Way back in the early part of the year, I began putting together a proposal for a Community Art project to present as part of the Mornington Peninsula Shire's Placemaking Grants program. The concept built on a previous pop up Art experience presented as part of Balnarring Village Common's 2010 World Environment Day Celebrations, where participants expressed their hopes for their environment and displayed those thoughts on a tree. The new project continues the idea, using the form of Tibetan prayer flags to express the community's hopes and dreams.
Fortunately - the grant application was successful, so in July planning began for community workshops to be held throughout winter and spring. From the beginning, the plan was to display the flags as part of the Balnarring Spring Garden Festival in October - but with the Balnarring Community Sustainability Fair scheduled for the previous week - wiser heads prevailed and we decided to combine the events... such a good way to reach a broader audience all the while staying sane with the amount of effort needed to put on this kind of thing. Phew.
Test workshops began in July with the Presentation Family Centre Holiday Program and continued with the Balnarring Quilters and local brownies having fun with text, printmaking techniques and stitching.

The next workshop happens at the Balnarring Hall on Friday August 21 4-5.30 pm... stay tuned.

So... here we are. The week leading up to the BIG REVEAL. The main thing on my mind at the moment is ... "Will the boxes all fall down and the installation be a complete failure?". 

Wind will be my main problem... but my technical crew have a back up plan, with tarps as wind shields if necessary. The tarps will make photographing the installation problematic but I think we'll just have to deal with that on the day. So far the forecast is looking good with cloudy skies, mild temperatures and  a slight breeze.
We'll add stability with boards as a base and tomorrow (!), I'll resolve adhesives.

The other unknown is the number of kids that will be there on the day to participate in the installation. Tomorrow a note goes home with the school newsletter, and promotional material has gone out in the local magazine publication...The Bridge, as well as BVC facebook and other social networking pages, so hopefully a few kids will come along to see their works all together.
Perhaps, on refection it would have been better to have the installation closer to the end date of the project, given that some groups finished their works back at the beginning of August. I wonder if the gap between completing the works and display distances the kids too much from the process.

Questions to be answered in evaluation...

What did you enjoy about the project ?
What did you find challenging ?
What surprised you?
How would you improve the workshops ?
Would you choose to do a similar project again? Why? Why not?

On sunday, as well as coordination the installation, I'm hoping to record some responses to those kind of questions for my project evaluation.

Working with the older kids in Grades 5-6 provides an entirely different set of circumstances to manage.
The classes work on a rotational system, meaning that I'd design 2 x 3 hour classes, one primarily on drawing and design and one on construction. The sessions would be repeated four times (for 4 different groups - 1 each week for a month). So over an eight week period, the first 4 weeks would be drawing and the second 4, construction.

SESSION 1: Drawing
Increased concentration time and a longer session meant that we were able to stretch out the exercises and go deeper with each one.
We started on the floor with large spiral drawings to loosen up and develop an awareness of the body in drawing. Then up to the tables for some experiments with making lines and pictures. Still life of simple shapes using sketchy lines to build the image on the page, then shading the whole page with charcoal and drawing with the eraser, using the same subject matter - a continuous line drawing followed by repeating that drawing, this time shading shadow and highlights, then onto continuous  line drawing of a complex shape with pencil and blind contour drawing of their shoe.
I had more exercises planned but we ran out of time, so moved quickly on to a discussion of Hundertwasser and his theories of 3 skins and creative expression.
After explaining the construction element of the project, we had the students identify 5  adjectives to describe themselves that they wanted to include in their cubby design, then design a cubby that (with strict design parameters) they would build in the next session. MUCH EXCITEMENT!

Evaluating the session, I felt that we spent too long on drawing and not enough on design. I had planned to create marquettes during the lesson but re setting up the classroom for construction within the time frame of the class was impractical.
I decided to be more fixed with the timing of the lesson plan spending the first hour on an introduction, warm ups and drawing exercises, the second on drawing extension and the third on history, context and design.

Still, after discussion with Pea, we decided that achieving the goal of a finalised construction within the constraints of the time and space available, was unlikely. Our solution was to minimize the scale of the outcomes. So rather than each pair or trio complete a single cubby, we would have each pair complete a design element/module that would be then installed on the land at a single event. More of a performance/ community art installation where participation in the construction would be driven by attendance on the day.

In response to the running of the first session - I decided to also scale back the number of warm up exercises, eliminating areas I felt we were repeating skills and focus instead on consolidating. So - the session went more like

1. Spirals
2. Observational still life (bold sketchy line)
3. Shaded page drawing with eraser
4. Continuous line still life with shadow
5. Observational Continuous line complex shape
6. Blind contour
7. Simultaneous double handed observational drawing

The last 2 exercises were met with limited success, perhaps a little too challenging for some of the students who at that point disengaged from the class and it was a struggle to bring them back for the rest of the lesson.

Engaging students with skill sets at varying levels has become my focus - particularly for the upcoming construction session. My plan is to communicate more clearly the parameters of the project using visual prompts  - projected written guidelines and images. To break down process into simple steps that the kids can follow if they need.

Some drawing and design results ....

And so, onto week three...

Nervousness.
Despite the hours of preparation (having a much deeper understanding of the amount of planning time that teachers spend), gathering images and materials, inspiration, practicing the workshop exercises with my daughter, research, admin, asking questions, questions and more questions. Tuesday morning arrived with me feeling desperately unprepared. With 5 classes of preps-grade 2's to entertain, inspire and guide though out the day, I was worried that my material wouldn't work. That the kids would rush through the drawing exercises and leave me with 30 minutes of free form improv.

There was only one way forward of course... just to go with it. So we did.

After a brief intro we started with some drawing warm ups. Movements in the air with our wrists then transferring those actions with pencil onto the page. The idea being to bring an awareness of the different ways to use our body to change the marks we make on the page. The response was varied. Some children embraced the exercise while others wondered why we were making baby marks.

Step 2. Expression. We continued with our pencils to make marks that might express feelings. What would a happy line look like? (Lots of smiley lines), a frightened/shy mark ? And finalyy a mark that expressed their feelings that day.

Step 3: Exploring charcoal. Just a few students had some experience in using charcoal for drawing, so it was fun to experiment with the kind of marks we could make. Using the side of the charcoal, we made some lovely fat marks filling in a good section of the page. We then used our hands to smudge back into the shades area creating smokey tones and lots of black fingers. A timely reminder then, to keep hands on the paper (not on our/friends faces!) was mostly listened to. We worked into the drawing by making marks, this time with the tip of the charcoal, then with the edge of an eraser and then with a white crayon. At this point I encouraged the kids to see if they could turn their marks into something that lived in their garden. Magic happened when the children smudged their work (again), finding that their invisible crayon lines became dark, revealing hidden parts of their image. we completed the exercise with some serious hand washing.

Step 4. Continuous line drawing. Prior to the classes I had collected a number of seed pods and gum nuts, so this exercise was an introduction to observational drawing. Making sure that the objects were close to the page, the kids slowly drew the object in front of them,without taking their pencil off the paper. It was challenging to make the contour drawing, as well as keep the slow pace - so lots of reminders and quiet ambient music helped to set the scene.

Most of the classes finished at this point - though with a couple we were able to extend the exercises by the introduction of combining the observational drawing with using specific marks such as cross hatching, sketchy lines or dots. The kids were able to choose where on their drawing they used each mark. Not sure how successful this exercise was - i think the problem was possibly in the way I explained the procedure.

And that was the end of the class. we repeated the whole thing 6 times to make up the school day. Viola. Big thanks to Pea Saunders, Art Teacher from Balnarring Primary School for the guidance and to www.accessart.org.uk/ for their inspiration.

The thing I've been spending most time on lately as far as the project goes is getting together a management plan. Identifying timelines, objectives, priorities, frameworks, constraints, resources and stakeholders. Documentation. Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh.
While that stuff is dry and dare I say it - a little boring, at least its doing something.
The hard bit has been coming up with a concept for the workshops to fit into the constraints...
Those being:

• Limited and varying time availability for delivery of classes (Grade 5&6 - 2x3 hr workshops over 8 weeks ,Prep-Year2 - limited 1 hr classes over 8 weeks)
• minimal budget
• Varying skill level/abilities of students
• minimal storage availability
• safety
• location (subject to weather, vandalism)
• aesthetics (delivering an aesthetically cohesive project)

A solution to the problem of a small budget is obviously to use readily available materials - and the one that comes to mind is cardboard. Free ! Awesome.
Ive been considering the possibility of working with the theme of "GROWING HOME" - thinking that the characteristics of cardboard may lend itself to some architectural style assemblages or structures. The thinking is that there is enough scope for the diverse age groups to achieve some thought provoking results while still keeping a cohesive aesthetic.



Ive been doing a little research and found some great resources here and here for kids sculptural projects that have provided some great inspiration.

A great place to gather materials is reverse art truck - And today I've had some fun playing with a Louise Nevelson style assemblage that could be a good way to go with the younger kids, if I can just solve the problem of suitable adhesives (ideas gratefully received).

So... Calling this thing "the public art project" is getting tired. I need something new, zappy, inspired and inspiring. Something that captures the imagination yet creates the desire for wanting to know more... a little mystery maybe. And I need your help.
Bear in mind that the project will be:

*family friendly
*use recycled, waste or natural materials
*will be temporarily  installed in OCTOBER 2014
*based on designs inspired by indigenous flora and fauna

Post your comments here with your thoughts for what to call this thing and there may well be a prize of some description ( my eternal thanks, or even a painting) to those that I REALLY like.

THE IDEA: to create a project that brings together awesome things. Art, community and a thriving environment.

It all started a few years ago with a few friends sitting around imagining how cool it would be to have a community garden. A place to  share stories, veggies, experience, and ideas...
We realised that the perfect parcel of land was almost under our feet and so went about developing a concept that could be presented to the community. We did, they liked the idea and the concept grew (like a little seedling).

Today Balnarring Village Common is working to create a space for the whole community to meet, interact and grow together. As it turns out, securing unused public land for community activity has been a task a little like walking el camino. Its a reeeaaalllly long road. Its just as well nice things happen along the way.

Anyhoo. Where does the Art fit ? I hear you ask.

Basically - in order to get people to notice, interact and dare I say it ... get passionate about the parcel of land in their front yard that is likely to turn into at best, yet another block of shops selling stuff that is oh so desirable but not at all necessary to our health and happiness if we don't raise our collective hands and say "hold on just a second there cowboy", I'll be implementing a temporary sculptural installation in association with the  folks at Balnarring Primary School on 3051-3053 Frankston Flinders Rd Balnarring. The installation is planned for October 2014, with workshops through July, August and September.

I'll be documenting the whole process here. If you'd like to be a part of the whole sh'bang... be sure to leave me a comment.
Meanwhile here are some nice pictures of the space so you can see how nice it is.