The AccessArt Village
Pelham After-School Art Club (Summer Term Project)
AccessArt Village Stage 1
This term at Pelham Art Club we are taking part in a large scale project organised by the arts organisation AccessArt.
The aim of the project is simple: to inspire the AccessArt audience of all ages (children, teenagers and adults) to make a sewn drawing of their home on a 20 cm square piece of fabric. The sewn squares will then be sent to AccessArt, where artist Andrea Butler is busy bringing the individual pieces together into an artwork (the AccessArt Village) which celebrates the diversity of their audience. The finished artwork will tour to venues in the UK in 2018, before being split into smaller pieces which will be gifted to schools.
The children at Pelham Art Club made a great start with the new project. After some warm up exercises, we experimented drawing with one line not taking the pencil off the paper. Here are some drawings of plants in a pot:
After looking at the pictures from the AccessArt Village on their website and talking about the whole project, the children produced drawings of their own houses.
Some of them preferred to draw their dream house instead.
We then began to learn some simple stitches. We used sheets to help us, watched films on You Tube, and practiced on simple sack cloth hessian, drawing lines using crayon on the cloth to guide us.
The children had been involved in World Book Day - so were dressed up as favourite characters – one little girl really looked the part as she practiced a centuries-old skill!
Once we had mastered the basics, we went on to try more complex stitches, or went a bit crazy and experimented with our own!
We have some lovely resources ready house sent to us from AccessArt, and lots of ideas to get our imaginations working. Please do explore the website with your children and perhaps get stitching yourselves at home – we can send as many models in as we like to join this great project – perhaps we will get to see the end result when it tours as an exhibition!
AccessArt Village Stage 2
This term at Pelham Art Club we have been taking part in the AccessArt Village Project.
Today, after experimenting with some stitches, we began to transfer our house designs onto calico squares.
The children then simply stitched the outlines as a starting point.
As they grew more confident they used more complicated stitches to add more detail, and added scraps of material for details.
They great more creative as they went on, experimenting with new techniques and stitches.
Sessions have been calm and peaceful as the children find this work extremely therapeutic. It demands great concentration.
It’s lovely to see how their designs gradually translate into a final product.
Crayons and pastels were used to add detail and blocks of colour to designs. Buttons and beads created more three dimensional effects.
We have used the AccessArt website for inspiration at the start of each session.
As the houses got to a finished point we used thick card to create a standing mechanism
Our houses could stand and begin to form a street.
As the children finish they will work together to make a village installation, so we can photograph all the houses together before we send them off to AccessArt to join the larger installation.
AccessArt Village - Complete
Our own village is almost finished and we are all set to send our houses to become the larger village that will be part of a touring exhibition.
We cut out and mounted our houses so they stood up, and ironed the finished embroidery work.
We then photographed each individual house and we played with different combinations and neighbours!
Then we began to make props to accompany each house to bring them to life - animals, fountains…
We did some research to look for ideas. We used lots of different materials to make things like trees.
Our very own villages and towns were emerging.
Next week we will use these scenes as a backdrop for some small animations before we pack up the work to send to Access Art for their exhibition.
Animating the AccessArt Village
This term’s project at Pelham Primary School’s After School Art Club has been to take part in a big participatory art project with AccessArt called the AccessArt Village.
Our houses have now been delivered to AccessArt where they will become part of a larger installation and exhibition. To prolong the life of our work we decided to use the houses in a little animation project. They will also receive a little postcard memento of the project at today’s class until the work finds its way back to us!
Veena reminded the children how to use a stop motion app which you can download for free onto a tablet or phone. (It’s called iMotion.)
The children made some lovely props to go with their model houses and villages.
The little scenes they put together were gorgeous and full of imagination. It was lovely to see the children using and playing with their work, taking it in new directions to explore new ideas.
They experimented with different ways to move their characters around when filming – so you couldn’t see fingers in the shots and the characters stayed upright.
The children wrote stories and storyboards to help them direct their production.
View some of the animations by clicking the image link
The AccessArt Village will be touring shortly please see the link below for more details
The nearest exhibition venue to us is the Brentwood Road Gallery in Romford. The AccessArt Village will be there during January 2018. If there is demand perhaps we will plan a trip to see it.
Access Art have been very impressed with our work as you can see from their words below.
Hi Annabel,
Thank you so much for sending me the details of your AccessArt Village posts.
We’re really impressed with the way that you’ve structured the activities and the dedication and all the hard work the children have put into the project. The houses are beautiful, so full of character – and the colour and all the little details and textures are gorgeous! I especially love the props the children made, they really brings the houses alive – so imaginative!
You’ve done a wonderful job making the houses stand up and we’re looking forward very much to receiving them.
Please thank the children and send them our congratulations.
With very best wishes
Andrea and all at AccessArt