envision

The context

The organisation

Fruitful Arts provides Visual Art Workshops in Galleries, Museums and the Community through collaboration with partners. Artists Mandy Roberts & Tricia Hall set up Fruitful Arts in 2005. Both qualified educators, they have set up an independent, flexible organization that can manage, coordinate and deliver art projects in a range of settings.

Fruitful Arts mission is to
•    Improve understanding and awareness of contemporary art through increased participation and greater access.
•    Raise aspirations and self-esteem through engagement in creative learning

OUTPOST is an artist run gallery based in Norwich. It was founded in November 2004 with financial support form Arts Council England East, Norfolk County Council, Norwich City Council and Norwich Gallery.  OUTPOST is committed - in a region with few such venues - to the uncompromising presentation of contemporary art, resulting in a core programme of 12 exhibitions per year.  A programme of events is also run that includes film nights, critical forums, group exhibitions and artists' talks.  Its operating systems limit committee members to two years service to ensure that selection and organisational processes are prevented from becoming stale.

Fruitful Arts employs two artist directors. The annual turnover is £25,000.
Outpost is an independent artist led space run by a voluntary management committee.
 

Website: OUTPOST Gallery, Norwich

The situation

To help young people to engage with their own artistic creativity.

This particular group of young people are extremely vulnerable 13-15 yr olds who are at risk of exclusion from school, have particular engagement needs, and who would benefit from creative diversionary activities to retain them within the education system.  Many are not confident about or even aware where their creative strengths lie. They also have limited opportunities to visit or take part in activities away from their immediate community and to work alongside new and different people. Practical creative activities with in the gallery context addresses all of these issues and this is important for the empowerment of young people both socially and in terms of their self esteem.   

To progress the potential for connection and openness of the gallery to young people.

Although the Gallery committee and audience is comprised of many of young adults, very few children and teenagers were visiting and the gallery there is no formal education or YP agenda. The project presented and opportunity to progress the potential for connection and openness of the gallery to young people and to see how education projects can be done.
Anna Townley of Outpost Gallery said:

“I think it is really important education work opening the gallery up
to a younger audience. The gallery needs to find ways to be more accessible. It is a bit exclusive at the moment.”

The idea

The idea was for young people to engage with every exhibition through group work, game and strategies devised by the artist leaders to enable YP to get more involved and give security. Then they went on to create their own individual artwork. We wanted to use physical art because it’s a more exciting starting point to find out what the young participants would like to have a go at them selves.

Outpost shows challenging, conceptual work, when YP are supported to engage with the work in a safe atmosphere, it can shift their perception of what art can be. This in turn can be liberating, enabling YP to become more comfortable with abstract ideas and confident to create something unique them selves. The idea was not art appreciation but learning from more experienced artists, for the group to see themselves as a part of a chain of creative people who learn from and reference each other.

And breaking down myths/ fears about contemporary art in galleries.

participants said
“It would be good if young people could learn artists’ skills at the gallery and then teach them to other young people in the future.”
“At the gallery and project space young people learn to work together”.

Working alongside artists provided opportunities for 1:1 chats, group work, listening to advice and suggestions.

The project

Planning

The project was managed and led by Tricia Hall and Mandy Roberts from Fruitful Arts took place at OUTPOST Gallery.

NR5 into OUTPOST was a successful project led by Fruitful Arts at the gallery in 2006-7. The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts knew this work and so asked Outpost Gallery to take part in Envision.

The Gallery is an independent artist led space with no paid staff. This impacts enormously on its capacity to take on new projects so the OUTPOST committee asked Fruitful Arts to coordinate and deliver the project on their behalf. Although the Gallery agreed to the project in principle they had very limited involvement.

NR5 had been a pilot involving an older group from The NR5 project. All the partners were keen to build on the learning from this project and so we chose to continue the successful working partnership we had begun on NR5 into OUTPOST.

Young People didn’t influence planning at the out set, staff issues meant that they came as a year group at a time which fitted in with the gallery and their timetable. We chose to work outside of gallery opening hours. Young people did however influence workshop content as the project progressed by giving clear feedback and expressing preferences, which were listened to and acted upon. Young people's enjoyment and engagement with their own practice was the primary focus but content was influenced by the exhibition such as the art form and artists ideas, this ensured that we worked with as wide a range of mediums as possible.

Delivery

There were twelve sessions lasting an hour and a quarter, which happened on Wednesday mornings for three weeks of every month from July- November 07. (excluding school holidays) Dates were determined by the gallery programming.

Sessions were artist led and between three and eight young people were accompanied by their tutor and sometimes also a youth worker. Numbers were affected by general attendance at ‘school’ (NR5) and some times young people were not allowed to come because they had been badly behaved in a previous gallery session.   

The first session of every exhibition began in the gallery and we used group work or devices to engage with the show, such as matching the titles to artworks using stickers or setting challenges to find themes within the show.

We had booked a nearby flexi project space for times when there was limited room within the gallery so we would gather information and then walk to this space to continue more practical work but we came to use this space more often (see outcomes)

Young people used construction skills to make sculptures from discarded ICT equipment as well as wood and found materials. They also used collage and spray painting.   

A record of the project events and artwork was kept in a Project Diary and, at the end of project; they were asked what they’d particularly enjoyed:

‘Going to galleries to do art because I never used to go to galleries.’
‘I would like to do something like this again.’  (NR5 into OUTPOST young people)

Outcomes

Impact on participants

On the whole participants engaged with the space and the exhibition, asking questions & making comments. They accepted new people easily including Jackie Watson the researcher and Anna Townley from Outpost committee. Most young people have enjoyed 1:1 support. In earlier sessions there were mostly boys, they seemed to prefer getting on with practical work, in particular work involving tools and construction methods and here they have demonstrated imagination and autonomy. They took part in some more conceptual activities readily and seemed very accepting of the work on show even if it was very unconventional and fell outside expectations of traditional art mediums.
It was a surprise that the young people told us that they would visit the gallery again and they would bring their friends. They seemed to enjoy exploring the local area as much as staying in the gallery although later this became problematic with behaviour deteriorating on route to the project space.

We established a few rules together early on, which were recorded by the young people using drawing on large plastic think bubbles. The themes were respect the art work on show, respect each other and respect each others art-work. The were well received and understood and remembered, but needed re-visiting as the young people settled in and became more familiar with the space. We have had some behavioural problems and once this has presented a risk to the exhibition, which was very worrying and made us, question the viability of working in such close proximity to the work in a small gallery. We transferred to a project workspace in conjunction with visiting the Gallery, which worked better. This afforded us some peace of mind and gave the young people space to spread themselves out. It was also recognising that the young people were extremely lively, full of energy and curiosity and helped us to work with it rather than having to place constant restrictions.

1/ We did do spray painting and managed to link it to the last exhibition. It was very popular. I’d like to show that we did take notice of their mid way feedback (ref: appendix 3).
What was the best thing about the project?
“The Unit 5 and spray painting.” YP
“When we done the spray painting with Tricia and the other art we done.” YP
“Spray paint and visiting the gallery for the first time” YP

2/ There was some positive feedback about visiting the gallery too:
Has the project made you feel differently about anything?
“Going to galleries to do art because I never used to go to galleries.” YP
“I would like to do something like this again” YP

3/ Another thing that came up in the final feedback was that YP were unhappy when they weren’t allowed to join in the session because of bad behaviour.
What was the worst thing about the session?
”Emma didn’t let us in the room because we had a bad day “ YP (Emma is their tutor)
And when questioned about not being allowed to come 2 YP stuck a post it in the project diary saying they had been
“Jealous” YP

4/ Right at the end of the last session we projected questions on to the wall and the YP sprayed their answers very spontaneously using single words and symbols such as smiley faces and ticks.
(See session 12 photos – 28th November 2007)
Questions included
Do you feel more confident in galleries?
Did you learn enough art skills?
Would you like more sessions in the workshop space?
I asked them if there were questions I should have asked and they suggested
“Did you like it?
The Answers were all very short but very positive.
 

Impact on others involved

Anna Townley joined a session on behalf of OUTPOST committee, she made a lot of positive comments and suggestions and attempted to represent the project at committee meetings, otherwise sessions were completely Fruitful Arts led and the Gallery itself did not get involved beyond allowing use of the space.

Fruitful Arts made a presentation about the project at an Outpost committee meeting, Although the allotted time was only ten minutes the discussion carried on for quite a bit longer, the committee asked a lot of questions and it felt for the first time as if it were more of a two way conversation, and that the committee understood what was happening in the gallery and embraced the concept of Envision (national research project) generally. The committee also listened read the YP very honest feedback and later improvements were made to the space thought it is difficult to say if this was a direct outcome.

Otherwise there have been no concrete outcomes at the gallery yet.
NR5 staff have described the work at the gallery as invaluable.

Institutional change

Fruitful Arts has learned greatly from the project and continues to feel more confident and competent to coordinate and deliver art projects with groups like this. We are already working with the behavioural centre in another school on a mobile gallery, delivering arts awards, which acts as a kind of stepping-stone for young people who have no experience of galleries and as part of that we will be visiting exhibitions. 

Lessons learned

What worked and what didn’t

1.    I think we helped to break down some myths and fears about contemporary art in galleries for the young people and enabled them to engage with the work without prejudice.
2.    Young people worked closely and collaboratively with each other and the artists and listened to advice and suggestions about creative processes. We forged good relationships.
3.    Showed young people that we were listening to their feedback and that this influenced our planning.
4.    Arranging for an exhibiting Artist Robin Tarbet to be involved in a session linked to his work.   
5.    Showing young people how much we valued their work, not least by exhibiting it.

Practical ideas that were particularly successful:
•    Using playful strategies to help engage with the exhibitions.
•    Suggesting that the researcher collect midway feedback away from the gallery and from us (the artists) during a separate session back at the NR5 Project.
•    Establishing rules together (through drawing ‘pictionary’ style) in the first session in a medium that could be easily revisited.
•    Organising separate project space for practical work. 
•    Projecting questions onto the wall at the end of the session project and letting young people spray their answers.
•    Keeping the project diary

Things that didn’t work in hindsight:

•    Thinking that the Gallery could or would want to prioritize activities involving young people.
•    Taught more art skills across the art forms, but this would have required a longer project.
•    Not much contact yet between the committee and young people.
•    Young OUTPOST committee members could be seen as role models for the young people because they are closer in age.

Next steps

Fruitful Arts has learned greatly from the project and continues to feel more confident and competent to coordinate and deliver art projects with groups like this. We are already working with the behavioural centre in another school on a mobile gallery, delivering arts awards, which acts as a kind of stepping-stone for young people who have no experience of galleries and as part of that we will be visiting exhibitions.

We asked Outpost Gallery for their feedback about the project and Anna Townly said this
“I think it is really important education work opening the gallery up
to a younger audience. The gallery needs to find ways to be more accessible. It is a bit exclusive at the moment.”:
“Really great what Fruitful Arts has been doing with these young people. It has been a learning curve for the committee to see how education projects
can be/ are done”.

There have not been any further developments yet that Fruitful Arts are aware of but the project finished very recently and there were positive comments from committee members who saw en-titled. Perhaps we scratched the surface, showed that this kind of project can happen safely without compromising the exhibitions.