I am getting organised to head North tomorrow, to start the project on Wednesday morning at Mortlach Primary School in Dufftown. Dufftown is in a very rural location and pretty high up so the weather can be quite severe. It’s a four hour train journey via Aberdeen and Huntly so the tricky part seems to be getting there. The materials have been ordered and hopefully will be delivered before Wednesday, along with a ‘3 in one’ printer. Then its time to launch the project and meet the children and staff. We had a meeting a month ago to plan the project, so this will be the third time I have been there. The poet Ken Cockburn had his first sessions with the kids last week, and I am wondering how he got on. The plan had been to take the children out on some of the ‘Walks’ but i think the weather was pretty bad, there was snow and various roads closed so I’m not sure if they would have stuck to the plan. I suppose the point here is to remain flexible.
My role is to work with the school children to create artworks for the library, the tourist information office and the doctors surgery and a map/poster, and to work collaboratively with Ken to produce Story Walk leaflets. I’ll be working with all the children in the school, so that’s 150!
Last time I was there we did some of the walks with artist/sculptor Mary Bourne, who is coordinating the project. I took a lot of photographs as it was a fine day, and there’s lots of beautiful scenery, ancient woodlands and interesting stories about the area. I’m looking forward to going over things with the children and getting things from their perspective.
