ella robinson

Revival 2010, in association with the Crafts Council and ReachOutRCA

 

Ella Robinson writes:

Between January and March 2010 I was Lead Artist for the Textiles branch of Revival, a contemporary craft programme run in collaboration between the Crafts Council and ReachOut RCA, undertaking classroom-based workshops with 18 year 10 pupils from Cumberland School, Newham, East London. Revival is an education initiative inspiring secondary school pupils to consider craft as a further education/career option, whilst also providing continued professional development (CPD) for teachers, assistants and fellow artists/ designers.

Revival consisted of: the CPD day, the workshops themselves (four two-hour sessions) and concluded with an exhibition held within the Hockney Gallery at the RCA. Revival 2010 saw one RCA alumnus each from the specialisms of glass, silversmithing, ceramics and textiles undertake workshops within one London secondary school. The main objectives of Revival are to educate and encourage secondary school pupils within the subject area of craft, and to foster an understanding of how craft could be a possible career option. It is also an opportunity for recent graduates to gain professional experience of what it is like to plan, undertake and evaluate a series of workshops (based on their own practice) within the classroom.

My workshops were titled "Colour and Wrapping" and focussed on furthering the pupils’ knowledge and understanding of art, craft and design works featuring bold colourings, patterns and/or found objects, including those that they made themselves. I introduced them to my own practice and background, and we looked at the work of both well-known and relatively unknown artists and designers.

Over the sessions the pupils explored what it was like to wrap, hide and highlight everyday objects using a variety of colourful fabrics, plastic tubing, ribbon, washing line, string and rubber bands. They undertook small scale examples of hammering steel pins to fix plastic tubing, tie fabric strips into bows and neatly tie stranded cotton in order to wrap driftwood. They also worked in groups on a larger scale wrapping stools using as many fabric strips as possible in a five minute time period, allowing them a three-dimensional freedom that they rarely experience in the classroom. They found this to be one of the most enjoyable activities.

We also spent time looking at colour, working on the pupil's colour skills and understanding by making and recording instinctive and considered colour palettes by taking photographs and cutting material swatches.

These workshops were building up to students creating a more finalised and larger scale object for display at the Revival exhibition. Each pupil decided what techniques, materials and colours they most enjoyed working with to design and construct a piece for display, demonstrating what they had learned over the course of the workshops.

It was a very interesting and rewarding experience for me to be involved with Revival. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of working with the pupils and their teacher who was extremely encouraging and enthusiastic. I enjoyed seeing the pupils’ confidence improve within the workshops and see how they embraced each challenge presented to them. It was important for me to be able to explain and demonstrate the specialism of textiles outside of its traditional understanding.