By Sheila Ceccarelli
Just getting out, moving, looking, drawing, talking and having a new experience, is that enough?
I’ve observed (as a creative facilitator and a mother) that young people are not always encouraged to live a process or experience for what it is, without having to be badged, assessed, graded or measured one student against the other.
Teachers and facilitators too. It hadn’t been my intention to make that point, when we purposefully set off on a windy walk ‘to draw perspective’ with teenagers on Jesus Green, but the wind took control and for all the want in the world to stick to my agenda, there was no way that I could battle with the power of nature and the wind was going to win!
It was a madder session – outcomes more precarious, but it felt brilliant just because we were outside.
Today, I’m looking at the photos and feeling an incredible compassion for the teenagers that I work with and an immense admiration for their drive, enthusiasm and willingness to take a risk anyway.
Somehow yesterday’s session crystallised my feeling of responsibility to give students the confidence to trust that being open to new experiences is the catalyst to creative purpose and maintaining the impetus to follow an enthusiasm or whim should be nurtured not measured.
I had a thought: that creativity is like wrestling with paper in the wind, and Art is a hard subject in need of a softer, more compassionate approach.
As students battled with the paper, drew, talked, laughed, concentrated, ran, worked together or alone, I took photos. I have not captioned them because I feel that they speak for themselves.
As for results, I’m just waiting for a sunny day to see what happens next.
Many thanks to teenagers at AccessArt’s Experimental Drawing Class for sharing their windy day drawing experience with AccessArt.
