FUT URE
IN THE KIDS’ HANDS
Imaginate Immerse Residency January - March 2020 St Ninian’s RC Primary School Restalrig, Edinburgh Brian Hartley [Lead Artist] + Anna Noonan [Associate Artist] 1
Hello!
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When Anna and I left St Ninians on 11th March we didn’t know that would be the last of our visits to St Ninians R.C. Primary School, we had just finished week eight, of a ten week Immerse Residency, commissioned by Imaginate. We were making plans to make an exhibition in the gym featuring work created by the children; large map drawings, models of future cities, photographs and some short films. We were very sad not to be able to say thank you to everyone at St Ninians R.C. P.S. for being so welcoming. We thoroughly enjoyed working the children in both classes and teachers, Mrs Healy and Miss Gilhooley, and the support from the head teachers Mr McCann and Mrs Brack. We would like to say a huge thank you to Imaginate for making it all possible, and to Kirsty who joined us in school one day and joined in with the model making activities. This magazine shares some ideas from our research, with some ideas for activities to try at home and links to some films made during the residency. In planning the final exhibition we needed a title, and class P6b came up with a great suggestion which felt very relevant for the work and themes we had created.
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FUTURE IN THE KIDS’ HANDS
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In 1784 a hot air balloon landed in Restalrig, this story inspired some of our ideas around the themes of place and location for the residency,
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Moving together We spent a lot of time at the beginning of the residency learning to move together. We copied, mirrored, watched and observed. We moved together in lines with our eyes open and closed. We moved together like a flock of birds. We grew our awareness of ourselves, each other and the space around us. We worked together, shared ideas, found solutions and built trust as a group.
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How do you think we can move together, when we need to stay apart? What message could we send to the world by moving together? What do you think is important to say, and how could we show this in movement? We would love to hear your ideas!
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Calton Hill
walking trip and film
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On Wednesday 5th February we walked from St Ninian’s R.C P.S. to Calton Hill, safe in the capable hands of Mrs Healy and Miss Gilhooley. Along the walk we passed several interesting sights and opportunities to learn more about Edinburgh. Both P6 classes worked together with Brian and Anna and our film crew, Lucas, Marta and Delia, to make a short film based on the movement exercices we had been exploring in school in the previous weeks. We looked at the views across Edinburgh, looking north to Fife and east to Restalrig. As a group we made a large compass shape on top of the hill, braving the cold wind, and then kept warm by moving like a flock of birds, walking, running and jumping on the grass behind the National Monument. We then had a brisk walk back to school in time lunch. Click on the image on the next page to see the film on the Imaginate YouTube channel.
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Visual Art Maps
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On large pieces of paper filling the classrrom floor, we mapped out each classes own experiences of important places in Edinburgh, negotiating how to use scale, teamwork to describe the many places and buildings, proportion, scale scales and distance in and around the city, from St Ninian’s and local shops and parks in Restalrig all the way to Edinburgh Zoo, Airport, Edinburgh Castle and far beyond. Using our memory, imagination and ipads as research tools to learn more about the city and make the group drawings, each class having its own unique map of Edinburgh.
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CREATE A MAP
of your room, house, street, neighbourhood on a piece of paper. (To make it larger you could join several pages together.) Think about the journeys you have made recently in your local area, either on foot or bicycle. Can you record these on your map?
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Visual Art
Neighbourhood
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Before our first vist to the school, Anna and I went for a walk from Edinburgh city centre to Restalrig and along the way saw many interesting places and learned many interesting stories about the history of Restalrig. It has a fascinating and ancient history with people from many different places living in the area over many generations.
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London
ABBEYHILL
Road
Re
ge
nt
Ro a
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CALTON HILL
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RESTALRIG , St. Ninian s RC PS Lochend Park
WHAT STORIES OR HISTORY CAN YOU COLLECT? Do you know anyone you could ask to tell you stories about its history? Can you see any interesting buildings or landmarks in your local area that might have an interesting story?
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Visual art
origami balloons activity: Part 1
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In 1784, an Edinburgh resident, James Tytler became the first person in the Britsh Isles to fly a hot air balloon, he called it the Edinburgh Fire Balloon, and it took off from from Abbey Hill and landed in Restalrig. Inspired by the Edinburgh Fire balloon story, We were planning to use our last creative session in March to make an origami balloon. If you would like to try making one follow the attached YouTube tutorial. To make the paper more colourful I wrote the word HOPE on the paper, one letter on each quarter of the paper so that when it is folded if makes an interesting pattern.
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Click on the YouTube link below to make an origami paper balloon.
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Visual art
origami balloons activity Part 2
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I added a piece of paper with a handwritten message, tied with some string and tape hanging under the balloon, and then took a photo of the balloon from my window , flying through the sky, over the neighbouring flats.
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SEND A MESSAGE TO SOMEONE SPECIAL. If a balloon were to fly over Ediburgh today, what message or word would you like it to say.
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Visual art
imagining our future city
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We had a very inspiring conversation about how Restalrig might change in the future, with many creative ideas abut future city life. This led to a creative model making activity that streched over several sessions. We enjoyed seeing so much creativity using a wide variety of arts and craft materials, to build inspiring models of a future Restalrig.
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Do you have any materials at home that you could use to make any model buildings? You could find recycled materials at home and use scissors, glue and tape to create some interesting model buildings.
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Photography
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Through the residency there was a growing interest in photography from class P6a which led to the children learning digital cameras to document their own perspective on the creative activities, and we began looking at old film cameras with plans for more photography learnung before lockdown. Here is a selection of some of the fantastic images taken by the children.
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Reflection
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On our last day at school in March, we built a film studio in the gym hall using the gym equiipment and some rolls of white paper, and filmed the group dances we had been creating over the last weeks. From all the footage taken across the whole residency we created a short film charting our 8 weeks at St Ninian’s RC PS. The films is available on the Imaginate YouTube channel via clicking the links on the followg page.
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Lead Artist: Brian Hartley Associate Artist: Anna Noonan Photography: Brian Hartley, all except p8-9 Photography on Calton Hill trip (p8-9): Delia Spatareanu Filming on Calton Hill trip: Lucas Chih Peng Kao & Marta Valuma Filming at St Ninian’s: Brian Hartley Editing of residency films: Brian Hartley Magazine design & illustration: Brian Hartley Future in the Kids’ Hands was developed as part of Imaginate’s Immerse project with funding through the PLACE Programme (a partnership between the Scottish Government, through Creative Scotland, the City of Edinburgh Council and the Edinburgh Festivals). We are also grateful to Baillie Gifford for their sponsorship of the project. www.imaginate.org.uk
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