Oh, What a Year! |
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Welcome to the final 'RAW NEWS' of 2022.
We've done a round-up of just a few of the projects we've been involved in this year, and hope you enjoy reading about how the Arts continue to have a profound effect on groups and individuals of all ages.
We look forward to seeing you in 2023.
Best wishes,
Alex and Gary
We've done a round-up of just a few of the projects we've been involved in this year, and hope you enjoy reading about how the Arts continue to have a profound effect on groups and individuals of all ages.
We look forward to seeing you in 2023.
Best wishes,
Alex and Gary
Winter HAF 2022
We had a fabulous week just before Christmas working with WV10 Consortium to deliver art and craft activities for young people attending their Winter HAF scheme at Big Venture Centre and Fifth Avenue Community Centre.
We have put a slideshow together with some of the young peoples' creations....
We have put a slideshow together with some of the young peoples' creations....
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We've had an extremely busy Summer!
We were delighted to be able to work on several projects during the Summer holidays of 2022.
In week 1 we worked with WV10 Consortium and in particular the 'Arty Garden' Project at Stratton Street Community Centre.
Weeks 2-5 we were delivering our own Summer HAF project funded by City of Wolverhampton Council and Department for Education at All Saints Action Network.
In week 6 we worked with Wolverhampton Social Prescribing service on a range of activities for young people aged 13-17.
Read the full details for each project below:
In week 1 we worked with WV10 Consortium and in particular the 'Arty Garden' Project at Stratton Street Community Centre.
Weeks 2-5 we were delivering our own Summer HAF project funded by City of Wolverhampton Council and Department for Education at All Saints Action Network.
In week 6 we worked with Wolverhampton Social Prescribing service on a range of activities for young people aged 13-17.
Read the full details for each project below:
Week 1: The 'Arty Garden' Project at Stratton Street Community Centre
We love working with other organisations and this Summer had the pleasure of working with WV10 Consortium and in particular one of their member organisations, Stratton Street Community Centre. They do so much for the local community that is was great to be able to help make their ‘secret garden’ even more inviting by tidying up the space, painting a mural on the outside fence, decorating the inside panels with recycled bottle flowers and upcycling old furniture and tyres to make a colourful and vibrant environment.
Why not visit the Community centre and take your own 'Butterfly Selfie' to share on social media :-)
Weeks 2-5 : Summer HAF activities
We were grateful to receive a HAF (Holidays Activities and Food) grant from City of Wolverhampton Council and Department for Education to provide 4 weeks of activities for eligible young people.
We provided them with a wide range of enrichment activities that included visual arts, activities linked to healthy eating, learning new skills, trying something new and learning from visiting artists.
Here are just a few photos:
We provided them with a wide range of enrichment activities that included visual arts, activities linked to healthy eating, learning new skills, trying something new and learning from visiting artists.
Here are just a few photos:
Healthy Eating
Drawing and Painting
Sign Song: 'We Shine Together'.
Watch the video of the YP performing the song in sign language:
Andy Warhol's 'Campbell's New England Clam Chowder Soup'
British Art Show 9 Activities
African / British artist Michael Armitage was one of the artists exhibiting at British Art Show in Wolverhampton earlier in the year 2022. His style inspired the following artworks.
British Sign Language (BSL) Learning with Gary
Our very own Deaf role model Gary O'Dowd taught the young people some basic of sign language and included some Healthy food options vocabulary as part of the requirement of the HAF funding.
Cardboard Art
At the start of our project the young people creating a 6ft cardboard wolf, decorated with their own drawings and paintings and with a recycling box at the base to encourage people to do their bit for the environment.
Later in the project they made models of Wolverhampton landmarks - they are brilliant!
Later in the project they made models of Wolverhampton landmarks - they are brilliant!
Crafts and Clay Modelling
A variety of creations using clay, papers, pots and ceramic tiles. Also, some sun prints using special photosensitive Cyanotype papers.
Visiting Artists
One of the important things we do is introduce young people to practising professional artists. This summer we were lucky to have 3 people show them their work. Lewis a recent graduate in graphic design, Donna a painter and drawer who led a fab colour mixing theory workshop and Rhianna, a young person herself who showed her small business making polymer clay bracelet charms and her journey on RAW sessions which led to being exhibited at Wolverhampton Art Gallery.
One of the young people made his own board game at home during our programme and brought it in and shared that with the group too. :-)
One of the young people made his own board game at home during our programme and brought it in and shared that with the group too. :-)
Feedback from the young people
Headlines from online surveys:
This was the best day ever!
I enjoyed Lewis’s presentation because I got to learn about possible careers combining art and other passions.
I loved doing the optical illusion drawings. They were challenging but fun.
Today the BSL learning was cool.
I really liked the painting on bark.
The Healthy Eating poster was so fun, thank you so much.
I met new friends.
I loved the African dot painting.
I enjoyed painting with meaning and expressing myself.
I had lots of fun learning about new things and new skills in art and I would like to come next year too.
Very awesome – we made stuff I could never do before.
WE BEAT ANDY WARHOL!
The way the staff expressed the art and they did amazing I ❤️ everything
They allowed me to find different area of art that I enjoyed and I will continue to practice outside of RAW
I met new friends and I got to share my art journey and how I started my business. I also love the activities especially the singing ‘we shine together’!!🤗😇
Because it was fun and it made me feel creative
I loved that the staff was friendly and helpful and they always helped if you needed support well done guys I m happy 😃 for you guys🥰
It was amazing I made new friends and the staff are amazing and lovely I couldn’t ask for more.
I even have a corner of my room dedicated to RAW now!
Week 6: Social Prescribing / Thriving Communities art project
What an amazingly creative group of young people aged 13-17!
From the first day making a cardboard tree in sections that reflect the seasons of the year to making models of Wolverhampton Art Gallery of the Future, they impressed us (and the gallery) with their skills and ideas.
Just look at what they did....
From the first day making a cardboard tree in sections that reflect the seasons of the year to making models of Wolverhampton Art Gallery of the Future, they impressed us (and the gallery) with their skills and ideas.
Just look at what they did....
Watch the video of 'Art Galleries of the Future.'
BRITISH ART SHOW 9 - Public Engagement Ambassador Project
Alex Vann, a director of RAW, was delighted to work as Public Engagement Ambassador for British Art Show 9 in March and April 2022. In a project sponsored by University of Wolverhampton, Alex worked with Social Prescribing link workers and adult participants in Wolverhampton and delivered 5 workshops, across 2 locations: the University's School of Art and Wolverhampton Art Gallery.
The British Art Show is a landmark touring exhibition that celebrates the vitality of recent art made in Britain. Organised every five years by Hayward Gallery Touring the exhibition brings the work of artists defining new directions in contemporary art to four cities across the UK.
BAS9 is curated by Irene Aristizábal and Hammad Nasar, and presented in collaboration with the cities of Aberdeen, Wolverhampton, Manchester and Plymouth.
The British Art Show is a landmark touring exhibition that celebrates the vitality of recent art made in Britain. Organised every five years by Hayward Gallery Touring the exhibition brings the work of artists defining new directions in contemporary art to four cities across the UK.
BAS9 is curated by Irene Aristizábal and Hammad Nasar, and presented in collaboration with the cities of Aberdeen, Wolverhampton, Manchester and Plymouth.
| The exhibition is structured around three main themes:
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These themes were agreed prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and the global recognition of racial injustice sparked by the Black Lives Matter protests of summer 2020. All three are even more relevant now.
34 artists showed in BAS9 in Wolverhampton to look at how we live with and give voice to difference, while also extending our understanding of identity to beyond the human. Their projects often blur the boundaries between art and life, and imagine alternative futures. Through their works, they propose alternative economies and ways of living together that emphasise commonality, collaboration and care. They do so through film, photography, painting, sculpture, and performance, as well as through projects that don’t sit easily in any one category.
Alex chose to focus on the work of one of the artists exhibiting in Wolverhampton: Michael Armitage.
34 artists showed in BAS9 in Wolverhampton to look at how we live with and give voice to difference, while also extending our understanding of identity to beyond the human. Their projects often blur the boundaries between art and life, and imagine alternative futures. Through their works, they propose alternative economies and ways of living together that emphasise commonality, collaboration and care. They do so through film, photography, painting, sculpture, and performance, as well as through projects that don’t sit easily in any one category.
Alex chose to focus on the work of one of the artists exhibiting in Wolverhampton: Michael Armitage.
Workshop # 1: Introduction to Social Prescribing Link workers
Michael Armitage's work
 Photo © Graham Everitt | Born in Kenya in 1984, Armitage moved to London to study art, gaining a BA from the Slade School of Art in 2007 and an MA from the Royal Academy in 2010. He relies heavily on his childhood experiences when painting, depicting scenes of plane crashes and acts of violence that he experienced as a young boy.  Michael Armitage portrait © Khadija Farah |
| While Michael Armitage insists he is not a political artist, it is difficult to deny that there is a sense of protest throughout his work. Touching on themes of homosexuality, women’s rights and terrorism, he explores the reality of his home country and raises questions about the culture.  Photo © Graham Everitt |  Photo © Graham Everitt When coming up with subjects for his work, Armitage will look at newspapers local to his home country and combine topics with his own memories to come up with something completely unique. |
| Armitage shuns traditional western canvas in favour of lubugo bark cloth, a burial cloth made by beating the bark until it stretches into a fabric. He takes several scrap pieces of the Ugandan material and stitches them together before he starts to paint. (watch the video which showing the cloth being made) | Video of lubugo bark cloth being made: Video from Royal Academy of Arts Facebook page. |
Photos © Graham Everitt: Showing the 'imperfections' in Armitage's canvases. These so called 'imperfections' become integral and beautiful parts of the paintings. In the same way people have 'imperfections' but these are an important and valid part of who they are.
In this first session, as well as giving a background to British Art Show 9 and Michael Armitage's work, Alex encouraged the link workers to create their own artwork, using a 2D style to echo Armitage's style at the same time as doing a 'Post-It' note activity about possible practical activities their participants might enjoy and the impact the project might have on them.
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Workshop #2: Asian Women's group
Facilitated by Ros Manasseh, this session focused on the use of lumbago bark in Armitage's work. The video above shows the process of the bark being made into a cloth and its importance on the culture of the Baganda people in Uganda.
Alex did his own example paintings and encouraged the participants to make their own paintings on specially sources bark board with the possibility of making Rangoli style designs to put their own culture into the artworks.
Alex did his own example paintings and encouraged the participants to make their own paintings on specially sources bark board with the possibility of making Rangoli style designs to put their own culture into the artworks.
 Example by Alex Vann in a Rangoli style on reverse of bark board |  Portrait of Michael Armitage by Alex Vann on front of the same piece of board |
Beautiful artworks made by the participants
Workshop #3: Art 'Novices' (i)
For this workshop, Alex wanted to provide an accessible art technique which allowed the participants to create 2D artworks influenced by Africa and decided to use the African Dot Painting technique.
This simple but effective technique uses either acrylic paint and cotton buds or paint pens on black paper / card to paint pictures either of the participants own designs or using templates. Below are downloads of the resources used.
This simple but effective technique uses either acrylic paint and cotton buds or paint pens on black paper / card to paint pictures either of the participants own designs or using templates. Below are downloads of the resources used.
All the work above has been made by 'art novices' and we think it's fantastic - what do you think?
Resource 1:
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Resource 2:
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Workshop #4: Experienced artists
Alex focused on the use of animals in Michael Armitage's (and other artists') art. Animals can have many significant meanings and the participants used this as a starting point to create a piece of work which combined an animal that has meaning to them with another aspect which tells us more about their own personalities. Alex's example was a lion with a vibrant Pride flag backdrop.
Workshop #5: Art 'Novices' (ii)
In the final workshop which included some of the experienced artists from the previous session as well as the group of 'novices' we looked at 'newspaper mosaics' as a way of created 2D art - like we'd done in the very first session with Link Worker staff.
Some people chose to create dot paintings and it was nice to see some digital art too - from a talented participate who preferred to use an Apple Pencil and the ProCreate app in iPad Pro.
Some people chose to create dot paintings and it was nice to see some digital art too - from a talented participate who preferred to use an Apple Pencil and the ProCreate app in iPad Pro.
Resource 3:
| HOW TO MAKE NEWSPAPER MOSAICS.pdf |
FURTHER RESEARCH
1. The Influence of European Art on Michael Armitage
2. Armitage's painting style
This was a highly rewarding and fulfilling project all round and some of the participants' artworks will be featured in an exhibition of works by other British Art Show 9 Ambassador projects at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, 24th April - 15th May 2022.
Author
Real Arts Workshops is an independent arts company based in the Black Country, providing bespoke workshops for various organisations and groups.
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