I had the nastiest flu like thing last week you wouldn’t believe it and during this nastiness I had the interview for the residency at the children’s centre to attend. I did think about cancelling but then I decided against it and chucked the most possible number of flu strength Anadin Extra down my throat I was almost foaming at the mouth. I’d managed 2 hours of interview prep the previous day, looking into how I would run a few of the sessions, god knows how I’d done it. It had taken more than normal to get the car out because it had snowed and I got stupidly lost on the way there. When I finally arrived they were running a bit late (turned out to be about 40 mins) and as I’d calculated that the proper time for the interview; 11.00am, to be the optimum time for all the medication to be working, once they’d showed me around and I’d actually got into the interview the Anadin Extra had started to wear off and I got delirious and the chill/sweats during the interview. I have no idea what I talked about apart from the fact that I couldn’t shut myself up and as my voice was croaky I sounded like I would go down a treat if the interview was for an adult chatline and not to work with very young children. It almost didn’t register that they have tried to reduce the hourly rate and the length of contract from the one set out in the initial advert. I didn’t care I just wanted out and to be at home and reunited with my duvet.
I got a call a few days later from them asking me if I would come back in next week to run a workshop for some 3 to 5 years old. The big cynical part of me is thinking that they’re getting a lot of ideas/activities for free, not sure how many other artists they interviewed or are having run workshops. I’ve not done workshops for such small people before and I’m a bit anxious to what the Children’s’ centre actually want from an artist. It is great that there is this opportunity but it could be a massive learning curve for all who are involved. They have mentioned (a lot) about displays, and it seems that they could possibly be more concerned with that than the interaction between the artist and the children. They have mentioned using the Reggio Emilia approach, but they seem a little naive to how this could work in reality. Anyway I’ve set up a really good workshop introducing the children to elements of line, looking at how differently drawn lines can ‘mean’ different things including representing different personalities and the aim is to get the children to talk about the lines and draw stories based around this. I’ve been looking at some excellent books about aesthetic responses in children and as art education usually fails as the children are not encouraged to discuss their own individual experience, they usually just have some art materials and get on with it and make a ‘finished’ product. The aim therefore is to discuss what they’ve done (without it being too representational), getting their emotions involved in the process and to learn and develop from this. I like the fact that it’s the process that matters more than the finished product and how the process is led by what the children have discussed. It kind of mirrors my own practice and that’s why I’m quite excited about this.
