3 minute read
Mobile Art School drives home the opportunities in the creative industries
Gray’s School of Art is set to head out into the community with the launch of the Mobile Art School, giving thousands of school pupils across the North-east the opportunity to experience art and design and discover the range of possibilities which exist within the creative industries.
Advertisement
The first phase of this innovative project will focus primarily on widening access to creative education and careers for young people. The team from Gray’s will travel to local schools in the custom-built Mobile Art School van equipped with state-ofthe-art creative tools and materials, delivering workshops across a range of art and design subject areas.
Taking our expertise and resources beyond the walls of RGU directly to communities through free events and workshops will have a positive impact by providing opportunities to experience the personal and social enrichment creative learning presents, as well as raising awareness of the Creative Industries. The Mobile Art School will also offer training and mentoring opportunities for RGU students and graduates, helping to develop the next generation of community-engaged artists and designers, attracting and retaining creative talent in Aberdeen and the Northeast to further benefit the region in years to come.
Head of Gray’s, Libby Curtis, commented: “The mobile art school exists, essentially, to get the word out about the opportunities in the creative industries – it’s a fantastic industry to work in, and I’m not sure everyone understands what those opportunities are.
“So many people will benefit from this fantastic new project. We are going to be having a huge programme of events, workshops and activities, aimed at schools and colleges. We want to get out there and talk to young individuals, those individuals that are thinking about, or are interested in, art and design, and the
Mobile Art School provides us with a great platform to do so.
“We really hope that the Mobile Art School acts as a catalyst for people to start talking about the creative opportunities that exist, thinking about art and design, and thinking about coming into art school.”
Craig Barrowman, Mobile Art School Coordinator, added: “The Mobile Art School is going to give people a chance to try some of the amazing range of skills and techniques that students here learn.
“We will be offering traditional skills, such as drawing, sculpture, and stone carving. We will also be doing more high-tech workshops, such as sculpting in VR, where people can use VR headsets and cutting edge technology to create forms of infinite scale in a virtual space.
“We want to try and reach as many people as we can with the MAS, so we have made it as easy as possible to get involved. People can visit the webpage for the MAS, find out about the wide range of workshops which will be offered and book these online. We will also be sending out packs of workshops cards, so that schools can see what is on offer.
“As Mobile Art School coordinator, what I’m really excited about is taking the amazing range of kit that we have and sharing the experience of how amazing it is to be an artist and designer and how much fun it can be. I really love engaging with people and getting them excited about the infinite number of things you can do in a creative career.”
www.rgu.ac.uk/MAS
