270 children participated and engaged in Wexford County Libraries

Creative diversity of a family, Wexford Library August 2013.

From 23 July to 10 of August I offered workshops in all five Wexford County Libraries. A fascinating and enthralling journey around the county to work creatively with children and families ages 4- 12. As I mentioned in a previous post Summer at 5 Wexford Libraries I designed the Wexford Public Library Program to compliment The Creepy House Summer Reading Challenge. Linking creative arts, craft, making, thinking, connecting and having fun to the reading, books and spiral learning.
Here's a map to give you some idea of where the project was based.

Wexford Public Library's

Travel distances to and from venues were 130 km to 22 km. The environments for public libraries is towns I'd refer to them as a mix of urban and rural.
I love working on projects where you get enough contact hours to notice things(more on this soon). Having worked in all the libraries previously it was great to say hi to familiar faces and staff. In Wexford town it was great to see children from my work with The Cottage Autism Network and Murrintown Summer Camp 2009, in Gorey there were lots of familiar faces from How to make your hand a Snake and GETNS After Schools program, Bunclody I recognised faces from Odd Sock Rabbits workshop.
For me in my role as an arts practitioner and educator it was curious to work all over the county in a short space of time following the same program. Things that worked and inspired ideas got brought forward and absorbed into other workshops. Like at the first 'Bats and winged things' workshop one of the kids said the bat

Quick demo drawing of a bat. Roisin Markham ©2013

 could easily be made into an owl. I value that. It creates an open dialogue between my ideas and others and how I facilitate learning, my own included. So in subsequent workshops after everyone had drawn an owl I showed them how to use the same basic shapes and draw an owl, which everyone also drew.

Quick demo drawing of an owl. Roisin Markham ©2013

As I look through the photographs more examples like that come to mind and drawing out ideas from other workshops in the program. I will blog about it as from my perspective that's important and it may interest others.
So what would you like to know about the project?
You can find images from each of the workshops on my Facebook page CreativeDynamix.
Wexford Public Library, Gorey Public Library and Enniscorthy Public Library saw large groups of twenty to twenty eight children per workshop, Bunclody was a small group , New Ross was a smaller but keen group actively and busy making.
One of the successes for this program was the use of Pinterest to collate my research. I incorporated my online scrap book where appropriate in workshops and offered open access to my pin boards as added value to participants. From the The Bats and winged things board I created a short presentation  that ran as people were coming into the session.

 The presentation also also allowed me to share exactly who I was and how I could be found online

Being clear in an public open workshop about who you are & how people can find you. 

 The presentation containing some of the research image meant that I could talk about a Bat and its specific shapes and have a photograph projected that the children could look at. It ties into my teach to think approach.

Teaching children how to draw is as much about observation as it is about drawing skills. 
Supporting and growing creative confidence is about showing children the how to in a simple way, supplying art materials and making space for them to express themselves. In my workshops I actively give positive encouragement. Making a mark is often the first step towards creative expression.

In the Bat workshop I linked drawing a bat to maths - the bat I drew was made up of shapes, which I described primarily using simple hand gestures, capturing the children's attention it felt like a performance. With the older group after drawing I introduced them to an easy how of making pompoms.

From drawing to making, what children do with materials is magic. Roisin Markham © 2013

Boys loved the pompom making even more so then the girls! Bunclody Library August 2013

Making things is about solving, another teach to think method. The creepy house workshop board was useful to talk about example and architecture of perceived creepiness. I introduced charcoal as a good medium for creating moody drawings and mixed with paint offers a different dimension that the children enjoyed.

We made this. Creepy House Workshop Wexford Library August 2013

I encouraged the children to try the charcoal especially if they had not used it before.

In Enniscorthy Library the creepy houses were made with shoe boxes unleashing physical making. In open workshop it is great to see a mix of skills and ideas. In the very young workshops parents worked along side their children as young as four years old. Partnering in making a wonderful process to facilitate.

The second workshop in Gorey Library was 'In my minds eye' a full and busy workshop where the reading informed the drawing and drawing informed a simple approach to puppet making.

This turned out to create great interaction between participants both in discussing much loved characters, stories and books and in impromptu theatrical puppet shows. Everyone created such different characters and lots of imagination was used to make up characters and stories too.
Some of the parents felt a little challenged in supporting younger children to make and giving them the creative confidence to make a mark. So I have identified that parents need that support and encouragement too, but that's another days work.
If you'd like more information on workshops I offered with a view to using the ideas contact me directly the program is available for use at a suggested licence fee.
If you are interested in my approach to working with children and would like to hire me, I'd love to hear from you lets talk you'll reach me on +353.861546163.
Your comments as always are invited and welcome.