Meeting @ Whitworth Gallery with Denise Bowler and Sarah Sanders - 24.02.15

Prior to our meeting, myself, Denise Bowler and Sarah Sanders communicated through email and provided me with the following information about the meeting and the subsequent session:

Leading and co-developing an Art School: Draw session for Secondary and Post 16

Date: 25^th FebTime: 1 – 3 pmSchool: Blackburn CollegeContact: Anna AshworthNumber of Students: 20Year: 12/13Course:Type of workshop: A Drawing Session for Art School

 Aims from College:“What we would ideally like is a drawing activity that engages them with elements of your current exhibitions so that it doubles as primary contextual research.”“This could be in any way you see fit and does not have to be literal.  I know that is a bit vague but to be honest we are just pleased to be involved.”

Correspondence: Denise to Anna This is our trial period for working with schools and colleges and it would be really brilliant if we could work with some of your students to try-out ideas and they can also share their ideas for activities that they want to see in drawing workshops.  As part of the drawing workshop your students will be looking at the exhibitions and perhaps we can incorporate some of your aims for the visit in the session so that the students don’t miss out on your original visit aims.Please do let me know if you would like to know more about co-developing one of the above workshops.  If so, it would be useful to know the Year group and course.  Do call me on my mobile below if you would like to discuss this opportunity in more detail.

During the meeting we had prior to the Drawing Session, Sam Whitham and I met Secondary and FE Co-ordinator of the Whitworth Gallery, Denise Bowler, and artist, Sarah Sanders, to discuss the nature of the commencing session and to get a rough idea of the general outline and structure of the afternoon.
         We familiarised ourselves with the space that we would be using and discussed how best to use it, taking into consideration the number of students attending the session and the kinds of materials and workshops we could use to simultaneously challenge the students' preconceptions of drawing and to ensure that these materials and workshops could be used as primary sources and contextual research. They were open to input and ideas from myself and Sam, and there was a great deal of dialogue between all those present: myself and Sam were able to voice our suggestions and ideas freely, and we all found that this was beneficial to the generation of ideas for workshops and tasks for the afternoon.
          Having additional people there to voice their ideas and opinions meant that we could also ascertain the pros and cons of each workshop/task and decide how best to nurture the pros and tackle the cons. We concluded that while charcoal would be an ideal material for the students to use, the fact that it is such an uncontrollable, "messy" material meant that we couldn't really use it in the new learning room, as a lot of young children also have workshops in there. Additionally, the charcoal could not be used in situ in the gallery for the same reasons.
          To combat this, we decided that string would be an ideal material to use for some of the drawing tasks, particularly those pertaining to the Sarah Lucas exhibition. We also agreed that a question-and-answer session with the students after a quick look at the gallery was appropriate as a means of challenging what they thought about drawing, what it was and what it could be.
          This meeting was invaluable in preparing both myself and Sam for the ensuing session the next day, as we got to know Denise and Sarah really well and established a good working relationship that carried on into the session.