Workshop Plans
Our Ideas and Aspirations
E is for Explorer Workshop:
The plan is to find different things, different types of bugs or things they wouldn’t usually see. Ask them to bring their chosen objects back to the bench and get them to explain why they picked them. Hold a discussion, question them on why these objects sparked interest? We could extend the task over the course of a hour and create a story time or it could even be a pre-task for the following workshop...
U is for Unconventional Workshop:
Ask the children to make a small creature, real or imaginary. Have conversations about where they think the creatures would live in preparation for the following workshop. This could be out of tin foil, cardboard, leaves, twigs or any materials they find around the stables. We will them ask them to give their creatures names and personalities. We’ll label them with the kid’s names and take them away for the next week so we can continue the project and manifest more ideas and activities.
S is for Survival Workshop:
As a continuation from the workshop above we plan to either make dens, houses or bug hotels to help different animals survive. It's important to base house around the little creature they made out of tin foil the week before. We will then get the kids to place the shelters in locations around the stable and talk about how the man-made materials look in the organic shapes and surroundings. It would be interesting to have them maybe working in groups to help with discussion and to get imaginations flowing.
J is for Journalist Workshop:
Introduce the children to the world of journaling and documentation of events. If it was possible to have a similar or the same group of children weekly, it would be interesting to create a scrap book that they could document in. They could collect things like: dried flowers, leaves, rubbings etc., collaging them over the weeks to create a completed scrapbook that documents their time at the Summer Field Stables.
C is for Collaboration Workshop:
We would organise the kids so that they were standing in a circle. We'll then ask them to draw something for 2 minutes then move one space to the side (clockwise or counter-clockwise), leaving the paper. Then they will draw on top of the previous person’s drawing, keeping moving every 2 minutes until they’re back in their original space. We'll then get them to talk about how they feel and what they do or don’t like about the drawings. Note how the children's drawings change or alter based on the person who drew before, and see if the older children influence the younger children.
U is for Unnatural Nature Workshop:
We will get the children to go around the stables in groups and find sticks, moss, bark, or any other natural materials. We'll get the kids to find a space on one piece of paper and then use their collected materials as paint brushes. We would also experiment with using long sticks from standing to make marks on the paper. Hang up the finished painting in natural surroundings when it’s done. Hold discussion about how it felt to use such unconventional materials to paint and what it was like working collaboratively on one large piece of paper.
P is for Perspective Workshop:
We will provide the kids with a mirror which we will ask them to hold up to something they find interesting. They will then paint onto mirror what they see in it (also as a self-portrait? Draw a self-portrait of themselves on paper, then hold up mirror and draw their reflection on it, talk about the differences between how they think of themselves and how they actually are). Photograph the mirrors in different ways, and in the surroundings that they painted in. Then point mirrors at each other and photograph shapes and reflections.
Post-workshops, exhibition, and beyond
(future plans for work made during workshops)
We would like to take elements of all the workshops and turn them into a sculptural tree, using all of the kids work. Perhaps using the earthy looking pieces for the trunk, and mirrors as leaves on the branches etc.
The tree symbolises journey and growth.
Each week we will take a sample of the work done and make tiny sculptures; starting as buds, growing taller each week until they form into the tree at the end.
The kids will write little notes or sentences to their future selves. We will ask them what they would like to say, how they have felt over the weeks; in his way, the tree becomes a time capsule. It would be fitting in this instance to “engrave” in the "bark" of the tree ‘to be opened in ____ year’.
Our plan is also to create a Portfolio – pictures of all the kids work over the weeks and of them making the work, helping each other etc., little sculptures over the weeks, then big tree at the end.
If it is possible due to COVID regulations, we would also like to get in touch with a local youth centre, or school, and have the tree displayed in their lobby as a symbol of all that the local children have achieved with only their imaginations and the outdoors.