Dementia Training Session by Arti Prashar for our Artist Educators

We invited Spare Tyre’s Artistic Director Arti Prashar to run a training session for our artist educators on working with people with Dementia. 

 

We shared challenges, risks and failures, discussed best practice and heard top tips from Arti’s practice with

Spare Tyre, focusing on their pioneering care home residency programme ‘Once Upon a Time’.

 

See Spare Tyre’s video on ‘Once Upon a Time’ here. 

 

See the photos below for some of our notes from the session and the group in action!

Artist Educators After Hours – Creative Network

The first session of our new Artist Educators After Hours programme began yesterday evening, inviting a select group of artist educators to be part of a support network and freelance creative community around the Cubitt Education Programme. 

 

After introducing the background of Cubitt and sharing some facts and figures on Islington’s demographic we broke out into groups to share an object which represents an aspect of our practice with each other. This was a great opportunity to get an insight into each other’s work: from perfume in glass rings, to tin foil interactive workshops, colourful magnetic balls to share your mood, responding physically to each other’s bodies, sketchbooks and pencils and puppets made as a response to an exhibition alongside many others! 

 

We then discussed what we wanted to get from the monthly sessions, as a peer-led network supported by  Cubitt Education there were some fantastic suggestions for what the group could become, where the gaps in support around being a freelance artist are and what the shared challenges of being an artist educator are. 

 

With 45 highly talented attendees from a wide range of backgrounds, we were delighted to facilitate such an enthused and imaginative group and are very excited to see where it might go… 

 

Many thanks to you for organising this evening which was fun, informative and well attended. The group I was in had a very good mix of people and I enjoyed listening to their ideas as well as sharing my own with them. I look forward to hearing from you as the group progresses.

Artist Educators After Hours – PUBLIC SPACE

This month our theme was ‘Public Space’ for our monthly Artist Educators After Hours network. 

 

We introduced two new artists from our growing network to present their work around public space, artists Helena Roden and Dominic Madden. 

 

Helena presented her practice in response to the challenges around people’s notions and perceptions of what public art is, and raised the issue of artist’s working in the public realm often being given responsibility to ‘solve social ills’ or rectify architect’s and developer’s design problems.

 

Dominic presented a mural project he was working on at an East London community centre. Again we discussed the challenges, this time around involving all members of the community from teenagers to the older people’s solitaire club, and whether being ‘prescriptive’ (with colours, paint, drawing etc) was right or wrong. 

 

It was a brilliant session and just showed how much the network is developing as a real platform of support, discussion and critique for artist educators working independently.

 

From our Artist Educators After Hours network we have already placed 6 artists on freelance projects at Cubitt, and have plans for more!

 

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