] or text him on 07472 958534 to let him know if you are coming. |
AuthorReal Arts Workshops is an independent arts company based in the Black Country, providing bespoke workshops for various organisations and groups. Archives
August 2024
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