Creative ID: 243
Christchurch
My arts or creative practice (including details about my specific focus within that art form/practice and my strengths)
For the past thirty years I have worked as an artist. During this time I have been involved in a diverse range of projects that have encompassed photographic work with farmers to bread-making with former refugees. What connects all of these is the commitment to supporting people to explore their creative potential. I have undertaken many projects and artist residencies in educational settings working with students, of all ages, from primary to high school, and in special education centres working with students with a range of behavioural issues and alternative learning centres with students excluded from mainstream education. My approach is always to enable students to explore the creative process and how they can then use it across curriculum areas to support and shape the development of their own creative practice. Taking a student-centred approach has meant as an artist I have developed flexible ways of working and use different artistic techniques to enable the students to best express their creative ambitions.
My track record of experience and success - or the track record of experience and success of the creative or artist that I will partner with
I have been involved in a number of school-based creative projects, both in the UK and NewZealand, which have involved working with many different art forms including: painting, printmaking, sculpture, sound art, film making and animation. I participated in the ‘Artists in Schools’ programme in 2009, as artist in residence, where I worked with Year 10 students for 10 weeks using a diverse range of creative interventions to reimagine their school environment. My approach is one where the students are encouraged to develop and form their own ways of creative working, where they bring their own interests and ideas to the project. This supports and encourages them to use their own unique perspective in approaching and tackling issues both in their creative work and across the wider curriculum.
Describe the experience you have had working with children or young people, teaching or facilitating creative processes
As an artist, my creative practice enables me to bring a different approach to working in an educational setting, one that explores creativity and connects, sometimes disparate ideas, across the curriculum, to deliver a rich and creative learning experience. Working in a creative way encourages a deep understanding and exploration of the issue, problem, or theme being studied, it allows for risk taking and failures to be part of the creative process and in turn builds resilience. This supports the well-being of the students to better deal with problems and issues through creative problem solving, by taking risks, dealing with failures, being adaptable, and working through the problem to develop solutions.
Why I want to be part of the Creatives in Schools programme and how my involvement will link to my creative practice
My own creative practice is always enhanced by working with schools and students. Their approach and ideas provide new ideas and ways of looking at the world that inform my own work. Through my own work as an artist over the past thirty years, I have seen changes in the approach the education sector has taken towards creativity and the benefits it can bring. I still believe there is more to be done in integrating creativity into the sector but also in everyday life and that opportunities to work toward this goal are important.