Frances Bailey Personal Professional Practice 1
Contents
p.3 p.4 p.36 p.54 p.58 p.59 p.68 p.71 p.74 p.88 p.86
Statement of Intent Esker Art School MAGPi Placement The Leeds Arts Party Idea Development Clients & Collaborators Maintaining Professional Relationships Responding to Audiences Research & Progression Bibliography Appendices
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Statement of Intent
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I intend to develop my skills in the following areas: • Confidence and professionalism in teaching by gaining experience working within a variety of educational settings, both inside and outside of the classroom. • Further experience in curating events and facilitating creative practices. • Expanding my creative network to assist in creating/taking opportunities. • Develop my visual communication skills in a variety of approaches where appropriate.
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Context
Esker Art School Children’s Art School at King of the Mountains Arts & Music Festival
Brief
‘King of the Mountains’ is a 3 day music and arts festival celebrating the Tour de France passing through the village of Muker, Swaledale between 4th-6th July 2014. Required are a group of artists to plan and deliver a series of arts workshops over the course of the festival weekend, aimed at young children between the ages of 5-13. There is a material and travel budget available of up to £300.
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King of the Mountains Festival Homepage
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Our listing on the website
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Strategy
We established a team of 3 of us to plan and run the workshops at King of the Mountains festival, which consisted of myself, James Murphy and John Pearson from the Students’ Union. We met regularly to discuss ideas and plan the event. We decided to deliver the following workshops based on our skill sets: • • • •
You can see a more detailed version of the plan by clicking here.
Light painting 10am Scrap printmaking 12pm Animation 3pm Still life drawing 5pm
We considered the above workshop times for each day, though we wondered if we needed to run all four workshops each day due to quiet times on Saturday when the Tour de France peloton passes through. Sunday is also a shorter day. We decided to run 3-4 workshops on the Friday, and then repeat the most popular ones on the following days.
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Name
We decided to name the workshops ‘Esker Art School’, we chose this by looking through words related to mountains, and it was agreed that esker didn’t have an obvious meaning, and sounded nice phonetically.
‘Esker’
def. ‘a long, narrow, raised line of earth, small stones, and sand left on the earth’s surface where melted ice once flowed under a glacier’ (dictionary.cambridge.org)
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Our workshop tent
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Friday
We had a brilliant time at the King of the Mountains festival and learned a lot about delivering arts workshops to young people. Unfortunately John Pearson couldn’t attend the festival with us, but in his place we managed to bring both Emma Cook and Tom Hoare. Being a one off festival their was a few hiccups and delays with everything being set up on time on Friday, including the tent we were hosting our workshops in which we had to complete building and securing and setting up ourselves. This meant that we couldn’t deliver the four workshops we had planned on the Friday. This was ok in the end though as it wasn’t too busy that day and there wasn’t a big demand for the workshops. In the afternoon we set up a drawing workshop where children could pop by and draw or paint. We came up with the idea to create posters for the children to hold up when the peloton passed through on Saturday, and this went down well.
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Tour de France poster-making workshop
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Tour de France poster-making workshop
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Saturday
We broke this day down into two halves. It quickly came apparent that running 4 workshops in one day would be ambitious and would be very rushed. The workshops needed to be ran in a way where people could drop in and take part rather than arrive at a specific time. In the morning we repeated the Tour de France poster making. Eveyone was excited about the peloton coming through and the children loved the idea of making a poster to help them to stand out from the crowds.
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The lead followed by the peloton
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Saturday
In the afternoon we held the animation workshop. This was by far the most successful out of everything we did over the weekend. It was super simple, the children sat and made characters out of plasticine, and then we created stop motion animations using an iPad with a stop motion app. We had a selection of backdrops for the children to choose from to set the scene for the mini movies.
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We purchased finger bikes from Poundland as part of our materials, and these went down great and linked the workshop to the Tour de France
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We showed the children techniques like how to attach limbs securly to the torsos of their models so they didn’t fall off
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Some characters had so much detail, like the hair on this one!
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Lots of them had pets too
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These children made burger snakes, these are going to be the next internet phenomena - watch out!
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We allowed the children to take control of making their films and did what we can so assist in making their visions come to life!
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Muker was such a stunning place to deliver our workshops and the kids were great to work with
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We put all the animations online and gave parents a link so they could view them at home and share them with friends
You can view the animations made by the children by clicking here 24
Sunday
Sunday was a relaxed day so it was appropriate that we held the scrap printmaking workshop on this day. Using recycled materials children created tiles to make collagraph style prints. Children participated who had been on the previous days animation workshop which was really positive and showed that we were offering activities that children genuinely enjoyed.
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The children continued to be inspired by the Tour de France through to Sundays workshop
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We had obtained lots of different textured materials from scrap in Leeds, who sell recycled materials for arts and crafts activities
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We used old ice cream tub lids for roller pallets, so the recycling was used throughout the workshop where possible
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Yellow was a popular colour choice all weekend because the of Tour de France
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So many prints were made and children and parents were both thrilled when they returned to collect the dried works and printing plates
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Successes
Evaluation
Animation
• Children returned the next day for the printmaking workshop, which showed they enjoyed the animation workshop. • The workshop was engaging and some children spent a lot of time with us. • The app we used to create the animations is available for free on the iPad which means many of the children could use their new skills to create animations at home. • The workshop encouraged collaboration and play. • The two ability levels worked (character making and clay play for the younger children and animation making for older children) • Plasticine was a good medium for the children to use as it allowed for them to be free with their creativity. • The £1 shop finger bikes were great and were engaging for the children and acted as a good link to the TdF. • The app was easy to use. • Having slips of paper with the URL to which the animations were uploaded to worked well to give to the parents. • Parents were impressed. • The children were interested in the backdrops on offer. 31
Successes
Printmaking
General
• The printing inks we used worked really well • End prints were successful • The newsprint worked well as a cheap stock to print on • The two ability levels worked (scrap collage making for the small children and then onto printmaking with the collages if they wished) • Ice cream container lids worked really well as a cost effective pallet. • Bringing plastic wallets was a great idea for children to keep their work safe and to store the printing plates when still wet. • The chocolate box dividers we used for the printing plates worked well. • Good selection of textures in the scrap materials. Using scrap to source our materials was perfect and cost effective as well as being environmentally conscious.
• Hosting one activity per day was definitely the best solution, possibly with the addition of a basic activity in the A.M. such as drawing/painting for younger children followed by a more advanced activity in the P.M. which would form the main workshop for the day. • Having a changing theme depending on the festival would be good and help us to develop what we can offer in terms of workshops. The Tour de France theme was successful and helped some of the children generate ideas. • We identified our basic requirements for what we would need from future festivals in order for us to hold successful workshops. • It was good to have the name Esker Art School so that we could implement some kind of branding for when we do future festivals/events. • Good exposure for Leeds College of Art • Parents were offering us payment and were often surprised the activity was free. • Developed a good reputation. • LCA staff and students working together reflected positively on the college.
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Improvements
Animation
• Consider making a model stage with interchangeable backdrops for a more professional and user-friendly set up. • Request a free full version of the app as we are promoting it! The free version is limited to 16 frames, which worked for the time the children had to animate, but more advanced children were limited. • The animations table was too high, however having a hay bail to stand on was handy! In future a fold up table with chairs would be better so we can control the height • Less backdrops to choose from and contain the selection in a folder. • To avoid some children using too much of the plasticine we agreed making pre-made ‘kits’ would work including a selection of clay wrapped in greaseproof paper, goggly eyes and pipe cleaners contained in a resealable bag. This would also prevent the amount of unusable clay we had remaining and encourage children to be more thoughtful and selective about their materials. We could also include in these the instructions, and details of the app, and the URL for the animations so that the
children can continue animation at home. The bag could also serve as something for them to take away their character in. • The clay could have been prepared (loosened) in advance to speed things up. Although the above suggestion would see this. • Buy clay tools. • Having pre-cut speech bubbles would be a good addition to the animations that children can add their own speech too. We identified the idea staff delegation for future would be: Person 1 – Greet/Overseer/Timekeeper with a clipboard to collect names and order children for animation. Person 2 – work on the models Person 3 – work on animation Person 4 – float between animation and model making or where needed.
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Improvements
Printmaking
• Pre-cut the paper for printmaking. • Having a 2nd hairdryer would have speeded up the drying process. • Not using glossy card as PVA does not like it! • Have sticky tabs available for items tricky to stick. • Use the smaller brushes and pots for the PVA • Have example prints up. • Use cookie cutters as stencils for children to make shapes with materials. These could also be used for the clay in the animation workshop. We identified the idea staff delegation for future would be: Person 1 – Greet/Overseer/Timekeeper with a clipboard to collect names and order children for animation. Person 2 – work on plate making Person 3 – work on printing Person 4 – plate drying and floater
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Improvements
General
• We ideally needed to be set up earlier on the Friday. We identified we need a minimum of 3 people for set up. • Clarifying that activities are open to all ages, however under 5’s need to be supervised by an adult. We considered putting a minimum age for some of the workshops, however we didn’t want to exclude anyone and ability cannot be defined by age. • The hay bails were a little low for the tables for some of the children, however they were ideal for getting lots of children around the children, and some opted to stand, or kneel on the bails. In future, we decided benches would be a better option, as opposed to chairs which can be limiting. • Having clear end times and ‘last admission times’. • The the aforementioned A.M. session to prep for the P.M. session. • Have laminated instructions available for children to refer to including lots of images and avoiding too much text. • Ask the children to write their names on work to prevent people taking the wrong work when returning and then quickly
having to create a new print with mum on the down-low (yes this happened!) • Building the teepee didn’t work for the light painting workshop so this didn’t go ahead, however it was a really nice thing to have. We think we may use it in the future as an icon and as part of our brand. Also children can sit and play in there if it was in a better location.
Basic Requirements Identified
We need a minimum space of 5m x 3m Two long tables measuring 1.5m x 2.5m We can work with approx. 12 children per 4 people Budget of £300 seemed realistic College van or an alternative needs arranging with larger budget
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Context
MAGPi Placement
MAGPi (moving image, animation, graphic design, photography and illustration) is a pathway for students on the Foundation Diploma in Art & Design course at Leeds College of Art
“This intensive one year programme is long established and nationally respected. The qualification was originally developed at Leeds College of Art in the 1950s by Harry Thubron, alongside Victor Pasmore and Richard Hamilton at Kings College, Newcastle. The course remains at the forefront of Foundation education today.� (leeds-art.ac.uk)
Work experience with the MAGPi pathway on the Foundation Diploma in Art & Design
Brief
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Observe the running of the MAGPi department and assist the students with their work and development where appropriate.
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Strategy
I worked on MAGPi for 12 days across semester 1: • • • • • • • • • • • •
Monday 29th September Tuesday 30th September Friday 3rd October Monday 6th October Tuesday 7th October Monday 20th October Tuesday 21st October Monday 27th October Tuesday 28th October Monday 17th November Tuesday 18th November Tuesday 25th November
Between 29th September and the 28th October I supported on the ‘Actions Have Consequences’ brief. Monday 17th November the students started on the ‘Ugly Duckling’ brief. Tuesday 18th November I assisted on a text workshop. Tuesday 25th November I worked on a series of crititcal journal workshops. 37
Actions Have Consequences
At the start of the year, foundation work through a series of workshops; each a week long and delivered by a different pathway. I was working on the ‘Actions Have Consequences’ brief delivered by MAGPi, which was repeated over 4 weeks, to 4 different groups of students. Before starting I was very nervous, I wasn’t sure what to expect, and I wasn’t sure how I could be helpful. After one day I had so much more confidence and felt I had made a real positive contribution to some of the students development.
You can see the full brief in appendix 1 on p.87 38
The first part of the brief required the students to create 300 marks based on the action they had been allocated at random. This image depicts the action ‘firing a bow’, and these students made a tool to visually represent that action.
This action was ‘playing the violin’, so this student made lots of marks using string.
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The students then had to refine the 300 marks down to 100 by creating new marks.
The pathway leader, Amy, posed questions for students to develop their ideas further. These were useful for me also to expand upon when supporting students with their idea generation. 40
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Actions Have Consequences
I felt I really helped these students in particular with developing ideas on their action ‘walking a dog’, by suggesting new materials to use, and by offering perspectives into the work they had done, but may not have considered. This helped to generate even more ideas and push their work further.
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Ugly Ducking
Once the carousel workshops had been completed, students selected their desired pathways to work on during their time on Foundation. Ugly Ducking is the first brief delivered on MAGPi, and I was keen to be there for the first two days of them starting this new project. During the briefing, each student was allocated a number between 1-16. Following this the students went to discover what object their number corresponded to.
You can see the full Ugly Ducking brief in appendix 2 on p.91 43
The selection of objects students chose at random to work with over the next 5 weeks
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Ugly Ducking
During the afternoon I spent most of the time speaking to students as they started their project. Some common questions were: What is meant by format? What are ‘interview giveaways’? Once I explained format students were generally clear. I asked what their interests were, and for those who mentioned film or animations, I suggested finding out the dimensions of a screen/film and using this as their format, which they could explore in different sizes depending on the outcome. I had some really interesting conversations with some students about the interview giveaways, I explained that at interview they should be giving things away such as business cards, but a little more creative! How could they work their object into a fun object to help prospective universities remember them, and stand out? We discussed ideas like laser cutting information into a peg, or giving them a packet of seeds to represent them as a student which
will grow as they flourish on their course, or a personalised party popper to represent the fun they will bring to their course. These conversations, and a few of these suggestions from myself really invigorated the students to embrace a playful approach to their work and creativity. In general however, the start was slow and most people didn’t acquire a physical version of their object right away. Lots were looking worried and not getting on with their work. During the last brief, I spoke mainly to the most responsive students, as this was easier. This week I made a point of speaking to the most disinterested students to try invigorate them. It worked! A few minutes of conversation in small groups, and students seemed to sparkle a little bit more and appeared more motivated. I reminded them of the ‘Actions Have Consequences’ brief, and asked them if they found that working process useful. Most students agreed, and set off working in a similar vain to help generate ideas.
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We played a variety of word games over the Text Workshop morning, and were received well. I think the students enjoyed the time to play, and saw how word generation could assist them with idea generation. In the afternoon we had a session where in groups, students had to invent new words based around their objects. Many did really well at this, but some really struggled and didn’t really engage. Perhaps one of the games could have been about making sound based on their words? This might have helped the second half. This was one of the toughest exercises to support that I have done so far, as I myself struggled with thinking of words. Although DOUGHLICIOUS for bread was something I was proud of!
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Critical Journal Workshop
I shadowed Jenny Hatton whilst she delivered a Critical Journal workshop with a few groups from MAGPi. This was a super useful day as it meant that I understood more about what the critical journals were about, their function and value to their studies. In their journals they can of course talk about artwork, but also politics, science, engineering, poetry, psychology, history, music, or anything that is relevant to their work. The sessions (4 in total) took the format of a group crit. Each one started with the following structure: I loved this workshop, and felt I made a real positive contribution to the discussions we had with students about their work.
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Successes
Evaluation
During my time with foundation I’ve highlighted the following as being the main successes: • Looking through students work was a great way to break the ice and get a conversation going about their work, as well as getting to know them better. • I asked the right questions to initiate conversations about students work. • When speaking to a student about their work, I told them about my course and how she might enjoy it as a potential UCAS choice. She then came to the open day, and had a really positive experience meeting fellow students from the course. • I successfully helped students who were stuck on the briefs to clarify the information, and come up with ideas for work development. • One student stated that I had really opened their eyes to how they can develop their work. • I developed a good rapport with students quickly.
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Successes
I felt I contributed really positively to the critical journal sessions and had valuable advice. For example, one student was an aspiring illustrator and had a particular interest in children’s books. She presented some really interesting story books that challenged gender stereotypes, which she’d actually not identified in this way, but was especially interested. I told her to look at the Swedish term ‘hen’ which refers to a person without addressing their gender, and is now used in a lot of childrens books and kids can relate to the protagonist regardless of their gender because this element is not described. I emailed her an article I read in Frankie magazine a couple of years ago which talks about this word.
Research suggestion I sent to a student over email
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“Thank you so much Fran that is perfect! The first thing I did after the workshop yesterday was go have a little read about it, so interesting! You’re a superstar.”
MAGPi Student
The student was really grateful for the support 50
Successes
• Students were happy to ask me questions or for support and ideas and seemed genuinely thankful of my help. • I am certain my support was of use to students. • Speaking to people who at first appear challenging actually turned out to be the most rewarding. • I oftern worry I am not creative, but I think I thrive in a supportive environment where I am helping students come up with creative solutions. • Three students on foundation have now told me I’ve inspired them!
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Testimonial on my contribution to MAGPi
Testimonial
“Fran has shown real potential as a tutor in her time working with us on Foundation and contributing to stage 1 and stage 2 of the course. She has been approachable and friendly. Students have found her inspiring and very helpful in breaking down briefs and critiquing ideas in the studio. She had been enthusiastic and cooperative and worked well to fit into our hectic schedule. Fran has contributed to studio tutorials, idea generating and text workshops, as well as working with small groups on the critical journal (perhaps the more academic side of the curriculum). She has demonstrated that she is a real all rounder and would do very well should she choose to continue with this as a career.� Amy Mackay - Pathway Leader for MAGPi
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Failures
• I could have kept a note book with me to help keep track of questions and any other notes which would have helped me to remember some of the discussions and reflect on the day. This would also have assisted me to feedback successfully to the MAGPi team. • During the Critical Journal workshop often a fair bit of time would go by without looping the group back into discussions. I really enjoyed the conversational nature of the crit, but sometimes this got lost. Perhaps asking individuals for opinions throughout would have helped to keep the whole group more engaged for the majority of the time. • There were times that I explained elements of the brief inaccurately to a couple of students, this meant I had to revisit them and re-explain. I then made sure I double checked with staff some of the requirements, as some briefs a quite complex and prescriptive. • If time allowed, I would have loved to have worked on parts of the brief myself. This would have helped me to understand the challenges faced by students, and also help me come up with ideas when assisting them.
• It may have been useful for me to visit the library an obtain relevent books to show students and to help inspire them with the work. • I sometimes felt at a lose end and was unsure how to help. This often lowered my confidence in my abilities. This reduced as I pushed myself into speaking to more challenging students.
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The Leeds Arts Party
Context
With cuts to arts education, and reforms of the national curriculum ‘downgrading’ art as a valuable subject; the future of the arts is under threat. Creative Industries are worth £8 million an hour to the UK economy as of January 2012 (www.gov.uk) What effect will the changes in art education have socially, economically and environmentally?
Brief
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Plan and deliver a one day event campaigning for and celebrating arts education. Showcase its’ value in society both personally and as part of communities. Explore it’s impact on global sustainability.
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Strategy
This project forms the practical element of my dissertation, so I will only briefly outline it within this report to put the findings of this report into context. To see a full evaluation on this project, please see my dissertation and practical report to avoid double submission of work. For this project, I have planned a one day event to take place at Leeds College of Art on Saturday May 9th 2015. The event includes: • Guest speakers • Community Arts workshops • Curated conversations on the campaign topics • Arts Market • Exhibitions
‘Michael Gove’ Various Artists theartpartyconference.tumblr.com
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This floor plan illustrates the plan for the day
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Aims
The aims of the event are to showcase the value of art education; • How the arts benefit society. • How the arts have a positive impact on sustainable mental wellbeing. • How the arts promote divergent thinking and problem solving skills. • How these skills can be applied to the sustainability issues faced in todays world. • How the arts can change people lives. The Leeds Arts Party want to inspire and invigorate people to share these findings, and see the true value of the arts. If children choose creative subjects at school, this should be seen as a positive, not a life sentence of low employment opportunities.
The Leeds Arts Party promotional flyer
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The Leeds Arts Party
Idea Development
The idea generation for the Leeds Arts Party has mainly been a collaborative effort. I have been really conscious of the fact that as much as I am the project manager, I didn’t want to take over the decision making process. I meet regularly with the team to make any decisions, and discuss ideas. The idea of the Placard Party came out of a group idea sharing session, and has been a fantastic campaigning tool for us.
How I have developed ideas during this module
The Placard Party involves asking participants to write on mini protest placards what the arts mean to them, or how the arts make them feel. Through this activity the audience understands what our campaign is about, and they are instantly on board because the campaign has been explained to them on a personal level.
MAGPi Placement
I have also worked frequently with students to assist them in developing their own ideas. By discussing their work, interests and aspirations with them, I have been able to come up with creative solutions with them to respond to their brief, and make suggestions to develop their ideas further. 58
Clients & Collaborators How I have approached potential clients and collaborators, with a particular focus on materials
MAGPi Placement
I secured my placement on MAGPi by speaking to the course leader, Amy Mackay and expressing my interest in teaching art and design at FE level. Amy explained how Foundation would be a great course to do a placement, and that due to the sheer size of the course my assistant would be welcomed. I followed this conversation up with an email over the summer to secure a placement formally.
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Email correspondence with Amy Mackay to arrange placement on MAGPi 60
The Leeds Arts Party
Most of my client connections have come through my project The Leeds Arts Party. The scale of the event has meant that I have had to work with a great deal of different people; from community arts organisations, funding partners, potential sponsors, advisors and our audience. Without funding the event simply would not go ahead, so communicating our campaign effectively has been key in writing successful proposal. So far I have successfully secured funding from The Green Exchange, a grant made available to students at Leeds University via the NUS Green Fund.
You can see the full Green Exchange proposal by clicking here 61
Example pages from the Green Exchange funding proposal.
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The Leeds Arts Party
I submitted a funding proposal to Leeds Inspired; the cultural department of Leeds City Council. To boost this application I also sent them a parcel. I found that proposals are text heavy documents, and I wanted to show them some visuals to represent who we are. In the parcel I included an A2 campaign poster, postcard, badges and stickers, as well as a cover letter to act as a gentle reminder of who we are, and help us to stand out from other applicants. Approval of this funding is still pending.
You can see the full Leeds Inspired proposal by clicking here The Leeds Arts Party campaign poster
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Dear James, I am writing to tell you about our event The Leeds Arts Party, and enquire as to whether this is something Awesome Merchandise would be interested in sponsoring.
What is the Leeds Arts Party? The Leeds Arts Party will be held at Leeds College of Art on Saturday 9th May 2014. Inspired by Bob and Roberta Smith's 'Art Party Conference' (November 2013) a campaign for Arts Education in response to educational reforms and cuts to arts. Our student led event takes the format of a traditional conference, but with a fun and creative twist. By collaborating with artists, musicians, and community arts organisations we are exploring the theme of sustainability and how the arts are a key element in developing a sustainable future for us all. The arts are a vital subject within the National Curriculum for promoting divergent thinking and developing problem solving skills: critical skills for forming solutions for sustainability issues faced in the modern world. The arts are not only important for global sustainability, but also on a personal level. The arts are a proven method of sustaining positive mental wellbeing, and we believe this should be encouraged throughout education and beyond. The event comprises of: • • • • • • • • •
The Leeds Arts Party
I wrote a proposal to the Senior Management team of Leeds College of Art, to request use of the college as the venue to host the Leeds Arts Party, which was very well received and approved. I also submitted a proposal to Leeds based printers Awesome Merchandise, to apply for their sponsorship of the event by helping us with printing and promotional costs. This proposal is still pending, but I am thrilled with how it is written and presented, it reflects how much I have learned about writing proposals, and how to tailor each one so that it speaks personally to the recipient.
Guest Speakers Discussion Forums Creative Workshops Exhibitions Arts Market Live Music Spoken Word Performance Art And more!
Sponsorship proposal to Awesome Merchandise
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Sponsorship proposal to Awesome Merchandise
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The Leeds Arts Party
I put a call out on Leeds Visual Arts Forum as a call out to connect with community artists who may want to take part in The Leeds Arts Party. This got a great response and got the wheels turning for more networking and getting organisations involved with our campaign. We have also networked further through social media, and connected with many organisations this way. We currently have over 900 followers across Twitter and Facebook.
A couple of example responses to my email on LVAF
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Twitter networking feed
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Clients & Collaborators Maintaining these relationships
High levels of communication is key to maintaining good relationships with clients and collaborators. I achieved this through holding regular meetings with the Leeds Arts Party steering group, and keeping a continuous dialogue with our volunteer graphic designer, to ensure our vision is communicated visually. I have also checked in regularly with those who have offered us support along the way to update them with progress, and keep them in the loop.
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Maintaining constant dialogue with our graphic designer
Arranging meetings to keep supporters updated
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Evaluation
Business Card Back
Frances Bailey Project Manager The Leeds Arts Party
leeds.arts.party@gmail.com @LeedsArtsParty
I have a high level of professionalism when it comes to approaching potential clients and collaborators, and this is reflected in the positive progress I have made with The Leeds Arts Party, and the strong network and relationships I have established. I have developed a great relationship with the senior management team of Leeds College of Art, as well as the project managers of Leeds Arts & Minds Network, both of whom have offered incredibly valuable support. My high level of professional has demonstrated my trustworthiness and reliability. When networking face to face, which is something I have been doing frequently, especially with the promotion of the Leeds Arts Party, I have felt by not having a business card it’s been clumsy trying to give people my details. I have identified this as my main area requiring improvement, so I have designed and ordered business cards to use from this point onwards.
Business Card Front
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The main example of responding to audiences in this module has been my social media campaign for The Leeds Arts Party, particularly on Twitter.
Audience Responding to audiences
I have pro-actively engaged users in conversations, followed my demographic audience, searched relevant hashtags and engaged with those through likes and retweets. All of which have increased our online audience. Our target online following for The Leeds Arts Party by the event is 2000, and we already have over 900 across the social media platforms. This is before our promotional campaign has even begun. Proactive social media use delivered with human qualities us an effective way of building up, and engaging with audiences. Through responding to what the audience is already talking about and interested in, is a great way of getting them interested in my own campaign, by making it relevant to them.
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Twitter notification feed
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Our campaign poster was another way of responding to audiences. We collected ideas about what the arts meant to people when hosting the Placard Party’s. We were so inspired by these that we used them as the focus in our main campaign poster.
Our main campaign poster featuring placard quotes
Example placard 73
Overview
Research Including gaps in my knowledge & progression strategy
Of course I have put research into all the projects during this module, but my main area of research has been into my career plans and what I aim to do after university. I have always been interested in teaching, and I have been keen to get experience in this area during my time at college. I have done the following research into this area: • Attended Career Track Tuesday Session to find out more about teaching as a career • Practical research by working on MAGPi, and as a student ambassador with the progression team and the Saturday Art School. • Spoken to tutors and lecturers about what routes they have taken to get them into their jobs. • Research into Postgraduate Courses • Research into employment and what skills I need to get there.
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Career Track Tuesday
The ‘Teaching as a Career’ workshop was designed to equip us with the knowledge to assist us with our decision of whether to go into teaching, and how we get there. I was really looking forward to the workshop, but actually found it quite unhelpful. I am particularly interested in Further Education teaching, and this was not covered in the workshop at all. We were only given a handout which I could have read anywhere. I could easily have been put off teaching from this workshop. A lot of emphasis was put on how much of a bursary would be received if a PGCE in maths or physics was pursued, and how no money is available for the arts. The workshop was extremely generic in terms of teaching, and not tailored to the arts what so ever, and I felt pretty disheartened by the end of it. I ended up having to do my own research.
Information on pursuing a career in teaching in the FE sector delivered by Career Track Tuesdays
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Practical Research
Practical research was probably the most useful area of my research, working with a wide range of ages, and within different learning environments helped me work out what level of teaching I enjoy more, and what I more suited for. I quickly discovered that teaching at primary school level, although lovely, doesn’t allow for a huge focus on the arts, and I found this uninspiring. However I loved working with this age range. I loved working on our arts workshops at King of the Mountains festival, it was almost the opposite of working within a formal education setting. Much more room for play and expression.
how art is taught in high schools based on my dissertation research. I have loved working with foundation. They have chosen to be there, and their is a great deal of job satisfaction that comes with inspring them, and opening their eyes to new ways of thinking. Seeing art students develop at the rate that they do at FE is amazing and I could really see myself working in this sector very happily. Working with the various people who run these opportunities, and asking them how they got into their teaching roles has been useful in helping me to way up the different routes available.
I didn’t particularly enjoy working with high school level students, even though this is the group I have possibly spent the most time with as a student ambassador. The general lack of enthusiasm from this age range is not very motivating, and I’m not sure I agree with
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Research into Postgraduate Courses
I have done lots of research into postgraduate courses and weighed up my potential opportunities. It soon came apparent that their is little funding available to support me on a PGCE in the lifelong learning sector for arts education. The is some available for teaching in high schools but nowhere near as much than if I was to teach maths or physics. Teaching primary education seems the best funded as an artists, as I’d be teaching the whole curriculum. But I cannot help but feel that I didn’t study an arts degree to teach maths to 7 year olds.
they would sponsor my PGCE, though this chance is slim. I have recently considered seeking employment in education within a gallery setting. Not only would I enjoy this job due to the combination of working with people of all ages in an informal learning environment, but it would also give me a great deal of relevant work experience for when I pursue a PGCE further down the line.
The more I read into PGCE’s and the level of experience required, the more I didn’t feel ready to do one straight after graduating, which was my original plan. Seeking employment within an institution first may be a good idea, as there is a chance that
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Dream Job
I came across the job of Creative Practitioner on the Hepworth Wakefield gallery website. This sounds like the perfect job to me, but I could see I am not yet qualified for the role. I looked into what skills and experience I need to get a job like this in the future. The job description requirements I am missing are: • Excellent working knowledge of gallery education. • At least six months experience of facilitating activities with the following audiences, within a gallery setting: families, young people outside of formal education, primary, secondary, higher education, further education, adult learners and adults with additional needs, e.g. visual impairments. Good news is, most of the other skills listed, I have!
Creative Practitioner job description on The Hepworth Wakefield website
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Getting There
Based on this research, I identified that I need to obtain experience working in education within a gallery setting. The easiest way to do this is through volunteering, and the only time I can afford to volunteer is whilst I am at university. So I have applied to be a volunteer within the education department at the Hepworth Gallery. I have a great deal of work experience at Leeds College of Art, I feel it’s time to reduce this, and gain more elsewhere.
My application to volunteer at The Hepworth Wakefield
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My application to volunteer at The Hepworth Wakefield
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Brighton could be a potential institution to study my PGCE
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As is Bristol
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I would love to do a part time MA whilst working in a gallery.
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My Skills
The skills I do have to offer include: • Great social skills and approachability. • High level of written and verbal communication. • Ability to inspire and encourage learners. • Good organisational and time-keeping. • Ability to work independently and autonomously as well as part of a group. • High level of research skills, and putting this research into practice. • Ability to think on my feet and use initiative for problem solving. • High level of project evaluation skills.
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Books
Bono, E.d. ‘ How to Have Creative Ideas’ 2007. Vermilion, London Epstein, R. ‘The Big Book of Creativity Games’ 2000. McGraw-Hill, New York Harvey, B. & Harvey, J. ‘Creative Teaching Approaches in the
Bibliography
Lifelong Learning Sector’ 2013. Open University Press, New York
Websites
awesomemerchandise.com brighton.ac.uk dictionary.cambridge.org flickr.com/groups/2644063@N24/ www.gov.uk/government/news/creative-industries-worth8million-an-hour-to-uk-economy hepworthwakefield.org iamfrancesbailey.wordpress.com kingofthemountainsfestival.com kingston.ac.uk leeds-art.ac.uk leedsinspired.co.uk/grants scrapstuff.co.uk shu.ac.uk talent.ac.uk tate.org.uk theartpartyconference.tumblr.com thegreenexchange.co.uk uwe.ac.uk
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Appendix 1: p.87 Appendix 2: p.91
Appendices
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Appendix 1 87
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Appendix 2 91
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