240 kids participated and engaged

in seven public, school and family participatory art and craft workshops at Gorey Public Library in County Wexford.

Aims of the project:

1. engage children with the public library
2. teach them how to tie a knot
3. teach them to stitch
4. transform their hand into a snake through making an odd sock puppet
5. develop their snake hand character and play

Did the project achieve all those aims? yes, yes it did.

After several discussions based in open learning, art and craft, schools and family workshops we agreed and disagreed and decided on engaging schools, children and families with the library. Initially the discussions were for the Chinese New Year of the Snake, the library was bringing in live snakes and offering local schools the opportunity to attend free workshops. They did n't need another activity so we discussed a follow up workshop linking into St. Patrick's day and the Easter holidays. They wanted to keep the theme of snakes. Last year while facilitating an Easter project at the library with children I identified that an introduction to stitch, a really basic how to use a needle and thread would be a good to offer children. A how to make beyond glue and sticky tape. Many children have never seen anyone stitching let alone been taught. In 2005 I identified that most children did not know how to tie a knot at the age of 8 or 9 - this is still the case and infact some of the older children could not tie knots. The reason for this is the incredible invention of Velcro as a closing device for shoes. It was great with small feet and hands velcro closing shoes meant we delayed the milestone of tying ones own laces BUT in lots of cases this skill is never learnt.

Outcomes for me as a creative practitioner:

Aims exceeded and delivered. Prompt payment.

I learnt

• stop over thinking it (can't help it)
• working with large groups of kids in the library you need volunteer support
• source 400 buttons well ahead of time

I knew, reinforced

• listen to what your client wants
• start small
• build good relations with people
• share ideas and knowledge
• be clear about what you have agreed on
• do what you say you will do 

I loved

• working on a project at Gorey Public Library the space is amazing and so are the staff
• teaching children skills
• different schools, different classes and age groups, town and village schools
• public workshops
• the freedom of the drama improvisation
• meeting my target of teaching 200 local kids to stitch
• that 240 kids participated in 7 workshops
• that the library thinks its cutting edge stuff
• the women and men I meet along the way who volunteered or came with their kids
• choosing to do low tech instructions to go with the making kits
• making up teach yourself kits and leaving them at the library so families and Au-pairs could rock up and  teach themselves
• challenging the library and showing up to deliver a good project

I found challenging

• having linked up ideas but only being paid for an hour contact per workshop
• wanting to do more but just not being able to get to the video and online presentation - funding or no funding
• wanting to do more, yes i know I said that already I always want to do more...

I will be posting more images to CreativeDynamix on +CreativeDynamix and on my Facebook page. Stop by and say Hi!