Comments from our friends at Beulah Resourse Base

Nicky

I really enjoyed working with Calum he was my friend. I taught Zoe and Calum to make signs for football & it was a lot of fun!

Vijay

I impressed my day staff with my sewing skills. I was happy to join in on the day of the exhibition to help all the students to set everything up. It was “alright”.

Denise

I made all food for the BBQ out of plastercene. I liked working with the students and going to the BRIT school. I had a nice day at the art exhibition and my carer the “old one”, came to see it and I was proud!

Nishi

I had an amazing time working one to one with the student. I love to express myself through art and my day centre staff learnt more about me seeing how clever I was at doing the art on my own. I love working with plastercene and took some home.

Shirley

I miss working with the Brit School Students & playing all the games as well as doing the art. I got on so well. I really enjoyed the art exhibition looking at my work through the binoculars.

Dawn

I like working with Jen on my own. I liked working my aeroplane model. I really enjoyed the party and exhibition we had here and my worker from my home came to see my work. Dawn could not stop smiling and laughing when giving her feedback.

Sally

It was good doing the art. I liked working with Holly making plaster casts for my pigs and painting them. I took one of the pigs home with me for my mum and dad to see. I liked working with the Brit School and seeing all the students who are now my friends. I liked playing the games at the end of each week specially hide and seek. I was sorry not to be at exhibition but I was sick.

Marie

I enjoyed making the different parts for my art. I worked with Sam and I liked him. I enjoyed it because now they are my friends. I liked doing my art about cakes as that is my favourite food!

Lisa

The feedback from all the clients is that they really enjoyed the art being displayed here and they all had a great day. As for me, I thought that your students showed great maturity and great diversity skills to communicate with the clients to bring out the best in them and make the art work fun. I would love to work with other students from the Brit School in the future. I would like to wish the students a great future in what ever career they wish to pursue and I also want to wish you all the best in your future job role.

Celebration Day!!!

Celebration day was a very good day in which we were able to show off all of our work we have completed, either the collaborative work with the clients or our own work, the day consisted of setting up our work; showing the clients the installation and then showing the audience our installations. The installations worked well with the audiences, they would walk up to the installations and interact with them more than the group thought they would. The installations were sensory, which meant in Nikki and my installation the audience could see the set and watch our animation, taste and smell coconuts, hear Carribean music and feel the sand in their toes. It was so proud of what we achieved!!! 

The final slice of cake!!!!

Celebration day was really good, we had to come in and take all our props and things for the installation to Beulah. It was fun setting it up and getting my installation to make sense. Marie was really excited to see all the things she helped make in one art piece. Marie really loved her boat and she seemed like she was having fun. I met her carer for the first time, it was nice meeting her she told me a few thing about Marie. I used a plastic blue sheet for the sea and then poured sand on top of the blue sea to create the beach. I bought a cake for the installation and people who came by ate it as part of the art.

People from other classes came to see the show, they found it interesting and people enjoyed themselves. Allot of food was eaten to keep people in good moods. I am so pleased i got to work with the adults at BRB, it was such fun collaborating with both my peers and the adults. 

Celebration Day!!

Today we had a very early start to begin loading up our props and travelling to Beulah.Once we got there we cracked on and started builing our installations , i started of my decorating and laying out my table , VJ and Marie helped me so much they put out the bowls and cups and were eally excited to see the outcome.I also worked together with Zoe and the Beulah staff who helped me move the tables and lay out the cloth.The adults looked extremely excited when i un packed all my food and drink , I had some trouble with where and in what way to hand my wallpaper , in the end we decided on 2 rolls on two sides of the table , appose to the original plan of 1 roll on all four sides.Zoe and Laura helped loads on attaching the wallpaper to the floor and ceiling.I then put up the amazing bunting me and VJ created and he was so happy! After ths i put up my photo frame and projected my animation inside.In the end i had help from so many of the adults and girls form the other class to blow up lots of balloons and it was in place.

When the students from the other art classes came in they looked really excited and seemed very intrigued on the work we and the adults had produced , they played with my prty poppers had nibbiles and walked around in interest.

Packing away i decided to let VJ keep some of the items made.Pverall the experience turned out so well and i am extremely proud of the sdults and staff at Beulah , my students and teachers and myself for bring this amazing oppurtunity nd show together.

Celebration Day!

This week has been really busy as we've been working hard to finish our props. However all of our hard work was worth it as today was our final celebration day! We got to school for 8am to load the cars and begin setting up our installations. I had problems with hanging my windows which meant I had to use velcro instead, it was such a relief when the windows finally stayed up and I was able to continue putting up the rest of my props. 

Dawn couldn’t believe her eyes once she saw it was all finished and her aeroplane memory had come to life. She was excitedly showing everyone and making sure that they sat down, ate a sweet, wore a lifejacket and held the fan to get the full aeroplane experience. I got a lot of positive feedback  about my installation which made me and Dawn really proud of what we’d achieved. The overall experience of the day was truly successful and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. 

It was sad to say goodbye to all the clients as I’ve really enjoyed working with them and watching them learn new artistic techniques. We’ve all said we’d love to go back so I’m sure we’ll see them again soon!

FINAL CELEBRATION

Today was absolutely wonderful, i haven't had that much fun in ages. Yesterday i had this big feeling that everything was going to go wrong because i didn't really think through how i may keep the frames standing, but luckily once i got to the space everything was ok, because i found a load of flower pots, that were heavy enough to keep the frames standing through out the exhibition. What was nice was the minute i stepped into the space, Nishi came in to come help me out, it was lovely, because i know that if i was in her shoes i wouldn't get involved because i would know there is a lot to do.
We began by putting up the back drop, which was a challenge in its self but thanks to Nishi and Peter, it was up in no time. But then we thought we should move it against the door so it was facing the audience, this was a lot better because the light shined through the painting bringing it alive. Nishi loved the background and began sifting through all the other things i had made, for example the reindeer, which was a hit all after noon. My aim was to make the whole installation as cluttered as possible and the final touches did the job, for example the flowers and the cotton wool. Nishi helped tying the string onto the snow balls and putting the frames up.
Even though Nishi, doesn't say much, i knew she was proud of what she had done and to be honest i am really proud of her too, she works hard and she just gets on with the task, but not in a negative way, but a happy positive way.
Once the installation was up me and Nishi stood by it with carrots in our hands to give to the audience who wished to see our work. I could see Nishi had a little grin and was enjoying all the happy faces who would come to see our collaborative piece.
Even thought the window had fallen down and the snow balls, everything went fine and i think everyone enjoyed themselves. Thank you Beulah for such a wonderful time, and i hope i will bump into you guys at an exhibition at some point in the future.

Celebration day

Today started well, in my eyes. We were all on time and got to BRB with enough time to set up. When I started setting up I saw the piece almost come live and fit together like it was made for the space I had chosen. As Shirley walked around and popped her head through the door way, she couldn’t help but love what it looked like. As I was short for time I just got on with setting it up. This if I could do it all again I would have included her more so she could feel, even more a part of the final piece. When it was all set up and running, Shirley couldn’t wait to take people in and show them around “her work” it made me smile that she took so much pride in what we had made together. I changed a few things while setting up, like the placement of the cannon and where the chair for everyone to sit on was.

When people were walking round, I felt like they seemed to understand and enjoy the animation and installation. But I felt like it could have been done to a higher standard, but for the time we had and what we had to do in that time, I feel that me and Shirley did a great job. If I would do this whole project again, I would try and make her tell me another story, because for me ‘Peter pan on ice’ was to simple and I couldn’t work with it as much as I would have liked to.

All in all I have enjoyed working with the adults from BRB a lot and learnt more than I thought I ever would, Shirley will always be a big part of this year and my art experience. I will miss her a great deal, and will look forward to any other community art projects I do.

This has been one of the best projects iv done this year thanks to a great group, teacher and the adults of BRB.

Celebration Day

The day started well, me and my peers where organized and packed everything we needed to head off to BRB. When we got there we started unpacking our things and began to set up out sensory installations. I brought a cloth for the table , the fake food and the real food as well as plates and tissues. The bbq was already in the space so I only needed to set up the table where I would have the food.
I got a table from in the space to bring outside and started to decorate my space in how I imagined. After I finished I showed Denise and she couldn’t stop smiling and kept telling everyone that she made them. Her being happy with the outcome put me in a good position to be positive about my installation as I wasn’t sure about it at the beginning and also hearing feedback from my peers of how it looked good also gave me a boost.
I was initially going to make real food on the bbq as well, but when I asked one of the volunteers she said it wasn’t working, so I used the fake food instead and improvised which worked well. I put spatulas around the bbq and put the fake food on plates and tissue to make it look realistic.
When I played my animation on the monitor my whole installation came together and I was proud of my final outcome.
Denise was also excited and glad to see her name in the animation.
I am very happy to have worked with her. She taught me a lot of things such as patience and the whole theme of collaboration. We worked as a team, and together both of our work and ideas pulled off to be a great sensory installation and the feedback I got from friends made me even happier .

workshop 4

In this lesson we continued to work on objects for our final installation, this lesson to me was the worst lesson I have had in this workshop so far.
I felt like I had and was just repeating what I did last week, And also because I was very unmotivated. In that case it made it very hard for me to keep up, with Shirley’s high energy level. Also because this was the last lesson with them I felt as if I had too much to do in such a short amount of time.
In the end we got through all the tasks I had set myself and set her, for this lesson. But I felt as if I could have done more in the time given. This has taught me a lot though, because it shows me that not everything is easy and straight forward.
If you wont to do something properly then you have to go through good and day days.
As always I was very happy with the work she did and she still manages to surprise me.

Workshop 4

Continuing working collaboratively, me and Denise started to paint our objects for the installation . She enjoyed painting and was proud to see the outcome.

Once again she didnt hesitate to start working with me while having a chat.

She was patient with me when i was trying to get the right colour and painted faster than me, which made me realise her excitment in creating them.

I also learnt to be patient with her when she was putting too much paint on the sausages so i told her in a calm manner and she willingly listened to my advice of how to paint them.

Workshop #4

On wednesday i started working with my wonderful new partner , V.J.We started by working on my "birthday" bunting. V.J painting some amazing colourful shapes and patterns onto the ready cut fabric triangles, we had loads of fun doing this and talking and getting to know eachother.We then moved on to sewing a seam across the top of the triangles that had been folded over , i soon discovered that he was extremely good at hand sewing and he got on with it straight away and fast working! After that we started making wrapping paper, V.J painting his colourful patterns and me painting wacky faces and flowers made a really fun paper to wrap my gifts in. im looking forward to seeing the finished product next week and i hope V.J enjoys it too!

Wednesday

It was good on wednesday, Marie made some oars for the boat that i starte making after. We started by having 2 polls that i cut earlier on that day and painted them in lesson with marie. i then cut out the shape for the end of the oar and then marie painted them brown. I showed her how to mix the colour brown, and her painting skills seemed to be really good the marks that were made were perfect. I am looking foward to next week.

Final Workshop

The Final workshop was a very good use of time, unfortunately my partner Nikki wasn't in but i got all of the work done including making and painting my coconuts, palm tree, seagull and sun, i also completed my backdrop which consisted of three strips of fabric sewed together using the sewing machine.

Forth Workshop: Brit

Yesterday we continued making props for our installations with the adults as part of our final workshop before next week’s celebration day. It was exciting to see the adults memories start to transform into our life-size installations. Collaborating with Dawn throughout this project has been a pleasure; it's given me an insight into what an adult with learning disabilities is capable of achieving in such a short space of time. This has enabled me to explore new strategies of how to work successfully with her and help her to progress in terms of learning new artistic techniques. This week she was eager to tell me all about her holiday to Benidorm and get on with turning her recent holiday into an installation that she can show off to her friends and family. We embroidered cushions and lifejackets together for our aeroplane installation, and she was excitedly asking me questions about how it would look once it's finished. I've loved working with such an enthusiastic woman who’s been consistently eager to learn new skills and work collaboratively to achieve an outcome with me. From talking to the staff at Beulah it seems they are keen to help the adults develop the skills they’ve learnt whist working collaboratively with us. They’re hopefully going to buy sewing equipment so that Dawn and VJ can continue learning together after the project is over.

I can’t wait for next week’s celebration day and it seems the adults share our excitement, not only has this project been stimulating for us but the adults have truly got to know the students and seem to have enjoyed learning from us over these last few weeks. And that is what has made this collaborative project truly successful!

Workshop 3

Our third workshop was a success, soon as we got in we got straight into our pairs and was eager to begin making objects for our installtion.We were so excited about beginning our workshop task we didnt play the imaginery ball game, which was suppost to be at the start.

Once again Denise was great to work with. She co opeated with me and while making out objects we had a chat about what she was going to do in the weekend. She helped me make a hotdog out of modrock and soaked them in water. She was so excited to see the hotdog come alive from newspaper into the actual shape and kept telling everyone what we were making and the relevance of it .

At the end we were able to create our hotdog and all what is left is to paint it, which when i told her she couldnt waite to do. Her excitement made me more excited to work with her.

Mud rock and Papermache

On wednesday we were given the task to again lead the adults i'm making a couple of things for the installation. Since the previous workshop with the adult s i have altered my design for the installation, which meant i could think of lots of things for Nishi to make. One thing i thought would be brilliant to make, was mud rock and papermache snow balls. Nishi loved doing this as it was very hands on and messy, all lesson Nishi couldn't take her eyes of what she was making, which meant i was up and down like a 'yo-yo' grading bits and bobs for Nishi to use for her snow ball. She even at the end of the lesson decorated the snows balls with paint and glitter jells. It was a brilliant workshop and we made 9 snow balls, but it would of been better if we gave Nishi a bit more time to carry on as she really loved making them.

Third workshop

In this workshop, we started to make objects and props for our final installations, when I was planning the lesson for Shirley I decided to do something very hands on, but also simple and fun. My plan was to make all of the cannon balls for the installation, including the ones on the floor and the one that I want to hang up.

Before the lesson I did trials in order to show Shirley what to do, and to save time. I trialled out two different ways of making these and went with the one I thought was the easiest.

Once we had set up and everything was ready, I and Shirley both started making the cannon balls, by blowing up balloons and covering them with mod rock. Shirley took to it very easily and enjoyed the messy task. We then went on the paint them a dark blue, this activity was simple but time consuming, she seemed to finish the 3 I had planned to make with her, quicker than I had expected so we went on to make another one. She was very excited and seemed to love what we were doing; she helped a lot, with the cutting of the mod rock and did the rest herself, with a little aid from me.

She also could not wait from next week’s lesson where the adults are coming back to BRIT for the last time.

This workshop was very enjoyable and I found out that Shirley is a lot more able than I first thought; this workshop was one of the best because I feel Shirley and the rest of the adults are now comfortable with all of us. It is making me not want this project to finish, or to be able to see them again after this project ends.

Most of all I’m looking forward to the final pieces as we have chosen the space we will be putting them and the finishing date comes closer.

Workshop #3

This workshop was based on making the objects from our marquettes lifesize , I decided me and Farizah could wrap some presents and make a bunting for the birthday party installation.I made an example wrapped up present to bring to wednesdays workshop.

I was very disappointed on wednesday to find out the Farizah is away ib holiday and will be abroad for the remainder of the project.So I worked alone with some help from Zoe to wrap up some presents and start making my bunting.I also helped out Calum and Nikki and had a fun time working with them.

Hopefully i will have a new partner for the rest of the project and i will still be using some of Farizahs memories for the final animation and installation.

3rd workshop

Today was a really enjoyable and productive day. Marie interacted with me more than usual and seem to like getting involved and participating with the group as a whole, she seemed to like contributing on making the clouds which showed how she was concentrating more on the whole project then she was in the previous workshops. She really liked ripping off the tissue paper and sticking it down on to the cardboard clouds.

third workshop

I was working with Nikki to produce some objects for my installation these include a sun, seagull and three coconuts, i thought it was a productive lesson as Nikki spoke to me alot, interacted with more people in the room like Sam and Rianna and was very engaged in the whole workshop.

Third workshop: Beulah.

I was really pleased with how our group came together this week in order to help each other and prepare for our individual workshops. I worked with VJ as Dawn was away on her holiday, I taught him how to hand stich and within minutes he’d got the hang of it. He was eager to continue sewing for the duration of the workshop and he was excited to show off his new skills to the group. We managed to make a cushion for our aeroplane installation and begin making a life jacket as well. I can’t wait to continue next week and show Dawn what we’ve been up to, and I’m sure VJ’s looking forward to it too!

Second workshop

On Wednesday the 15th we had our second workshop with the clients, everyone in the group including myself thought it went very well, i personally thought it went much better than planned having all of the clients speak more then the last meetings with them. I was working with Nikki and with him made some very nice plasticine models of a football; Nikki himself; a friend and two burgers, the whole day was a very productive one getting lots out from the clients. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Second Workshop

Our second workshop was fantastic, I couldnt stop smiling. The atmosphere was great and was filled with laughter and fun. At the beginning I was slightly nervous, I was anxious to see what would happen and how the clients would co-opearte with us.

At the end they where better than what i expected, their energy and enthusiasim towards us made me feel comfortable. They wanted to talk to us more, play games, and were eager to show us their work without hesitating.

Denise was a joy to work with, she was comfortable and i found out a lot about her. She was more confident to open up to me than before. She was excited about making models out of plastercine with me and went into her own world when she was making the burgers and hotdogs. I loved the fact that she was herself with me, it shows me that all my hardwork has not been in vain but has progressed during the weeks we have been working the our clients, and also how commited Denise is to work with me.

Our visitors

The adults came into Brit and they seemed really happy and excited to start working. We had prepared our mini marquettes ready for when they came in, i showed the storyboard to Marie and this helped jog her memory about what we were doing before. We started to make really nice plastercine models to go into our maquettes. Marie made models of herself, her Nan and her carer Sweety to go into the maquette of her memory. Marie also made a really nice green cake to go into the installation. I think the clients got alot from this experience and i found it very nice and moving. I cant wait to be at Beulah church next time i should be even better.

Workshop # 2

I had such a fun time with Farizah today, as soon as we came to sit down she notices the photo of her in the frame that i had put in the marquette and she was so happy and excited. I then showed her my flash storyboard and she identified the different things like the cake and the CD's and i was so happy to see her dancign along to the photo i drew of her dancing :). The cue cards helped so much i asked her which object she wanted to make first and the confidently chose pointing at the cards, then her second and third choice etc. We worked together rolling and squashing the colourful plasticine and made amazing objects; Cake , stereo , curry and herself! I really look forward on starting to make them lifesize next week and im sure Farizah will enjoy it aswell.

2nd workshop

Today i had so much fun with Nishi. We planned today to make some plastersine sculptures to add to our newly made maquette. When i started making the maquette i thought it didnt look so good, in fact i thought it looked like it was dying or someone had stamped on it, but once had stepped in the room it was completely transformed into something a lot better. When Nishi entered the workshop you could see she was looking forward to todays lesson, as our maquettes were on the table for them to see as well as the different coloured plasticine, Nishi especially was looking forward to using the plasticine. We began the lesson with a circle time, where we played a quick game of imaginary ball, to challenge both the adults and our selves to remeber each other's names. I for one, have a lot of trouble at doing this task because im terrible at remembering names. We then went straight onto making our models, Nishi once again dived straight in and asked for a piece of each colour to work with. We started with making a deer, Nishi had no trouble at all with this which made me stuck with things to do. Once we did that we went onto making a santa and what we planned to do this time was use the wire so he could stand inside the maquette. She gave me a job this time to make the eyes whilst she mixed the red and white to make a pink. We then stuck the eyes on the pink face, when we then carried on by making the rest of santa. she was so brilliant at this, that it looked like the santa in the picture, as it held the same pose and how it also held a bell. I think the hardest part of the lesson was getting Nishi to stop making sculpture and pay attention to what everyone else had made. But in the end, after a quick circle time and showing what we had made, she had a good look at what everyone else had made. We gave Nishi some plasticine to take home so she could make some more wonderful sculpture and i'm really looking forward to seeing the talented Nishi next week.
xxx

June 15th second workshop

Today we had our second workshop with the adults from Beulah, in which they came to BRIT. This for them was a new experience and they all seemed to enjoy it thoroughly. We prepared for this lesson by making a mini model of our set/installation, for the final pieces. In today’s lesson we worked with our partner’s to make plastericine characters and objects. This helped our partners to understand what the final outcome was going to be. Shirley took to this very well and enjoyed every part of it. I felt her having an equal 'hands-on' role in today’s lesson and it worked very well and kept her attentive and working hard. Me and Shirley finished rather early but she then added to ourmodel with other objects that she remembers from her experience. I don’t feel today’s lesson could have gone any better. As the final piece comes closer and closer the ideas seem to be getting more developed and unique, I’m looking forward to next week’s lesson where we will be back at BRB, making our final installations.

Second Workshop: Brit

I was looking forward to seeing the adults and showing them what we'd been up to this week. Dawn was excited to see the storyboard I'd made about her holiday and couldn't wait to start making plasticine models for our marquette. I also worked with VJ this week, who was eager to help us out, I felt we worked well as a group and managed to bring our marquette to life. The workshop today has developed my ideas for our installation and got me thinking about things to include inside it. When we spoke to the adults about making life size installations of our marquettes they were overwhelmed with excitement and couldn't wait to begin making next week. There was a real buzz after the workshop was over, we all felt we got to know the adults better and we now have more of an insight into their individual learning difficulties. I'm looking forward to next week’s workshop as it now feels that our plans are truly being brought to life.

My cheeks hurts from smiling so much!

When our new friends came to visit us...

Making models for our installations

Students have been using the stories from our new friends at BRB to set the scenes in the form of model boxes. These will be the basis for their large scale sensory installtions that they will be working on soon. Our friends from BRB will be helping us complete these models adding thier own touch to the scene and story.

Workshop 1

This visit was the second time we went to the beulah resource base. I felt that this time went relly well, the people were really welcoming and the atmosphere was nice. We seemed to get stories out of the clients, there were some really nice drawings and everybody enjoyed the lesson time, people got along and learnt something new. Our methods of getting them to talk about their memories were effective. The picture and word cards we made were very usful and made this easier. The storyboarding seemed most effective when getting ideas down. There were 3 differant ways of drawing out the stories. The blank piece of paper was usful to get ideas down and then doing a storyboard after made it clearer what to say in the story. There was also a picture of a man with a big brain and we would get the people to draw memories inside that aswell. Marie liked to plan out the story on the storyboard template and she talked about a holiday and eating cake!

My first lesson with the brilliant Nishi

In this project we had to teach our first lesson to the adults. Before the lesson, we began with making a whole plan of the lesson from the beginning to the end, it was quite difficult to plan the lesson as we were aware that the adults may not be able to focus and that there might be several reason why we may have to finish early, as they have disabilities that we have to work around with. We planned to use a lot of images in the lesson to help those you may not be able to read or for those you have hearing difficulties.

At the beginning of our first lesson we started of with circle time to help the adults and our selves to remember each others names. This wasn't so difficult as it wasn't hard to explain to the adults how to play, as well as the adults are very able to move and communicate. We then went onto the lesson plan, then straight on to finding who we may work with. This wasn't so difficult because all the adult had to do was pick the face and match it to the real thing, before the lesson we were worried that some of us may not be picked and would be left to work with no one, but luckily this didn't happen. After we had found our partner we sat down to draw our memories and the senses that were involved. We used que cards, some pictures of the senses and different frames for them to draw on. I was working with a lovely women called Nishi, who loved to draw, but she was very shy. It was difficult to communicate with her, but in the end she was talking a bit which helped. What we did was we started of using the frame because she liked coloring in the frame and drawing a still image, with all the the senses together. She then went on to draw on the comic strip which was a little bit more difficult because it meant you had to draw different parts of the story, but she was really good at working it out and at this point we worked together, with our skills, to bring it together. I wrote what was happening in each part of the story whilst she drew it. At the end of the lesson we put up all the work to talk about it, at first i thought Nishi would find this quite difficult because seemed really shy, but in the end she was really excited to explain what was happening in her memory. I loved this lesson and I'm really excited to find out what else Nishi wants to add to the story, or what she thinks about the model that i made of her memory, for her to then work with. Why i liked working with Nishi so much is because she has a brilliant imagination to making up a brilliant story or memory. No wonder she loves to draw, we have something in common.