On Saturday 2nd November we met up with the staff, children and families to join in with the celebrations just outside the ICC, which included a rousing speech from James Brindley himself, a procession of boats, and live music.
Well done to all the children who worked so hard, and the staff and families for their support, from Brookfields Primary School, Nelson Primary School, St Thomas CE Academy & St Johns & St Peters CE Academy. Nicki
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Over the past few weeks, we have been seeking your thoughts & suggestions about our idea to transform some of the first floor of Stirchley Library into a community art room. Sarah spoke to attendees at a recent Stirchley Forum meeting, we had a stall at the Stirchley Late Summer Bash at the end of August (seems like a long time ago!), and we have been in the library on the past two Saturdays working alongside other community events. On Heritage Open Day we invited visitors to show some love for the library by making origami library hearts and adding thoughts about the past, present and future of the library to a copy of the rather beautiful architectural plans. Earlier today we teamed up with Lego Club to help children think about what the library of the future might look like. Amongst our favourite ideas were rooftop gardens, slides between floors and robotic arms to help select books! Very cool. Lots of people have shared their thoughts with us - both by filling in our online form and by commenting on our consultation flyers. Happily, these responses have been overwhelmingly positive...
We are going to continue to ask people about our plans during the course of the feasibility study (in partnership with Apec Architects, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund) - please spread the word and keep letting us know what you think!
Nicki
For the past couple of weeks we have been having fun down in Cotteridge Park, working with the wonderful Friends of Cotteridge Park and their Bushcraft Science Club (supported by the National Lottery Communities Fund). There are so many fascinating connections and crossovers between art and science to explore, so we were really excited to take part. We focused on insects - learning about what they are, and what they aren't, drawing scientific illustrations, and creating our own hybrid invented insects with modelling clay and a few other bits and pieces. This week we finished off by all working together to create giant willow insects, which are currently suspended from the trees in the forest school, waiting to be discovered by visitors to the park. We had such a great time - working outside presents a few interesting problems, especially when wet weather comes, but also so many interesting and exciting opportunities for making art. Thanks and well done to everyone who came along.
Huge thanks to Emma, Tony, Cathal, Hugh and everyone else who works so hard for Friends of Cotteridge Park. Nicki Hello and welcome to our new website! As well as blogging occasionally, we'll be using this website to share news about what get up to and any future projects we are planning. You can also find more information about Sarah and myself, and the ideas and ideals behind Stirchley Art Room. I thought I'd start the blogging off with a brief history of how we got to where we are now. Sarah and I have worked together for about 5 years, as secondary school art teachers, and previous to that we have worked in arts and education in various different roles. Through our work in school though we have had the opportunity to be involved in a lot of exciting community and public art projects, including working with Longbridge Public Art Project, Longbridge Light Festival, as well as developing our own school based public art project. Following much discussion about our shared interests and ambitions in community arts, we decided to ‘go for it’, and in April this year made the decision to establish a community art project in Stirchley, a place we both know and love, and one with an already buzzing community and arts scene. From our very first conversations with local tradespeople, artists and residents, we have been encouraged in our ideas and made to feel very welcome by the vibrant, friendly and creative Stirchley community.
These are exciting times for Stirchley Art Room! Please do visit again to keep up to date with what we are doing, and feel free to use the contact page to get in touch with any queries or suggestions.
Many thanks for reading! Nicki |
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