What does a 'creative learning environment' look like?

What does it look like if it's outdoors?

What does it look like if it's inside?

What does it look like if it's used by Early Years?

What does it look like if it's used by SEN young people?

What does it look like if it has to be a resuable/changeable space?

What does it look like if it is full of static 'installations'?

What does it look like if it needs to engage all areas of the curriculum?

What does it look like if it's made out of cardboard?

What does it look like if it's main impact is through smell and sound?

These are the questions we're currently rolling around our brains at the moment.  We don't have the 'right' answer as there are many possible answers and all will be very different.  We're imagining Len Lye meets Andy Goldsworthy in an imaginary online environment which is then livestreamed/projected through gigantic sheets of muslin which are already embedded with fragrances collected from the forest. 

Or maybe it's just a series of plain cardboard boxes.

Hmmm.

blogging and the art of time management

It may seem like team Frilly have become quiet and shy, but the truth of the matter is that all of our available blogging energy has been focused on a project we've been working on for a little while now.  Until March, we're working in three Birmingham constituencies - Ladywood, Perry Barr and Erdington - on a youth arts signposting project where we try to join up the creative dots in those areas between service providers and young people.  Every day the project seems to grow through new partners and networks and the young people themselves.  I'm just extremely glad that in the early days I put together a tumblr, facebook page and twitter stream (and got them all talking to one another - hurrah!) because it's made life a little easier now that we're coordinating days and times across those areas.

In other news - we're still busy planning (arts)world domination!  We've been working with two artist friends on a project for Birmingham and Solihull Women's Aid which will soon be completed - as well as tieing up loose ends from our two Brightspace projects from the summer term.  Looking ahead to next year, we've now confirmed we'll be working on 3 projects for PiCL up in Stoke/Staffordshire - two of which are in SEN settings and one in a mainstream primary school.  Exciting!  Challenging!  But mostly exciting!  

Being part of Frilly has enabled me to stretch my own artistic practice and skills, as well as learn a LOT of things through doing - mostly around business development/management/financial planning - which I wouldn't have otherwise tackled.  It's been a busy year, and we're only really just in November!  (I'll save a retrospective post for December.) 

Whilst we don't have any new arty outputs to share on here just yet - instead I'll share the work of an artist friend of mine - Leontine Greenberg - who carefully turned me into a corpse bride for Halloween!  Her illustrations are beautiful and delicate, and she makes me want to play with watercolours and ink! (I promise that team Frilly are usually more vibrant and healthy looking than the image below suggests..!)

life drawing / zine festival

Coming soon is Birmingham’s first Zine Festival.  It’s a grassroots event that developed out of a bunch of people loving zines and wanting to DO something. Often this ends up with a lot of chatting and nothing happens, but [..drum roll..] the Birmingham Zine Festival is going ahead on 10^th – 12^th September!  Exciting!  Except I’m at a wedding on the 11^th so will almost certainly miss it all.  Boo.  Good news is, I’ll still be present:

Being determined to have SOMETHING to do with the Festival (due to my obsessions with books, zines, print, and anything DIY-ey in Birmingham) I signed up for the Mail Art Exhibition and was sent this blank postcard.  It’s been hung next to my desk for a few weeks and time was ticking by and without feeling at ALL inspired I took it along to a life drawing class that Kirsty and I attended on Sunday – and this was the result!

The mac run an awesome array of creative classes and Team Frilly had been planning on forcing ourselves to make art for ourselves one way or another – as work always seems to take priority/take over.  Shutting ourselves in a room full of studious artists and a naked person seemed like a good way to enforce the spending of time creatively!

Drawing for the first time in a very long time felt awkward.  How to hold the pencil? (loosely, and not like writing) Should I use charcoal? (I forgot to bring any anyway!) Is everyone using colour? (everyone had different tools – I worked in monochrome) Did I remember my rubber? (no I didn’t - annoying!) Will the model mind if I plant myself right at his feet? (he didn’t mind – didn’t even bat an eyelid!)

Everyone worked very differently from one another.  Some just painted.  Some worked for the whole day on one image.  Some explored line and tone and shading.  Some concentrated on detail.  I worked on a range of papers, on one pose and the close up study of his face.  Generally I feel I’ve remembered measuring and checking angles – but I struggled on how to kick start myself  which using drawing exercises might have helped with.

I want to go along to more classes like these, but felt a little bit frustrated by the lack of actual tuition.  I understand that in a one-off session it’s more about maximising your drawing time – so now I’m starting to look at night classes that concentrate on developing drawing skills. 

Kirsty wants to make every Friday an ‘art day’ where we have to concentrate on making things – but I’ve sadly had to remind her that we still have bills to pay/workshops to run/young people to signpost/admin to complete/blog posts to write/emails to reply to/invoices to post/the list is ENDLESS!  So for now, Fridays will just be Fridays - but if anything changes I will be sure to write in gleeful tones all about it.