“An artist is not a special kind of person but every person is a special kind of artist” – Hakim Bey.
I love everything about the arts, I love viewing, watching and observing how people express their creative sides. From dance, music, drama, painting, creative writing, spoken word poetry, storytelling, sculpting, crafting, animation. Arts Organisations also cover heritage, museums, theatre, galleries, street performers, circuses and many more!
Often when you hear the word ‘art’ there is a tendency to think only of drawing and painting. As a child someone comes along and either tells you that you either are or aren’t a good drawer. This informs the opinion of yourself as either good or bad at art, BUT everyone has a creative side, whether you think you do or not. I have had people tell me that they are scientists and have no time for art, but then they will dance to their favourite music, sing or pretend to be a shopkeeper when playing with children. All of these are an expression of our creative sides.
Arts Award is an award that we offer our young people and they offer 5 different levels of certification, all accredited by Trinity College. They exist to expose children and young people to the broad spectrum of the arts, and offer opportunities to for children and young people (adults as well) to participate in them. Arts Award Silver is accredited at a level 2, which is GCSE level but it requires less hours of study. This, in a way, is beneficial to those with SEND or SEMH as it requires less commitment and it is much more autonomous. The young person gets to decide on the project, what they might want to do more of and how they want to go about it. Taleblazers only offers Discover and Explore levels unless there is exceptional commitment, time and interest to take it further. Often the sessions I do are focused around introducing art forms and activities to try. This can be playing with clay, painting, drawing, visiting local museums, storytelling. My favourite one to do is stop motion animation, there is a immediacy to this form of animation which is really pleasing. Stop motion can also end up being a long project if you cover story, prop making, set making, storyboards, script writing, filming, editing and even music.
The final product doesn’t have to end up in a gallery, it is about the enjoyment of creating something that you are proud of. This year I have worked with two young people on Arts Award and both have excelled. Here are some pictures of what they have created..
