Art Work
Our Work
Year 5 Rolls Crescent pupils worked with our textiles tutor, Louisa and Venture Arts artists Robert and Liam to create two banners that will go on display at their school. The project was assisted by textile artist Hamble-Rose.
At the start of the project, Robert and Liam introduced the children to Venture Arts and spoke about their part in the organisation, showed some of their textile work and talked about how they had made it.
The group discussed the school’s values – Respect, Responsibility, Resilience, Kindness, Fairness and Empathy, and what each of the values meant to them. They were asked to create pictures that communicated these values, from which they selected favourite images to use for the banner.
Robert and Liam demonstrated how to transfer and applique images onto the fabric of the banner, and how to make decorative tassels. They supported individuals in these processes, and helped with tasks like threading needles and tying off. Liam gave lots of encouragement to pupils to ensure they were joining in – and he ‘buddied up’ with the only boy in the group when he sensed he may be feeling a bit out of place!
Over the course of the project Robert took responsibility for photo-documenting its progress. The pair also created certificates for pupils to receive at the end of the project.
Once completed, we invited the children along with their families into the Venture Arts studio to admire the finished banners.
Carol Warham, Rolls Crescent teacher, commented:
“I have always found Venture Arts projects worthwhile. They provide opportunities that our children would otherwise have no access to. This year’s project was especially welcome as it closely connects to our work on school values.
“I was very impressed with how all of the children stuck at the project. Attendance was almost 100%, showing me that the children were enjoying themselves and had a sense of achievement. They have all expressed pride in the finished works.”
Pupils commented on the strong teamwork and the satisfaction of working together to make something beautiful:
“Everybody was nice to each other and the art looked really nice – we did this for our school and took a lot of time over it.”
“Something that went really well was stitching the banner, the reason for this was teamwork.”
“I gave the project 10/10 because I really enjoyed it and it was fun.”
They also benefited from getting to know people with learning disabilities:
“It was my first time meeting someone with learning difficulties. They were friendly, skilful and helpful.”
“They helped us with the things we got stuck on and they had amazing skills. I’ve not met anyone with learning disabilities before and they were very friendly.”
“It felt good and normal really because they were just like anybody else but more skilled at their work.”
Our artistic mentors appreciated the class’s efforts and enjoyed their enthusiasm:
“The children worked hard. They made patterns, they learnt to sew, they were neat. Everyone was happy – the children were laughing, they were excited. I would like to do another project next year, a pottery project making hats. I learnt a lot and took photographs of their work.” – Robert
“I enjoyed meeting new people. Everyone was so friendly, happy and hardworking – it was nice to have an atmosphere where we can talk and work. I helped the children sew the tassels, they were very good at teamwork, and they enjoyed making them.” – Liam
Louisa, our lead artist tutor commented:
“The project worked really well, Robert and Liam were able to demonstrate their textile skills, the banners are colourful, striking and the children have clearly have thought about the school’s values. The groups worked well collectively, and encouraged both teamwork and individual ideas. Many pupils wanted to continue sewing at home and passed on that they had enjoyed the opportunity to work in textiles which they didn’t get the chance at school to do.”
