INSTALLATION and EXHIBITION

We've been lucky with the weather. Trips to the beach, trips to the Langdale Valley and barely a drop of rain. By Cumbrian standards anyway. Heres a link to the video from the installation days at Bram Longstaffe's, and a few photographs and posters from the installation and the show at the Cooke's Studios in Barrow.
Thanks to everyone at the Cookes for their help, and to Katherine our work experience student who has worked with Ellie at South Walney and was on hand to help install the work at Bram's. 

https://vimeo.com/141650621

FURTHERMORE...LANGDALE SCHOOL vrs THE MERZBARN WALL, ARTSPACE AT KS2015 and A BIT OF EVALUATION

"We have greatly enjoyed hosting some of ArtSpace Barrow's projects with schoolchildren at Cylinders. Lovely children, lovely teachers, lovely artists."

Celia Larner,  Littoral.

www.facebook.com/MerzmanProject

"Breathtaking...there is so much going on in this amazing project."

"..It enabled all children to contribute and feel like they had achieved. They all thoroughly enjoyed it and were proud of their artwork."

 Dawn Andrews, Vickerstown School.

" This was an excellent project and we would love to work together again..the pp about Schwitters helped contextualise the project and support the children's knowledge about the artists...multi-sensory activities and composing with sound ..this was a new concept and experience that engaged the children.  It was perfect! "

Sally Jenkinson, Head, Langdale School

Further comments to come from our schools after the holidays!

"Breathtaking...there is so much going on in this amazing project."

Exhibition Visitor Cumbria County Councillor Helen Wall, Roosecoat Division, Barrow in Furness.

The project enabled children to be involved with working with professional arts practitioners. Very aspirational!It provided the opportunity to be involved in learning about an artist who had lived and worked in our locality and had worldwide impact and recognition, even visiting his work place! True experiential learning.Children were able to use a variety of mediums for their work which was especially good. There was great pride in the high quality outcomes achieved. Having film evidence of the project and a huge poster have provided a lasting visual memory of our involvement in the project.It was good to see the differing outcomes and experiences of other schools involvement in the project.The Children enjoyed the outdoor presentation of their work to parents and other audiences.
Nancy McKinnell, Head Teacher, South Walney Infants.

One measure of the success of Overground will be the longevity of the relationships established during its time. We returned to the  Merzbarn and Littoral this week to install our project documentation and to help the boys and girls of Langdale School mark the 50th year since Richard Hamilton took the Merzbarn wall to Newcastle's Hatton Gallery by transporting a lifesize image of the piece across the Estate.

Here's the video..

https://vimeo.com/143250802


 It's about 18 months since Overground was conceived and since Amy and I visited the site for recces and discussions with Ian and Celia from Littoral. 
 We were  back at the Merzbarn again in October as guests of Littoral and KS2015 to hear and discuss the plans for the future of the site as a centre for the development of new work.
This feels like the place to say thank you to them, and to all the boys and girls we've worked with, to the staff of our partner schools and the artists and organisations that have contributed to this project. We hope they can continue to work together (with and without us) and that their experience  of the Kurt Schwitters legacy in Elterwater and Ambleside  continues to inspire them.
Love and Thanks
John / Artspace

SOUND PIECES FROM NORTH WALNEY

In advance of pictures and video from our exhibition days, here are the Sound Pieces made by Amy and the North Walney boys and girls. These were played back through radios in the bushes in the wild garden, and from a hidden player in a canoe, and comprise the children's readings of their sound poems, source sounds and audio-pictures of the beach and woods.

https://soundcloud.com/artspacebarrow/soundwaves-final

https://soundcloud.com/artspacebarrow/sound-poems-and-music-final-1

We have further recordings of our exhibition visitors interpreting and
  reading the poems for themselves....cover versions!

Here are Amy's comments on the process behind the recordings..I think this tells the story of our time with North Walney, and a flavour of the whole project.. 

"Since our initial explorations with collage using rescued materials the project with North Walney evolved into a sonic adventure! We enjoyed a windy trip to the beach, making field recordings on the way, capturing the contrasts of Walney, from the sound of shop doorbells and cars, to birds, wind and sea. On the beach we investigated the sounds we could make using found objects and brought some back to school to play around with simple musical composition.


We used the paper based sound maps created on the day and recordings to invent new words, which we cut up and combined to make nonsense sound poems, in the vein of Schwitters famous ‘Ursonate’ sound piece.
Our trip to the Merz barn fuelled our imaginations and helped the children get more of a sense of the environment that inspired some of Schwitter’s work. (See May blog post for more on this visit).
We worked intently to produce materials for our final sound installations, destined for the garden at Bram Longstaffe Nursery. One piece was inspired by the sound of the waves and combined vocal sounds and words to create a layered textured piece that ebbed and flowed like the sea. On installation day this was played from a radio transmitter hidden in an old canoe, to tie in with the watery theme. We scattered stone shaped collages of the children’s favourite beach words to complete the scene.
For our second piece we bravely performed and recorded our sound poems in groups, which were later layered up with the Walney field recordings. The groups created their own musical compositions to act as ‘credits’ between the poems, returning to the use of beach objects as their instruments. These were transmitted alongside paper and cardboard collage versions of the poems scattered amongst an untamed willow dome!
The children of North Walney have responded with gusto to these unusual artistic opportunities. Their work has resulted in some unique and intriguing compositions, and they have been an absolute pleasure to work with!"

A MESSAGE FROM BIBI BOE, IN AUGSBERG ,GERMANY

We've had a nice comment from Bibi, and a link to some information on Schwitters' story of Miss Auguste Bolt. While the thrust of our work with the schools on Overground has been towards the visual and auditory, in quieter moments we've been looking closely at the poetry, plays  and stories. Thanks to Bibi for sending this, and for her interest. We hope we can keep in touch.

http://saetzeundschaetze.com/2015/05/15/kurt-schwitters-auguste-bolte-eine-doktorarbeit-1923/

LOOKS LIKE A PLAN. RECCE AT BRAM LONGSTAFFE

Two weeks to go, and Amy, Karen and Ellie have been wandering the installation site at Bram Longstaffe Nursery to decide what is going where and sorting out a timetable for the day with Bram's Head Teacher Jackie Drake and John.

The garden is a lot lusher and denser since our early site visits in the spring, and offers lots of places for surprises, hidden sound sources and contained spaces for our audiences to view the work.  There's a wet weather plan in the offing ( "run..") and we are hoping to have Brams Governor and Walney Councillor Alec Proffit on hand to fire up the Brams Bread oven, which was built at the end of last year by Japanese artist Yuki Akama with help from  John, Alec and Finn from the Bram's parents group.  Looks like a plan. Or at least the beginning of one.

ASSEMBLY AT SOUTH WALNEY

By way of a dry run for the presentation and as a way of sharing their work with their families and friends we held an Outdoor Assembly. Here are some photos of what was an excellent morning, and much enjoyed by one and all.
After the project is over, Ellie and the Year Two group have decided that The treehouse models will be given to the Reception year boys and girls to enjoy in their classroom.

NORTH WALNEY AT THE MERZBARN

Awareness of the sonic environment has been a feature of the North Walney project, and the idea of Sound as Resource led to some good research and composition in the weeks leading up the Merzbarn visit.

We began again at the Armitt in Ambleside. These visits have been vital for demonstrating the breadth of Schwitters' approach, and for dispelling any over romantic idea of the artist as a rural eccentric. These children are themselves from a environment of contrast; at any turn Barrow's current and former industrial landscape can either merge or contrast  with the natural and managed landscapes of the Furness Peninsula and Walney Island. The Armitt has provided us with a point to follow up classroom discussions about Schwitters' background , his importance to the 20th Century art and  and the circumstances that brought him to Cumbria. There is scope for a greater look at Schwitters' story in other areas of the curriculum, and we hope to persue this in a later project. The Walney group are a little older than some of our children , and their questions and comments have demonstrated an awareness of the practicalities behind a project like the Merzbarn, and a great appreciation of   the Armitt's collection.  We are grateful to the Museum and its staff for their support.

The work on site included listening exercises, and recording written impressions. The Langdale Art trail provided an excellent vehicle for the close observation and engagement with place we asked for from this group.  At the Merzbarn the children were introduced to some surprise visitors.   Martin Bagness is a well-known figure in Ambleside, an Olympic medallist Orienteer and climber he also runs Bilbo's cafe and writes music with South Cumbrian traditional musician Mike Willoughby.  Martin explained to the children that he lives in Schwitters' old flat, and has made it his mission to learn about the man and his life .

Martin brought with him his own Slate Lithophone, tuned to 3 octaves of C and played with Golfball beaters.
Amy integrated work with the lithophone into  percussion pieces, using the metre of sections of the Ursonata.  

The clay relief work produced a number of good results, the children were provided with a selection of new and corroded hardware, plastics, coins and other materials associated with construction and assembly rather than the natural landscape. They were asked to think about the properties and form of the materials, and to make careful selections as to what they used and where they placed them in the clay.

Amy plans to use the sound recordings made today alongside those made earlier as elements in  a long form sound piece to be further developed back in school. The group will make and edit  further recordings, with the intention of broadcasting them to radios scattered around the site, an idea we  were introduced to by  Schwitters devotees Mobile Radio, friends of ourselves and of  the Octopus Collective and based in Germany.

AMY BOUD AT NORTH WALNEY: PLACE INTO SOUND INTO POETRY

The North Walney group's latest visit to the beach with Amy yielded a collection of sounds which the boys and girls translated into phonetically-spelled words.  These formed a reservoir of material for Sound poetry, some of which was recorded ( see earlier post) and some of which fed into these  text pieces, which can be read as sound poetry and appreciated as visual material.  Compare them to Schwitters' Score for his Ursonata, or perhaps they remind you  of pre-digital fanzine layout, or (if you're old enough) the typed text on telegrams.


The boys and girls will be bringing these messages from the beach to the Merzbarn next week, to record and perform in Schwitters' studio.

ELLIE CHANEY AT SOUTH WALNEY

Week 1 at South Walney Infants with Ellie Chaney. 
As their introduction to the project the Year Two boys and girls have made some beautifully composed postcard collages using a variety of coloured and textured papers. 

Ellie also provided clay and matchboxes, for which the group made collage labels, and small inhabitants. Since then , the group have been exploring the theme of Small Worlds, enabling them to examine surface and colour as well as methods of construction. The boys and girls have made collage characters and habitats, using card, paint and felting. 


Here, several weeks on, Ellie tells the full story so far

...

Exploring the art of Kurt Schwitters using imaginative play
An update on 'Overground' at South Walney Infant School by Ellie Chaney 
At South Walney Infants I'm working with two classes of Year 2 children, which is a great age to work with as they have great imaginations and like to develop ideas through play. I knew from the beginning I wanted to use imaginative play and storytelling to explore Schwitters' work, and began to try and think of a fun and slightly fantastical way we could approach his practice. Knowing that we would be installing the work at Bram Longstaffe Nursery at the end of the project I always wanted there to be a narrative running through the work, planning that we could then share the work as some form of story to the Nursery children.

I wanted to encourage the children to imagine what it would be like watching Schwitters' at work and to see him absorbed in his creative process inside the Merzbarn. Because the Merzbarn is set in such a magical location in the Elterwater woodland I began from here, thinking about what animals might live there as a springboard to help the children picture themselves watching Schwitters create. This led to the idea of tiny people living in the woods, watching Schwitters in his studio and being so inspired by this that they decorated their own homes using collage and found objects. 

When I suggested this idea to the teachers Mrs Thompson and Mrs Ensoll they were really enthusiastic, and together we developed the concept so it would also incorporate playing with scale. The children would make tiny homes for the tiny people and then they would 'become' the tiny people, surrounded by giant leaves and flowers. By exploring Schwitters'  world from a variety of perspectives I hoped there would be lots of imaginative opportunities for them to think about his life and art.

We began by making simple collages of the woodland animals you might find living around the Merzbarn. These were lovely, and some of them had real character as you can see in the photos.

We then began to build the homes of our little people. The teachers and I had decided to make two little worlds. One would be in the woods at Elterwater -  a tree trunk dolls house using greens, browns and other forest colours. The other would be houses that could belong to miniature people living on the beach at South Walney using blues, yellows and greys. This was to help create a starting place for our 'journey' from South Walney and on through the world of Kurt Schwitters.

We constructed these little homes out of cardboard and masking tape. These were then decorated using collage and painting, creating textures inspired by wood, moss, driftwood and sand by scrunching up tissue paper and sticking it onto the surfaces. In small groups with myself and brilliant student volunteer Katherine Harris the children also learned to felt, making fake moss to decorate the small woodland world with.

We then moved on to making furniture using natural materials like sticks, slices of logs, branches and raffia. Wooden bobbins, cardboard and materials from the Ulverston Scrap Store were all combined to make miniature tables, chairs, beds and even toilets. I let the children create these very freely, only really offering technical advice about how to stick or bind materials together and the results really amazed me. Little ladders led to bunk beds, matchsticks became tiny fires and paper cups turned into outhouses! They also made garden furniture like swings, picnic tables and even a fountain.

After working really hard for several weeks the day came when the children had built homes ready to be moved in to, so we made people out of shortened dolly pegs, crafting hats, scarves and hair out of small pieces of handmade felt. Now all that's left is to paper mache and mod roc the tree trunk house and put everything together which we are all very excited about.

Moving on to exploring the world through the eyes of the fantasy folk we read an extract from a children's edition of  'Gulliver's Travels' where Gulliver finds himself on the island of giants. We then began to make giant leaves out of cardboard, and will be moving on this week to building giant flowers out of withies and tissue paper, ready to build a supersized world at Bram Longstaffe at the end of the project.

Sadly we only have two full days of workshops left and there is still lots to do! I have enjoyed this project so much, and the children have all produced some wonderful artwork. I am really looking forward to setting everything up as a walkabout assembly for the rest of the school on Friday 22nd May, and to see it all displayed alongside the other schools' work at Bram Longstaffe.

MERZBARN VISITS: VICKERSTOWN

Vickerstown School on Walney is new to the Artspace project, and their boys and girls have had a varied introduction through their work with Barrow based Textile artist Karen Hall. So far they've made matchbox collages, postcards- (which were sent through the post , gathering stamps and "contributions 2 from the Post Office)-, Split pin puppets, fabric collage ( they learnt how to sew, a really useful life skill as well as a tool for creativity) and a printed t-shirt bearing an image of their own making.
On arrival at the Armitt Museum the group were interested in the objects from the Merzbarn in the museums display cases, wanting to know if Schwitters had made them, as well as wanting to know how much work he had made in life and how much of it was on display. Again, the paintings were popular and we felt the children get an idea of the breadth of Schwitters' practice and his relationships with people and place.  Throughout this project we've made it clear that Schwitters is an urbanite, a city dweller in an unfamiliar environment, and a highly skilled and sophisticated artist.  Rather than allow the children to see him as a rural  eccentric working in a barn, we've been careful to remind them of the facts of his life. Again, our conversations with the boys and girls suggest that while the work we ask them to do might be tailored for their age group, we can stretch their imaginations best by giving them the facts, rather than an idealised picture.   

 After following the Langdale group Trail with great interest and excitement the group again visited the Merzbarn an dlistened to the Ursonata and  made some clay relief work after  a talk about  Schwitters' merztechnique.  This time we introduced some contrasting manmade objects into the mix, and encouraged the children to work with the surface of the clay itself.  
Karen discovered the display around Schwitters' Snake Stick, which used to hang in the MerzbBarn until it was stolen. The boys and girls have collected sticks in the woods which they will decorate and send back to the Merzbarn as a contribution to Littoral's Dada Centenary celebrations.
We then introduced a Sound activity, asking the children to find a quiet spot and store sounds they heard in their heads, before vocalising them as a "choir" conducted- or rather "played" by a member of staff.  The results are funny and full of energy. We recorded the pieces, and were about to listen to them when McKenzie asked if we could listen to them in Schwitters' studio. That seemed very appropriate, and so we did.  Listen here...

https://soundcloud.com/artspacebarrow/vickerstown-sound-piece-1

https://soundcloud.com/artspacebarrow/vickerstown-sound-piece-2

KAREN HALL AT VICKERSTOWN SCHOOL

My name is Karen Hall and I was asked to run workshops for the year two pupils at Vickerstown School on Walney Island. The topic was “the work of Kurt Schwitters” and I decided to concentrate on the collage element of his work.

I first introduced the children to different papers sourced from a variety of places. I grouped the papers into four categories: Vintage, new, packaging and magazines. This was to show the children that collage can include a wide variety of found components that don’t have to cost money. I hoped to encourage them to begin their own collections at home and in the classroom.

We looked at some of Schwitters collages and discussed what he had used within his work. I referred to our collection of different papers which included receipts, food wrappers, tickets, postcards and wallpapers and over several weeks I set the children various challenges.

The first was to make a split pin puppet. We looked at examples and referred to Schwitters modern fairy tales. It was excellent to see the children fully engaged in the project, making their own puppets and developing characters and stories for them.

We then made a scene for the puppets to inhabit. Each child was given a cereal box to collage an environment onto. They were asked to think about their puppet, asking who it might be and where it might live. The children had to select appropriate papers to represent such things as water, sky, space and sand. At this stage most children were demonstrating a good understanding of collage and the possibilities it presents.

The next exercise involved posing the puppets onto the backgrounds and photocopying the image onto special transfer paper. The paper allows the design to be ironed onto fabric and the final pictures were then printed onto t-shirts for the children to keep. They were delighted with their T-shirts and couldn’t wait to wear them. We displayed them around the classroom on a washing line as a reminder of their achievements.

Fabric was now introduced as a collage material. Each child was presented with a collage pack that contained a combination of different papers, plastic wrappers and fabrics. When making them I had tried to theme each pack using colour and texture as a guide. The challenge given to the class was to make two postcards using the provided materials. The postcards would then be posted back to the school and the first three to arrive back would win a prize. The children were very excited about the race and at the thought of winning.

The spring term was now beginning and it seemed appropriate to move the children onto another challenge. My thought was to make a large collaged wall hanging made up from smaller collages and photos of the children transferred onto fabric. They had already experimented with scraps of fabric and glue during the previous term, now it was time to learn some sewing skills.

Each child was given a bag that contained complimentary fabrics, buttons and threads and a needle to sew with. After demonstrating a basic running stitch and armed with a diagram to remind them, I asked everyone to create a small textile based collage. Unfortunately this task proved rather difficult for my year two pupils. Although some arose to the challenge, several struggled with even the basics of sewing like needle threading. After this workshop I reassessed my ideas and took a step backwards, spending one afternoon sewing Binca with large plastic needles. 

This proved successful. By the time the school bell sounded, each child had decorated, using embroidery threads and running stitch, a Binca bookmark. We spent one more lesson sewing collages and then decided to move on with the project.

Our day out at the Merz barn was excellent and even the weather was kind, giving us a beautiful sunny day. Firstly we visited Ambleside’s Armitt museum to see some of Schwitters work. The children were all excited and very interested to see his art up close and they freely asked questions and discussed their favourite pieces within the museum. For some, this was their first time seeing original works of art.At the Merz barn we firstly had lunch and then were divided into two teams of twelve. Children from Langdale School had made two trails for us to follow, each marked out by collaged marker flags. The children loved the woods and gathered small objects along the way; things like acorns, leaves and fir cones which would be later used in their own mini Merz barn collages. One young man said he felt like a pirate looking for treasure.

Once we had found the barn we went inside to see Schwitters work and we learned about how it had been made and the barns history. We spent some time thinking about what it must have been like working there and we later listened to a recording of Schwitters reading out one of his sound poems. The children then spent time making their own 3D collages based on the barn using their collected items, other found objects and clay. After a short break, the pupils made and recorded their own sound collage / poem by recreating noises that had been “found” in the woods. The class and teachers were so proud of their two poems that they decided to perform them during the next school assembly.During the visit we also learned about the Merz Snakestick that had once hung above the barn door. The stick, decorated by Schwitters, had been stolen in the 1980’s and the Littoral society where encouraging people to make their own, aiming to collect a million before 2023. I thought it would be a good workshop idea so everyone collected a stick from the Cylinders estate to take back to school, collage then return them to the barn. 

See our page "Merzbarn Visits ; Vickerstown" for pictures from the day.

ARTSPACE AT LANGDALE SCHOOL

It's great to be able to take Artspace to the Langdale valley, home of the Schwitters Merzbarn, Littoral and Langdale School.  Lead artist John Hall and Outdoor Education specialist Amy Boud spent two days at the school in March, providing the children with an introduction to Schwitters' work and a familiar context within which to view it; that of  his relationship with the Langdale valley.

John and Amy created a trail through the woods on Cylinders estate to the Merzbarn, asking the children to be aware of the fragility of the environment, the value of quiet (although perhaps not silent) spaces to our well-being , and the idea of sound as material for making art. The children collected material to make postcard collages and larger 3-D pieces, listened in the Merzbarn to to Schwitters' own reading of the Ursonata, and performed their own sound pieces based on vocalising the sounds they heard in the woods around the Merzbarn. The older group collected small objects to creating pocket assemblages in matchboxes with collaged labels, and made small works to be placed along the trail for the Barrow schoolchildren to follow when they visit in April and May.

We were impressed with the children's knowledge of local flora and fauna, and with their ability to understand and appreciate the poetry and playful wit within Schwitter's work 
along with the  tenacity and determination required  to continue to produce it. We left further convinced  that the most advanced concepts of modernism can be made accessible through the provision of context, the opportunity to explore technique without fear,and the avoidance either of  "dumbing down"or  mystification when describing the creative and intellectual processes behind the work.

We were again made welcome by Ian and Celia from Littoral, and hope that this is the first step in a rewarding relationship with Langdales,  exploring sound, visual art and using the school's extraordinary setting as an aid to creative exploration. For us this project is proving to be an exploration and a redefining of some of the edges of our  practice; for John the conversations and planning process is  refreshing his approach to arts education as a means of responding to locale and environment, and for Amy in the use of arts practice to underscore and inform her  work as an outdoors specialist.  We are very grateful to Langdale School and its staff for the chance to put some new ideas into practice.

The illustrations show the children at the Merzbarn, and some examples of their work.

Above, mounted small collages, trailmarkers fro the Barrow children to follow. 
Above left: Amy working on  a sound poem with the children n the Cylinders Estate.
Left: Collage using charcoal dust, feathers and metal found on site.
Below left: Work in progress.
Below right: Postcard from an imaginary landscape?
Below: Looking at ways of working with sound, and discussing the Merzbarn wall

AMY BOUD. OVERGROUND AT NORTH WALNEY SCHOOL

The project at North Walney has been wonderfully vibrant and noisy so far! Inspired by Schwitters use of found and ‘rescued’ materials, we have been making our own collages. We’ve worked on a postcard scale using leaves and materials brought in from the woodland, and paper based materials such as newspapers and old bus tickets. ‘Natural’ versus ‘Human made’ has been a consistent theme, and was very apparent in our larger collages, which mixed shells, feathers and pine cones, with bottle tops, plastic cutlery, and bits of old printer cartridges!

 These A2 sized creations were ephemeral works. Children enjoyed placing their objects in pleasing compositions and photographing them before dismantling them.

We have taken the opportunity to explore the environment around school with fresh eyes and ears, looking at the ‘collages’ or juxtapositions of materials that occur accidentally in the school playground. This has led on nicely to an exploration of sound, using Schwitters sound poem ‘The Ursonate’ as a starting point. We recorded the sounds we could hear around the school and turned them into symbols and words with a view to creating our own Ursonate style pieces later on. We have also made collage style sound compositions with musical scores, themselves made of paper based collage materials. 

Next steps are to get beyond the school gates seeking further inspiration and material from the local area, focussing on the beach. This will enable interesting comparisons to be made when we go to Langdale valley, and the Merz barn where Schwitters did his final work. Deep in the woods, under shadow of the mountains, the barn sits in a very different environment to the school with it’s windswept beaches and distant horizons. I wonder what creativity this will inspire!

Below Right:  Visual Score piece using cut-outs as symbols for the duration and volume within a 10 second sequence, using particular sounds recorded by the boys and girls in school:

Amy Boud

Artist and Outdoor Learning  Specialist,

North Walney Artspace

RECCE'S AND SITE VISITS; THE MERZBARN.

If you've never been to the Kurt Schwitters Merzbarn or the surrounding area, you can find out about it here.  Littoral are the custodians / disseminators of the Schwhitters legacy in the UK,  hosting and presenting a broad range of activities on around the site including conferences, summer schools, performances and schools visits. We are very grateful to Ian and Celia for allowing us access and providing hospitality. Here's the link..

http://www.merzbarn.net

And here is a link to a video showing you the area surrounding the Merzbarn, and ending in the building itself.

https://vimeo.com/123299533

OVERGROUND is a12 month programme of arts activities involving 5 schools in Barrow In Furness and South Cumbria and 4 professional artists, introducing schoolchildren to the work of Kurt Schwitters and to assemblage, sound arts and site-specific outdoor arts practice. The practical research element will include visits to the Schwitters Merzbarn in rural Cumbria, creative examinations and interpretations of locale and cross disciplinary arts workshops with sound artists, outdoor education specialists, designer/makers / puppeteers and visual artists . The project will culminate in a real-world design brief for a mixed media art installation within the wild garden of Bram Longstaffe Nursery school in Barrow.


This is the second residency project from ARTSPACE.
 ARTSPACE is a constituted professional Arts organisation led by artists and educators devising and delivering schools residencies for artists from Cumbria, and arts activities for the benefit of the wider community. The current project is led by a professional artist with a background in art education ( John Hall, Visual /Sound Arts). The group Friends of Artspace was formed in 2011 to develop this and other projects in Barrow, to seek and encourage partnerships between artists , local schools and our local authority, and to raise public and private support for the arts in our community. Artspace draws on a shared belief in the arts as a vehicle for expression,self esteem and identity in individuals and as a means of autonomous regeneration in communities.

In 2013 we delivered our first project, which placed 4 professional artists in Barrow schools, resulting in a popular exhibition at Barrow Dock Museum. We produced animations, puppetry, Sound pieces a Text-based interactive game and a wide array of supporting material, and established new relationships with artists, museums,and the education community. This led to one further appointment for one of our artists as After-School Art Club leader and a shared desire between the schools and ourselves to develop and expand the programme. In 2014 we have presented a number of successful and separately funded days at Bram Longstaffe Nursery with our project partner Playful Nature, in order to introduce ourselves to the children and staff and establish a set of common aims.

" Overground" has placed 4  professional artists in South Cumbrian schools, where they are working with staff and children  to increase their mutual  awareness of techniques and contexts for art through an introduction to the work and legacy of Kurt Schwitters. The project will develop new partnerships with schools. local authorities, arts organisations and museums and expand our artist's collaborative practice. Initially "Overground"  introduced the schoolchildren to the work of Schwitters by means of a short project using assemblage and collage to interpret the childrens' locale. 

Then, supported by lead artist John Hall, the artists ( Amy Boud, musician / Forest Schools practitioner , Ellie Chaney, puppetmaker, Karen Whatley ,Textile artist)  are exploring principles of assemblage, performance ,collage and montage in relation to their own discipline. Each is delivering a short project on the themes of mapping and exploration before joining the children on a visit to the Merzbarn in Elterwater, for a day of activities in and around the Merzbarn including exploring an outdoor art-trail designed (with support from our Lead Artist) by the children of nearby Langdale school.

On returning to Barrow, the children will work with their appointed artists on their contribution to an outdoor mixed-media installation trail in the wild garden at the fourth Barrow school. The trail will be designed for children and families and will be in place over a three day period.The wider public will engage with the project through an exhibition and documentation at Barrow Dock Museum.

Artspace's wider aims are to introduce young people to artists and techniques that are rarely covered by curriculum , expanding their knowledge of what art can encompass by providing a broad range of skills and innovative cross-disciplinary projects, and to provide opportunities for sustained engagement between schools and emerging artists. "Overground" builds on our successful research project of 2012-13 , and extends our scope to include: performance; greater active collaboration between artists; real-world outdoor design and installation projects; site visits to the Merzbarn providing insights into the working methods and day to day life of an important artist who worked in our region, and an improved standard of documentation and exhibition of project work.

Significant developments from the last project include (1)a cross disciplinary approach to the residencies, and a unified end product. During the process each school will be aware of each others progress and will respond to it in their own work. (2) the involvement of the Outdoor Education company Playful Nature, specialists in Forest Schools practice and John Muir Award delivery agents . (3) The involvement of Langdale School as host and active participants, providing new experiences of creativity within rural and urban environments for the children (4)The developing relationship with Littoral, and the potential for further work involving the Schwitters legacy. Each of our artists welcomes a fresh challenge to their specialist skills, and the chance to extend their practice through collaboration and in response to the unique focus of the project.