I've been into the studio twice this week, albeit for relatively short periods. I have however managed to get some painting done.
I have also spent some time this week shadowing an artist workshop in the local primary schools. As part of my residency I am required to run some art workshops in schools or the community. I have chosen primary schools for the initial workshops, but having no experience of dealing with children in a school environment I thought it would be best to see how the professionals did it.
I shadowed a group called the Babbling Vagabonds. This particular workshop was run by just one of their members, Tara. She ran a workshop on creating shadow puppets. It was a really fantastic experience to see the workshops running. Tara was exceptional and it was obvious that she was really used to doing it and that she could do it standing on her head. The workshop captured the childrens imagination and the children tackled it with real gusto and enthusiasm. It was really useful for me to see things like behaviour management, including children and also to witness the limited attention spans of young children.
It frightens me that I have put myself up for running workshops. There is no way that I could be as natural and driven with the children as Tara was so I realise that I need to look at what my strengths are and build an interesting workshop that will hopefully hold their attention and allow their imagination to run wild.
It was a really useful thing to watch these workshops. Although I know I am not quite ready yet I do feel it is a slightly less daunting prospect than it was last week.
Thank you Tara!
