Artist Teacher Network Summer Celebration!

Weds. 19th July at the Freelands Foundation the Artist Teacher Network Summer Celebration in the gallery. Image by Amelia Wornell and support by Giulia Vandelli . Such a nice evening, a big thank you to all that came and joined in.

I decided to focus this session on two things:

1. to celebrate, an end of year event, a chance to meet, drink, chat and share what we had achieved, individually and collectively;

2. to vent, to protest and make art that makes concrete our thoughts on the various issues we have been presented with this year.

To prepare I gathered a series of images of art works, and a video of Bob & Roberta talking about the recent NSEAD APPG report 'Art Now'. The imagers were of work by a range of artists/activists/socially engaged practice, tackling issues around gender, race, climate crisis, and different contemporary societal struggles.

I felt that the 'Art Now' inquiry was of interest to the group as it contained recently published research into the State of Art and Design teaching in Early Years Foundation Stage, Primary and Secondary Education. It's an alarming report, which reflects the conditions the artist teachers face on a daily basis in a range of educational contexts. But it also offers recommendations and highlights the strength and value of A&D teaching.

I wanted the participants to visualise their concerns personal /professional, to make concrete what they were engaging with in their artistic and teaching practice. I wanted the group to use the resources and materials to vent, to collaborate and to try in someway to share concerns.

Below are two of the works I made during the evening, the second piece in collaboration with Lesley Burgess.

Other pieces from the participants (Cathy, Kate, Alex, Graham, Jospeh, Julia, William, Charlie, Flame, Alex, Jolie, Joanna, Lesley, Lana, Ana, Nicola, Mena, Maria etc sorry if I forgot to add your name many were joint collaborations!):