Artists in Schools

Fellows and Alumni are invited to offer some part of your practice to widen what schools are normally able to offer. In 2018-19 we had some great offers from Fellows. Please feel invited to send some relevant details od your practice, even if you did this before and were not taken up. Staff and subjects change in schools and at different times we will geta different response. For those who have joined D.A.T. more recently you may not have heard about the opportunities to work as Artists in Schools .

The Trust wants to know in what ways our artist will be adding to the school’s art curriculum which may be offered through the Art Department or you may be offering Art as a way in to another area of the curriculum. You are the artist delivering your specialism while the teacher is expected to be present and to support you and the class. I would hope to join you on an initial visit to the school and to help set the parameters of your project; this is also an opportunity to talk briefly about the Trust so the school becomes interested in Open Studios and our exhibitions.

The Trust’s interest is in working in schools in Welwyn and Letchworth. However if you have any special contacts with other schools please talk to me. When your proposal is accepted, The Trust will pay £30 an hour which covers the preparation and your time in the classroom. Your project may be delivered over a short or extended time depending on your availability and the kind of project you set up, but I must be on board at the start so that I am fully aware of what the Trust will be expected to refund and support. You need to bear in mind that neither The forge nor Fenners is set up with Safeguarding with appropriate facilities for school aged students, so the projects must be carried out in the schools. This means that the school needs to have their own kilns or printing presses for example.

Please go to the Fellows area on the Digswell website and fill in the Artists in Schools Funding Proposal and send it to me. I will take it from there. It is great when photographs show work in progress and finished work. Remember we need permission from schools if photographs include children. After projects have finished, your photographs of the work will be welcomed for the Artists In Schools area on the D.A.T. website and of course your appraisal of the project will help to direct our next project and help to improve future projects.

Simon Langsdale’s very successful stone cutting last year required our careful thought around Health and Safety but it was a stepping off point for Highfield School whose students produced some brilliant work and resulted in the Art Department investing in its own equipment afterwards. Julie Leaming offered life drawing to the Year 12’s – an excellent addition to Fearnhill’s A Level Art Course and Kirke Raave widened the opportunities for making as part of the Art Week at Pixmore Junior School. A wide variety of projects is acceptable; those that are designed to improve children’s mental health, to deliver curriculum objectives from both the art and all other curriculum areas or to add to what schools are normally able to offer… think how you might release creativity in our school aged children. Such an important part of education that is being squeezed currently.

Sue Lines, Lead Trustee for Artists in Schools