Report on the 2000 Creative Activities Summer School
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Astley Burf Outdoor Education is now the proud owner of a magnificent ten-foot wooden sculpture thanks to a special creative arts summer school for forty eight children from the Dudley EAZ, twenty youngsters from Whitehall Primary School in Walsall and twenty volunteers, parents and teaching staff. The five-day “Impact” creative activities summer school was part of a special national pilot project funded by the DfEE and organised by the West Midlands Regional Arts Education Partnership which is an innovative curriculum development consortium of all 14 LEAs in the West Midlands.
The £20,000 grant from the Partners in Study Support scheme enabled the LEAs to bring together the staff from the New Art Gallery in Walsall with eight professional artists for a five day residential school. The week started on Sunday 23rd July at the New Art Gallery in Walsall with the children from Dudley and Walsall taking part in four special creative workshops based upon the gallery’s unique international south Asian touring sculpture exhibition.
After spending the first afternoon at the gallery, the Dudley children went off to Astley Burf for a week packed with creative activities. The first day was spent at the Wyre Forest Education Centre with education manager Rosemary Winnall, sculptor Jim Heath, musician Rod Smith and drama expert Paul Hawkins. The children had a wonderful time learning to play African drums, making clay models, writing poems and putting together a presentation based upon the forest environment.
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The second and third days were taken up doing lots of creative things including a sketching trip to Witley Court while sculptor Jim Heath carved away on an old tree stump found at the bottom of the Astley Burf field. After two days hard work Jim revealed a magnificent wooden sculpture based upon all the children’s stories, models and creative ideas.
Meanwhile, back in Walsall, the children had been working hard with artists Claire Witcomb and performing arts team Sister Tree creating their own animal sculpture to be sited on the side of their school’s main entrance. The Thursday afternoon found everyone back at the Gallery where children and artists presented a spectacular celebration of their creative activities to a large audience outside the gallery including Sally Bassett, Education Manager from Crayola (Binney and Smith) Europe who donated over £500 of art materials for the week.
The two pieces of artwork are now installed at Astley Burf and Whitehall as permanent legacies of a week long programme of creative activities designed to build the children’s confidence, raise their self-esteem and develop their creative potential.
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 Report compiled by Lindsay Newton,
Head of Development,
Directorate of Education and Lifelong Learning, Dudley MBC
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Making an IMPACT
