envision

The context

The organisation

The Study Gallery is a contemporary visual art space based on the campus of Bournemouth and Poole College, Dorset. The gallery shows between 4 and 5 exhibitions each year, many of the exhibitions include new work by artists; the gallery also looks after and displays the College's permanent collection of art work, which includes work by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, DerekJarman. Glynn Williams.Tony Cragg and Bridget Riley (please see appendix.fig.l)
The Study Gallery encourages people to learn at different times in different ways, often initiating and leading an experience and equally offering the opportunity for independent discovery.
Different styles of learning are offered: play, contemplation, (1)

experimentation, research, interpretation, making and communication through other art forms.
Throughout the gallery, the studio is as visible as the exhibition spaces. Visitors are encouraged to ask questions, find a place to draw, to take photographs, to paint, to read, to talk, to join in with something already taking place.
Since opening in 2000, The Study Gallery has developed partnerships and projects with many different community groups from schools and local art's societies to young skateboarders, residents of a local housing association and the RNLI. The Study Gallery's mission statement and ethos is very simply to provide and support opportunities to 'Share, Study and Respond'. This way of thinking has provided the basic framework for all work to date.
Partners and flinders - the Gallery is a registered charity, the college pay some staff wages, core funding is generated through commercial activity, work with schools, grants and partnership work.
-Number of staff and annual turnover
There are 11 permanent members of staff. Annual turnover for the financial year 05/06 was £291,510.

Website: The Study Gallery

The situation

The aim of the project was to encourage more young people to actively use the Study Gallery by strengthening existing partnerships. This is vital to the future success of the gallery as a resource for learning within the community.
The Study Gallery is interested in providing more opportunities for young people to be involved in the future of the Gallery- what it does, who it's future partners will be and how the gallery can support the creative and cultural future of those living in Dorset
The Study Gallery is part of the Bournemouth and Poole Cultural hub. As part of 'Hub' work, the gallery has been working with a (2)
group of youngsters to develop and build a one stop information site called 'Hubalicious' (fig.2). Hubalicious will show and review the work of young people in the arts, as well as providing useful information on events, gigs and career opportunities in the cultural sector. The aim of this is to reach a new audience of youngsters outside of the more traditional methods.
The Envision workshops could offer Hubalicious opportunities to participants, e.g. becoming active Hubalicious members and/or through the interventions created as part of the programme being showcased on the website.

The idea

The original idea was for a project which was fairly structured and activity led to help the group feel comfortable with each other, the gallery staff and space. An exploration of the gallery (it's nature,role.who it is for) would take place using technology creatively- via the web, mobile phones and digital cameras.
The group would have access to exhibition, the gallery art store and over a number of sessions, explore the idea of using the gallery's collection as a springboard for their own work as a collective or individually.
Access would be available to the galleries research materials and the Internet to help support research into a particular artist or artwork. In parallel with this research the group would have opportunities to develop their ideas through drawing, photography, digital media etc, their own work might also become part of their online collection and could work towards an event or exhibition at the Gallery.
Throughout this process there would be opportunities to examine areas of The Study Gallery's work and for the young people involved to air their views and help develop the gallery's audience development strategies for young people. Visits to other cultural organisations to see different approaches in action would be an important part of the project and help the group to make informed decisions.
(3)
The project was planned to take place between April and June, structured as weekly after school meetings and workshops and subject to negotiation with the young people taking part. The activity was intended if possible to integrate within the community education programme (WOW-What's On Wednesdays).

The project

Planning

Following the Envision conference held at Tate Modern, the project was planned through meetings between Sandy Wilderspin (The Study Gallery Education co-ordinator) and myself (Rachel Larkins, artist/co-ordinator for the project). My previous involvement with the gallery has been through running holiday workshops and Saturday morning ArtStars sessions with 7-12yr olds. Other relevant experience includes teaching regularly in Further Education and working as a practising artist for Creative Partnerships in Berkshire.
Richard Wall is the Corfe Hill school co-ordinator for extra curricular activites and he recruited the participating group. His job is to encourage students with wide ranging capabilities,e.g. those with learning difficulties and those considered to be gifted and able.
Previously, he had visited The Study Gallery of Modern Art with an 'At Risk' group of students. However, they were not available within the project's timeframe. Similarly, The Youths Service, who expressed a strong interest, had no potential participants available before July. Participants then, were selected and contacted via Richard.
Richard was initially contacted via 'phone and email to discuss arrangements and also made constructive suggestions during sessions.
We were keen to allow the content to be directed by the participants (4)
as far as was practically possible therefore the programme outline was not absolutely specific in it's content at the beginning. The aim was to actively tailor the programme according to feedback at the end of each session. The original workshop programme outline was as follows;
17th April- Study Gallery. Introduction to aims of project, gallery,(possibly gallery staff depending on their availability). Use mobile phones to record first impressions of gallery/ aspects of the Study Gallery's current exhibition, Matt Chivers drawings and sculptures (fig.3)
24th April- Visit to Russell Cotes museum and Art Gallery with a talk and tour by Rachel McArdle on 'A Celebration of the Sea' exhibition, curated from the museums own collection.
1st May- Study Gallery- A look at the museum's collection, discussing research so far, pick out a work from the collection to form a centrepiece to be made by the group for their exhibition.
8th May- Study Gallery- Begin creating a collaborative piece of work-which could be 2-d or 3-d, inspired by a piece from the Study Gallery collection. This could be a reinterpretation of a work which forms part of the show curated by the students (on mobile phones/ in gallery space).
15th May- Study Gallery, practical hands on session, possibly with another artist.
22nd May- Study Gallery-Feedback from students about their experience of the Gallery (as well as during the early stages).
During the planning stages, we discussed the possibility of employing another artist to lead sessions according to the sort of media the participants were interested in exploring; I also spent time at the gallery (and online) familiarising myself with the gallery's collection, current exhibitions and staffing set-up.

Delivery

The participants were aged between 14-15yrs. The group initially consisted of nine Year 10 students, five of whom had no formal interest in the subject area of Art and Design (i.e. were not studying it for G.C.S.E). Seven of the nine participants had not visited the Study Gallery before.
The pupils put forward for the project by the school were described as students of average ability. No further selection (e.g. interviews,references) took place, because this did not seem to be in the spirit of the project. Through informal discussion it became apparent that at least one participant could be considered 'at risk' due to truanting. This pupil attended two sessions but declined to return when a friend was absent for the third session due to illness.
There were five sessions in all which took place on Tuesdays from mid April through to the end of May. These could not take place on a regular weekly basis as initially anticipated due to exams and other school commitments. They were held on the following dates;
17th April 24th April 8th May 22nd May 29th May
It became apparent fairly early on that a flexible approach would have to be taken to timetabling- other affecting factors included availability of co-ordinators and gallery/studio space, which is booked in advance for a range of other educational commitments.
Initially, the sessions were to be two hours long, which it was felt would be appropriate in order to maintain levels of concentration and also from the practical consideration of school timetabling.
According to the school timetable, students could attend between 11.30am-lpm one week and 12.45pm-2.30pm the following week. Due to travel arrangements (via a 20min minibus journey) and lunch timings, this cut the first session down to just over Ihr. Subsequent sessions fell on the longer 12.45-2.30 slot. For the fourth and final
timetabled session (with the participants coming as a group in the minibus), there was the opportunity to extend the session from 9.30am to 2.30pm. A fifth optional ' in' session was offered during the half term week (29th May) running from llam-3pm.

Richard Wall (the Corfe Hill school co-ordinator for the participating group) attended all of the sessions. The school's head ofArtJo Wells also came to the first session.
The workshops were timed according to the availability of the participants, and so did not run on a regular weekly basis due to exams, holidays and work experience.
The actual workshop programme ran as follows;

Session 1 17th April
As outlined during the planning stage, mobile phones were used to
collect a gallery of photographs of the participants' first
impressions (fig.4). This session was probably the most hurried, as
the school bus was late arriving at the gallery.

An introduction was given to the project's aims, the gallery layout
and exhibitions.Youngsters preferred to take photographs than
record comments. In hindsight, this could have been due to
shyness; not all the group were familiar with eachother.

 

Session 2
Visit to the Russell Cotes Museum and Art Gallery.
This was scheduled for the second session as there was no available
space within the Study Gallery, it was within travelling distance for
the short available time frame, and it provided the young people
with an opportunity to experience a different gallery/museum
environment. I had also read about a previous exhibition at the
Russell Cotes as part of the 'PastPresentFuture' project (fig.5),
which encouraged young people to take the lead in creating an
exhibtion.
A brief tour was given of the museum and galleries by the education officer, Rachel Mcardle, followed by a talk on how exhibitions were curated, from both the museum's own permanent collection and invited artists (fig 6). Mobile phones were taken to the museum, to try and build on the first week's activities, however restrictions on
photography in the museum did limit their use. The young people were invited to participate in an upcoming community exhibition called 'Wish YOU Were Here' on the theme of the seaside. They were provided with postcards on which to write about a favourite seaside memory (fig.7). (These were actually completed in the following session as we ran out of time on the day. As there was a break of two weeks between the second and third sessions, it provided a useful of point discussion and some continuity).
Before returning to school, the participants visited the cafe where we discussed what sort of practical work they would like to make inspired by The Study Gallery's own permanent collection eg. Whether it should be computer based, video, making, painting. It was agreed that painting was the preferred option.

Session 3 8th May
Participants were taken to view the permanent collection on the third floor of the gallery which was not previously available. I brought a number of canvases- enough for one each, which could then be fitted together to make a single collaborative piece.
We discussed which works might be suitable for this in terms of subject and detail and participants chose Joe Tilson's 'Sun Signatures' (fig.8).
(Postcards were also filled out, as detailed above)

Session 4 22nd May
This was the longest session held so far, running from 9.30-2.30. We continued working on the paintings from the previous week. We then brainstormed how the work could be reinterpreted, using the young people's impressions of the Study Gallery, and viewpoints/ perspectives from around the gallery.
This included taking photographs of the participants, drawing ideas out onto large sheets, observational drawing of sculptures, each other and then collaging these down in a sequence which correlated with the original artwork 'Sun Signatures' by Joe Tilson (fig.9)                    

 

Session 5 29th May
The last session was optional as it fell within half term. One young person came for two hours to complete one of her paintings from the previous week.
Several wrote to me via email to say they weren't available for the optional half term session but had enjoyed participating (fig.10).

Outcomes

Impact on participants

Group camaraderie was evident by the last session; some of the young people didn't know each other before the sessions and it became clear in conversation that new friendships had begun to form.
The results evident from the questionnaires suggested a mixed response; answers did not always match the questions being answered and appear contradictory in some instances e.g. Tick three words that best describe this place;
(response) boring          interesting           (posh)
Six out of nine participants filled out questionnaires; not all were completed fully (fig. 11).
The results were as follows;
-None had visited the gallery before.
-Recollections of what was done in the project varied from;
'it was good but could be improved'
to
'f/'rst we talked about art and then we went on to do our own
pieces'
-The majority of responses ranged from okay to very to the artist involved, their interest in the artwork, how unusual the artwork was, (9)
involvement and how special it was to be involved.
-Four out of six felt the best thing was the 'hands on' aspect of the programme (one gave no response, one suggested 'more things to get involved with')
-Two suggested possible improvements as being
'more things to get involved with, more activities'
and
'add more activities, may be'
-Two were not sure if the project had made them fell differently, one felt it definitely hadn't and three didn't respond to the question.
-Most participants indicated an upturn in their confidence about being creative and would perhaps get involved with future art projects/ attend galleries.
All participants agreed that they wanted to exhibit the results of the project within their school (fig.12).
The following excerpt from an email by the school coordinator Richard Wall, outlined what he regarded as the benefits for the pupils who participated,
'-improved self-esteem and maturity - all the pupils appreciated being asked to take part in the project and being asked for their views and opinions; all have 'grown'.
-improved skills - most pupils commented on the fact that they were better at doing practical work in art than they thought they were.
-improved aspiration'

Impact on others involved

'The work with the Envision project has led to an invitation to participate in the Wish YOU Were Here event at the Russell Cotes on Friday. A group of year 9 pupils will be participating. Jo (Wells, head ofCorfe Hills school Art dept.) hopes to extend links between the school, the Study Art Gallery and R-C in the forthcoming academic year.'                     -Richard Wall, Corfe Hills co-ordinator.
As the project coordinator and artist, I (Rachel Larkins) regularly work in a college environment where formal assessments guide the learning which takes place. I also run day long recreational workshops where emphasis is often placed on the final outcome.
During the Envision project, I found it quite challenging to allow the youngsters to direct what was going to take place at each session, mainly due to planning and preparation issues. Once I relaxed about this though, I was surprised by the decisions they made, e.g. their desire to work with traditional rather than new media and technology.
It was also really rewarding to see several of the youngsters (who sometimes had quite short concentration spans) completely absorbed in painting their own canvas (fig. 13).
If I were to run the same project again, I think I might try to involve practical experience at every workshop as the group seemed to respond most strongly to this, including the external gallery visit. The use of the mobile phones could have been linked to the computers more explicitly; the internet wasn't available on the day we took the mobile phone pictures to view the virtual galleries and by the time we met at The Study Gallery again, this aspect felt like it had lost momentum and the participants were keen to progress onto painting.

Institutional change

The gallery approached the Envision project with expectations of the group producing some kind of resource that other young people could use at the gallery and I (Sandy Wilderspin, education co-ordinator) think this project has shown the need to be very flexible about expectations and allow the young people to change the course of the project.
Throughout the project the young young people were given opportunities to influence what happens next and 'what happened next' was not necessarily what the gallery had initially expected which was actually fine and more beneficial to the group, helping them become a more cohesive force and enabling them to feel confident about speaking up and voicing their opinions.

Lessons learned

What worked and what didn’t

Five key things that the project got right
-Encouraging youngsters to voice their opinions in a constructive way
-Taking a flexible approach to planning
-Having the additional session during the half term week
-Working on canvas- I think this choice of material (rather than paper) made the activity more memorable, especially for those who were not studying art at school.
-Visiting a cafe during the museum visit on the second session and having the opportunity to chat with youngsters individually. The atmosphere became less 'schooly' and a bit more recreational.

Things that didn't work in hindsight
-inconsistent use of mobile phones due to time available and outside restrictions
-More involvement of gallery staff would have been beneficial, but couldn't be helped due to gallery/ school schedules
-Programming another youngster/school peer into the schedule to talk about Hubalicious would have been a positive step
-Due to the fluid approach taken to programming, it was difficult to involve artists working in other media. However, given the choices the participants made, this did not have too great an impact on the group's level of involvement.
-At the planning stage we discussed producing some kind of interactive resource which could be used by young people visiting the gallery. Within the timeframe available it was not possible to complete this aspect of the project. However participants have been invited to submit reviews to Hubalicious and the practical work produced will be available to view on the website (fig. 14).

Next steps

This project has helped develop the way the gallery will approach it's work with young people and to recognise the need to have time to develop relationships and allow choice to actually impact on what happens and not just pay lip service to this.
In many ways, the group we worked with just were not here long enough, this was due to curriculum restrictions and timetabling issues with the school and gallery that did have an impact on the momentum of the project. This has highlighted the need to make sure our work with young people has realistic aims and allows time for relationships to develop before young people are asked to (13)
produce any kind of product or decision. Time for reflection, to research.experiment and to get a grip of the ethos of an organisation and it's team is essential.
The gallery is currently working with three local secondary schools to recruit young people to curate a forthcoming exhibition and the Envision project has been an invaluable piece of practical research that has helped us to plan this. We will have to invest much more time in the forming of the group and making sure that they feel that their opinions are being heard and acted on by programming a 'ladder' of responsibilities which we hope will enable the young people to make informed decisions and choices.

Images

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