Hurtling towards the finishing line {creative learning environments - indoors}

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So next week is our last week at the school we've been working in to make a creative indoor learning environment.  We'd had many different ideas about how this could have transpired, and now that we know what the end is going to look like it's interesting to reflect back on the decisions we all made and how we ended up with this particular set of changes/outputs/THINGS.

The class itself have been particularly challenging, and so required a lot of planning in terms of what our ideal goals for them would be, and then plans B, C, D, E and F in case the former plans went awry.  They often went awry (either the kids struggled to achieve certain tasks/goals, or they surprised us all and flew through them!) but overall we managed to combine elements of design, consultation, research and planning with them so that even though we didn't give any of them power toold to use - the room is still completely based around their ideas and research undertaken.

Next week is the 'big reveal' - more pictures will come then!

"Watch this Space" - making zines short by Lee Allen Photography

Frilly makes some zines from Lee Allen on Vimeo.

Short film made for Frilly to highlight some of the work they are doing right now.
Shot on a canon 5dmk2 using a 50mm 1.4 and a 50mm 2.5 macro lens and then edited in FCE. This is the second piece I have shot in the last few weeks and feel it is a definite improvement on the last one. Any comments and suggestions welcomed.

Lee

(PLEASE ignore my very tired scrunchy face.  The last couple of weeks have been LONG.  I don't always look quite so bedraggled!)

"Watch this Space" - a joint commissioning project

We have just been commissioned to work on a project called "Watch this Space" - an interesting jointly commissioned project between Telford & Wrekin Council and Shropshire Council, with additional partners from the relevant Youth Services.

It's quite a large steering group and an equally large geographical area we'll be working across.  Saturday is the first day we'll get to meet the young people who've signed up to take part - but equally it'll be the first time they get to meet each other, as half are from Telford and half from Shropshire (Bridgnorth, to be precise!). 

The project itself will see us working with the young people to devise, create and curate an exhibition of work.  The young people will have MANY choices to make - from the location of the exhibition, to what the end product is going to be.  We're throwing Arts Award in for good measure, and feel pretty excited about the project - particularly as there's a weekend residential to the Welsh coast in the middle!

For now - we just wanted to share what we've been preparing prior to meeting the group.  In order to meet a potential variety of needs and abilities, we've devised an "explorer's kit" which will encourage participants to view their outdoor spaces in new ways, and to help trigger creative thinking from the moment we meet them.  The kit will be used whilst scouting for potential exhibition location venues at the weekend.

The kit includes: envelopes, tracing paper, carbon paper, prompts, instructions, a photocopied mini-zine with space for responses, a pencil, a biro, a piece of chalk, a wax crayon and a pastel.  Surely everything a good explorer needs?!