By Paula Briggs

The day after Trump and Zelenskyy stunned the world with their televised argument in the Oval Office, AccessArt ran a “Constructing Positive Social Stories: Acts of Kindness” workshop session at the AccessArt Lab.

The event was one of a number of “Artists & Teachers Exploring Together” sessions, devised by AccessArt to give us an opportunity to think about some of the more philosophical issues behind art education. By working with artists and educators who are open to holding ideas lightly, we hope to collaboratively discover new arts educational approaches and activities, transferable to a variety of settings.

The idea behind this particular session was to explore how we can use making as a tool to help us focus more closely on the positives which surround us everyday, no matter how small. By creating a shared space for making and conversation, we hoped to lift spirits and create a sense of shared experience.

This post shares the session aims, some of the conversational highlights, and observations of the workshop attendees, and my own as facilitator. Thank you to all who attended, and for your generosity.

“A timely workshop this Saturday morning led by AccessArt. Reflecting individually on our own experiences of small kindnesses, and then choosing from a table of materials to abstractly or literally depict these, prompted conversation that magnified the acts beyond their original intent. The joy of creating by hand alongside others, of talking and making sense whilst sculpting and glueing, of sharing in stories of the smallest of acts that had made a difference to someone else… about people feeling seen, loved, heard. I left feeling lighter, more hopeful about the world, and with more generosity towards other drivers on my journey home.”

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A collection of imagery and sources designed to introduce children to the work of Danish artist Molly Haslund.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

*If you are having issues viewing videos it may be due to your schools firewall or your cookie selection. Please check with your IT department.*

This resource is free to access and is not a part of AccessArt membership.

The Circle Project by Molly Haslund

Teacher’s Notes

“Molly Haslund ventures out into the city wearing grey: a grey suit, grey socks and grey shoes so that she blends in with the tarmac and the pavement. She carries a huge pair of compasses much taller than herself. She stops somewhere and starts drawing a white circle on the ground. She completes the first circle and then moves the pair of compasses and starts drawing a new circle that overlaps the first one. She draws a third circle and stands in her grey shoes in the middle of the circle for a moment before snapping the pair of compasses together and moving on.” https://www.mollyhaslund.com/circles-2013-2

“… The focus is on the physical action, on the movement of the circles, and the patterns emerging and disappearing again – and of course the effect grows with the number of participants. on the other hand, if you want to draw alone, you can just withdraw a little from the rest. A bit like on the dance floor.”  Molly Haslund 

Watch the video with the pupils, and look at the images below. Find questions to prompt discussion at the end of this resource. 

Circles, Molly Haslund, 2015, New York, Peekskill Project #6, Hudson Valley MOCA, Photo by Joe Orangias

Circles (2013), Molly Haslund, Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde, Denmark, Photo by Matilde Haaning

Circles, Molly Haslund, 2014, Art Week, Superkilen, Copenhagen, Denmark, Photo by Matilde Haaning

Circles, Molly Haslund, 2014, Art Week, Superkilen, Copenhagen, Denmark, Photo by Matilde Haaning

Questions to Ask Children

How would you feel if you came across these circles in your street or playground, without knowing who had made them or why? What would you do? Would they change the way you move?

How do you think Molly, the artist, chooses where to make her circles?

How could you make similar circles in your playground, using chalk tied to sticks? 

How would the circles you make join up with the circles your friends make?

What would other pupils in your school think if they discovered your circles? What do you think they would do?

What other shapes could you make with your body in the playground? Would you need tools? 

If music played would you make different shapes? How would the shapes be different? 

This Talking Points Is Used In…

Pathway: Spirals

This is featured in the ‘Spirals’ pathway

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Show me what you see

See This Resource Used In Schools…

A collection of imagery and sources designed to explore the idea that artists can be collectors and explorers.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

*If you are having issues viewing videos it may be due to your schools firewall or your cookie selection. Please check with your IT department.*

This resource is free to access and is not a part of AccessArt membership.

Introduction

The following videos and weblinks explore the idea that artists can be collectors and explorers. 

By approaching the world with curiosity and openness, we can re-see the things around us and use them to inform and inspire our creative processes.

The following artists all venture out into the world, exploring familiar and new places and finding inspiration in the things around them. These artists then bring the things they “collect” back to their studios to make work. 

Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy is a British Sculptor who has become know for making art from things he finds in the landscape. Sometimes he creates the artwork in the landscape itself (he calls this “land art”), but in this video he shares how he takes ice and rocks from the landscape and lets it make a “drawing” as it thaws in his studio.

The video is suitable for children, however depending upon the abilities/experience of the children in your class you may wish to watch the video yourself, then turn the sound down as you play it to the children, using your own voice to help share what the artist is doing. 

TateShots: Andy Goldsworthy, Studio Visit

Questions to Ask Children

Andy Goldsworthy says: “Art has this amazing ability to show you what’s there.” 

What do you think he means by that? 

Do you like the artwork in the video more because you can see how it has been made?

How much control does Andy have over the artwork he makes? Does he want more control? 

Joseph Cornell

Joseph Cornell was an American visual artist and film-maker, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage. He was a great collector.

His images are copyright protected but the Royal Academy has created some excellent videos about his work, and there are images on the site too. 

Take a look at the videos here. 

Hassan Hajjaj

Hassan Hajjaj was born in 1961 in Larache, Morocco, and now lives and works in London, UK. He is inspired by Moroccan culture and artefacts and his work crosses many disciplines including photography and design. 

www.instagram.com/hassanhajjaj_larache/

Avantarte

Questions to Ask Children

What kinds of things catch Hassan’s eye when he is looking around his environment?

Do you think there is a clear distinction between “art” and “life” in Hassan’s mind? 

Lorna Crane the Brush Maker

Lorna Crane is an abstract painter whose work is inspired by the Australian landscape. She makes her own artist’s brushes using diverse natural and man-made materials, many of them found at Pambula river mouth on the NSW far south coast.

Questions to Ask Children

How do you think Lorna decides which things to pick up and turn into brushes?

Do you think two brushes are ever the same?

Which part do you think Lorna likes best: the collecting, the making brushes, or the painting with her brushes?

What could you make brushes out of? What marks would they make? What challenges might you face?

Alice Fox

Alice Fox took on an old allotment and on the allotment were a number of sheds. Alice spends time discovering the past through the things she finds and creates small, carefully crafted artworks, inspired by what she finds and natural materials.

You can see more of Alice’s work here. 

A film about artist Alice Fox who works with found, gathered and grown materials all within the boundaries of her allotment.

Questions to Ask Children

Can you think of some words to describe the small pieces of art that Alice makes? What do they make you think of?

When she is making her work, how do you think Alice feels? 

Where do you think she gets her ideas about how to transform materials from?

Do you think she works quickly or slowly?

Nicole White

Nicola is a “Mudlarker” and artist, who uses the glass she finds on the beach to make her artworks.

Nicola White, Mudlarker and Artist

Trash Art Project

Trash Art Project collected from Brokenstraw Creek, USA

Questions to Ask Children

Do you think these students knew what they would make before they found the materials?

How do you think they decided what to make?

Do you think the project went right from the start, or can you imagine they had to keep rethinking challenges along the way?

What challenges do you think they faced?

This Talking Points Is Used In…

Pathway: Explore and Draw

This is featured in the ‘Explore and Draw’ pathway

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Pathway: using natural materials to make images

This is featured in the ‘Using Natural Materials to Make Images’ pathway

Show me what you see

A collection of imagery and sources designed to encourage children to explore the work of Paul Klee.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

*If you are having issues viewing videos it may be due to your schools firewall or your cookie selection. Please check with your IT department.*

This resource is free to access and is not a part of AccessArt membership.

Watercolour Paintings by Paul Klee

Take a close look at these paintings. Use the questions to talk about them as a class.

Klee was born in 1879 in  Switzerland. When he was 35 he visited Tunisia in Africa, where his experience of the light and colours of the landscapes and architecture helped awaken his interest in colour. 

He became less interested in painting exactly what he saw and in fact from 1915 onwards he never again worked from a model. Instead, he became interested in painting the colours around him, letting them detach themselves from the objects the colours were on. In this way his worked moved towards Abstraction. 

He became interested in creating fantastical worlds, full of symbols, shapes, colour and line.  

He took his inspiration from the world around him, and his imaginative response to the world, and also from poetry, music and literature. 

Sometimes his work was serious and meditative, other times it was full of humour. He also loved the sounds of words and phrases and the titles of works were often very important to Klee. 

Battle scene from the funny and fantastic opera “The Seafarers” (1923). Painting by Paul Klee. Original from the Kunstmuseum Basel Museum

Questions to Ask Children

Describe what you see.

What do you think is happening?

How does the title change the painting?

Why do you think Klee painted in blocks of colour?

How does the painting make you feel?

The Firmament Above the Temple (1922) by Paul Klee. Original from The MET Museum

Questions to Ask Children

Describe what you see.

Can you see the landscape and the sky? How has Klee painted them?

How does the painting make you feel?

Temple Gardens (1920) by Paul Klee. Original from The MET Museum

Questions to Ask Children

Describe what you see.

How does this landscape make you feel?

If you were there, in the painting, how would you feel?

Tell me about the colours. Why do you think Klee choose these colours?

Persian Nightingales (1917) by Paul Klee. Original portrait painting from The Art Institute of Chicago.

Questions to Ask Children

Describe what you see.

What materials do you think Klee used?

Can you see two letters?

The R and the N stand for Rose and Nightingale. Can you spot the rose and the Nightingales in the painting? 

How does this painting make you feel? 

How do you think the painter felt when he painted it? 

This is an animation of one of Klee’s paintings.

Questions to Ask Children

How do you feel watching the animation?

What kind of world has Klee/the animator created?

If you could animate one of the paintings above, how would you bring it to life? What would you make it do? 

In this video Klee’s paintings are shown alongside music. 

Questions to Ask Children

How does the music change the way you look at the paintings?

Do you think Klee would have liked this video (remember Klee made his paintings at a time when there were very few films).

This Talking Points Is Used In…

Pathway: Exploring Watercolour

Featured in the ‘Exploring Watercolour’ pathway

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Show me what you see

A collection of imagery and sources designed to encourage children to consider what role a plinth may play in creating or displaying artwork. 

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

*If you are having issues viewing videos it may be due to your schools firewall or your cookie selection. Please check with your IT department.*

This resource is free to access and is not a part of AccessArt membership.

What Is A Plinth?

“Limestone plinth with the feet of a male statuette” Licensed under CC0 1.0

In the traditional sculptural sense, plinths are usually heavy boxes or bases made from stone, wood or metal, which raise a sculpture above the ground.

Plinths sometimes protect the sculpture from the elements, such as a sculpture raised out of the way of puddles of rain in the street. 

More often, the role of a plinth is to give the sculpture some kind of status. By raising the sculpture to a certain level, the sculptor can decide how the viewer interacts with the artwork. 

Plinths also help create a separation between the ordinary everyday world around us and the art “object”. 

Seeing an object on a plinth might encourage us to view that object as an artwork – as something special. 

Questions to Ask Children

Have you seen any sculpture on a plinth in and around the place where you live?

Why do you think those sculptures are on plinths? How does the way the sculpture is displayed affect how you think about the sculpture?

Imagine two peas. One is on the kitchen floor, but an identical pea is on a plinth in a gallery. How does it change how you think about the pea? 

The Fourth Plinth

Photo of “Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle,” by Yinka Shonibare, Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square, London by Andy Hay

What is The Fourth Plinth?

The Fourth Plinth is considered to be one of the world’s largest ongoing public art commissions. Its main aim is to bring contemporary art to the public and to encourage debate about what art is.

The “fourth plinth” was originally intended to hold a sculpture of a horse belonging to William IV, but the sculpture was never displayed due to lack of money. For over 150 years the plinth remained empty, until in 1998, the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) commissioned three contemporary sculptures to be displayed temporarily on the plinth. The legacy of those three sculptures was a rolling programme called the Fourth Plinth.

Take a look at the Fourth Plinth website to explore some recent commissions and explore the work of one Fourth Plinth artist, Antony Gormley below. 

Antony Gormley, The Fourth Plinth

“One and Other” by Antony Gormley, Image by Feggy Art

Whilst Antony Gormley usually makes sculpture out of more traditional materials like steel, he was commissioned as part of the Fourth Plinth to produce a rather different kind of art. 

Instead of working in traditional materials, Gormley used the plinth as a focus for creating an artwork which “became a portrait of the UK, now”. For 100 days in 2009, 24 hours a day, Gormley and the team coordinated members of the public to take stage on the plinth for an hour at a time. They could do whatever they liked, using the plinth to give their expression a literal and metaphorical platform. 

Through “One & Other”, Gormley hoped that by giving the public free will to express their hopes and fears for what might be,  a “portrait of the nation” would be revealed.

Questions to Ask Children

How would you use your time if you were given an hour on the plinth?

The Fourth Plinth Challenge

Can you find a “plinth” at school and coordinate a similar project?

How would children and teachers “apply” for a slot on your plinth?

Who would decide who gets a slot and what would your criteria be?

How long would each slot last?

How would you encourage an audience?  

How would you document the event?

This Talking Points Is Used In…

Pathway: The Art of Display

This is featured in the ‘The Art of Display’ pathway

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Find out how pupils can respond to artists work in sketchbooks

Show me what you see

Enable close looking and drawing with this exercise

A collection of imagery and sources designed to introduce children to different types of sculpture.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

*If you are having issues viewing videos it may be due to your schools firewall or your cookie selection. Please check with your IT department.*

This resource is free to access and is not a part of AccessArt membership.

What is Sculpture?

Interactive Cloud Sculpture by Caitlind r.c. Brown & Wayne Garrett

“Interactive Cloud Sculpture” made of 6000 lightbulbs by Canadian artists Caitlind r.c. Brown & Wayne Garrett

This sculpture is made of 6000 lightbulbs which can be switched on and off by the audience. Find out more about Interactive Cloud Sculpture here. 

Questions to Ask Children

Describe what you see. Think about the gallery space as well as the sculpture itself.

How would it feel to be in that space, interacting with the sculpture?

What do you think the artists are trying to say through the artwork?

Why do you think two sculptors collaborated on this piece?

How does it make you feel? What does it make you think? 

Floating Piers by Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Floating Piers by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Italy, 2016

L’Arc De Triomphe Wrapped by Christo and Jeane-Claude, Paris, 1961

Christo and Jeanne-Claude are artists who have become known for wrapping large objects/buildings/environments. 

Christo started out wrapping objects like chairs and books, interested in how the wrapping changed the meaning. More recently the large projects, which can take years of planning, are often made just for the purpose of enabling us to look at the world in new ways. 

Christo says: “We make beautiful things, unbelievably useless, totally unnecessary.”

See more work by Christo, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude here. 

Questions to Ask Children

What have the artists done here?

How many people do you think were involved in making this artwork? What jobs did they have to do?

How long do you think this artwork will last? Do you think the artists minded making an artwork which won’t last forever?

How do you think the visitors feel? How would you feel if you were there? What would the yellow bouncy path make you want to do?

How do you think the people felt when they returned to the “normal” landscape around them? Would they have been changed by the artwork?

How do you think it looks from above?

What do you think the artists were trying to say through the artwork?

Dev Harlan 

“Parmenides I”, Dev Harlan, 2011

Parmenides I is a light sculpture exhibited at Christopher Henry Gallery, New York. 

www.devharlan.com/

Questions to Ask Children

What can you see in the video above?

Can you imagine how the artwork is made?

How does it make you feel?

How long do you have to look at the sculpture before it has an affect on you? If you saw a still image of the sculpture would you feel the same way? 

Food Sculptures by Nicole Dyer

Food Sculptures by Nicole Dyer

Nicole Dyer makes sculptures inspired by food. See more of their work here “Talking Points:Nicole Dyer“.

Questions to Ask Children

Describe what you see.

How do the sculptures make you feel? 

How do you think the artist made the sculptures?

Faith Bebbington

Sculptures by Faith Bebbington

Faith Bebbington is best known for her sustainable practise; her large sculptures utilise lots of waste materials, with her biggest sculpture to date re-using over 2500 deconstructed plastic milk bottles! 

See sculptures by Faith Bebbington and read more about her approach here. 

Questions to Ask Children

Describe what you see.

How do the sculptures make you feel? 

What do you think the artist is trying to say through her work?

What other recycled or waste materials could we use to make sculpture? 

This Talking Points Is Used In…

Pathway: Playful Making

This resource is features in the ‘Playful Making’ pathway

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Show me what you see