Young Arts Grange Workshops

Young Arts WorkshopS at the Grange Academy

Our society aims to inspire young people with a lasting enthusiasm for the arts. We work with schools by funding ‘Artists in Residence’ to work on arts projects with pupils. For example, local artists Anne-Marie Abbate and Amanda Silk have worked with special school pupils to help them create art work. Projects have involved the use of felt, tie-dye, ceramics, print-making and collage. As well as providing pupils with an opportunity to develop their creative skills, the projects have had an impact on their social and communication skills as they work together to create displays of their work.

Members' donations and purchase of second hand books to support Young Arts make a huge impact and allow us to offer these workshops, art competitions and many more activities to young people in the area.

felting workshops

Year 10 and 11 pupils participated recently in Felting Workshops based on David Hockney’s landscapes. These were run by our member artist Marie-Anne Abbate. The pupils engaged by choosing a Hockney piece of work and coloured felt for their interpretation of their picture. They drew the design and cut out the different shapes. Using their shapes as a template they cut their felt. This involved great precision in the use of scissors.

The pupils then lay their pieces of felt together and covered them in netting, sprinkling the net with water which was great fun if not a little wet! Here came the messy and sensory part - rubbing olive oil soap over the wet net in a circular motion with the flat of their hands. So therapeutic! The class enjoyed this experience. After using a rush mat and rolling their artwork, the net was removed, and their felt pieces had attached. The artwork was then washed and placed on a rack for drying. So many of the pupils said how much they enjoyed the day and wanted to stay longer!

Printing Workshop

At a previous workshop run by our member artist, Anne-Marie Abbate, for Years 10 and 11, the pupils had great fun working with a range of different fabrics, wallpapers, feathers etc. Tracing, precision cutting and glueing were involved in making their own interpretations of the drawings given. Rollers were used to ink their designs and then printing took place. Feather printing was also a great success! The pupils' collographs, feather prints, mono printing and print making will be submitted as part of their Natural Form G.C.S.E. Art Exam.

We were able to run these workshops thanks to Community Grants from the Arts Society.

Lynne Vaughan, Young Arts