From audition workshops and studio takeovers to performances at the Southbank Centre and the Museum of Childhood, the Outreach team at Central Saint Martins has had a busy few months. We caught up with the team to find out about their projects, past, present and future.
Summer Schools 2016
Earlier this year the Outreach team ran a series of summer schools with community partners from Camden, Islington and Tower Hamlets. Taking place as part of the UAL Insights programme, the schools were developed in collaboration with those partners and worked to give young people an opportunity to explore a range of art and design disciplines and techniques.
- Camden Summer University focused on exploring creativity through drawing, focusing on still life and life drawing. The students explored different artists’ materials and learnt new skills including proportion and perspective, and the importance of observation.
- Devised with the Institute of Anything, Cubitt Education’s young artist programme, The Fabric of Ideas summer school saw young people experiment with materiality. Taking over the Fine Art studios and with full access to the College’s printing and workshop facilities, students created pieces across sculpture, jewellery, digital print and large scale collaborative installations.
“We were surrounded by creative people who are always coming up with new ideas. The fact that they all specialised in something different was inspirational and motivated us to continue learning from them.”
- The summer school with Tower Hamlet’s ‘A’ Team Arts saw young people, mainly aged 14-16, work for their Bronze Arts Award. Tackling the theme of Urban Habitat the students investigated the local environment and regeneration of Whitechapel. Over the course of the school Outreach ambassadors and alumni from the College ran a series of master classes across textiles, product, jewellery and graphic design. The school also welcomed back older students looking to apply to CSM this year. These students worked towards their Silver/Gold Arts Awards and last month many returned to the College for the Autumn/Winter workshops.
Pan Arts
‘Arts for social change’ organisation Pan Intercultural Arts’ Fortune group began collaboration with Outreach in 2015. Each week they host workshops involving drama games, songs, storytelling and visual arts giving participating students a chance to develop confidence in creating and delivering performances. Once a year Fortune selects a themed project for the students to creatively respond to and this year’s project entitled ‘Word Play’. In response to this year’s brief, the students developed an interactive game show, which they presented at the Southbank Centre, as part of the Encampment, a week-long series of events curated and programmed by Good Chance Theatre, Calais. The students performed the piece to over 80 audience members. See them for yourself at the Museum of Childhood’s Being Human Festival at the end of this month.
Enabling Enterprise
For the last few years Outreach have been working with Enabling Enterprise and Argent King’s Cross to run ‘challenge days’ for primary school students. Giving pupils a chance to experience life inside an arts university, the sessions provide pupils with an insight into what it’s like to work in teams on creative briefs.
Entitled ‘Amazing Spaces’, the most recent session challenged students to design a new public space for Granary Square. Led by Shani-Louise Osei, a BA Product Design graduate, the pupils took on the role of architects and visited the King’s Cross campus to research and develop their ideas.
Audition Workshops
This term Outreach has been out on the road visiting BTEC Performing Arts departments to meet and work with their students. Going to the colleges has given the team an insight into how the sessions are taught and a chance to introduce students to new approaches that they might encounter as a BA Acting student. As a result, 20 students have been selected from across partner colleges to take part in a series of audition technique workshops run by DCL and Outreach staff and alumni in the lead up to their BA Acting auditions in the New Year.
Autumn/Winter Workshops
Last week students who took part in the post-16 UAL Insights Summer Schools returned for a series of workshops. Named Insights into Higher Education, the weekly sessions help them to prepare for applying to degree courses at CSM and UAL. Focused time with tutors from across the College’s programmes gives students the opportunity to get valuable advice and feedback on their portfolio as well as the chance to respond to mini projects that will help to build their body of work. Students looking to apply to Foundation had a head start back in October with their monthly workshops (Insights into Foundation).
More:
- Outreach at CSM
- Follow UAL Insights on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook
- Read more articles on the Outreach team’s projects