Arts Skills Share

For Arts skill share, I had to organise and hold a small workshop for a group of people.

So to start and help me for my lesson, I went to a younger Artspiration class to observe the teacher and see how they teach. I made notes during the lesson on how he prepare for the lesson, how he delivered and how he made the lesson more fun. I learnt that some children need more support than others to do certain things.

After this, I had to decide what to teach at my workshop. I decided to do printing using polystyrene plates. I pre-cut the plates in to semi circles (two for each child) so they had more time to print and to make the lesson more safer. Then the children would draw a pattern on it, making a dent in the polystyrene, using a blunt pencil. They would then repeat on the other half with a different pattern. Then, they would be able to start printing. They would first cover their design in a layer of paint using a roller. Then they would press the shape down onto a sheet of paper and then very carefully peel it off. They would then repeat with the other pattern underneath.

Before the lesson I prepared my resources; Paper, pencils, bright paint, some rollers, trays and most importantly, polystyrene plates. I set up two tables, one for children to draw their pattern on the polystyrene and the other to do the printing with paint.

I held my workshop at an Artspiration exhibition, as they would be a lot of people to do my workshop. First I introduced what we are going to do and step by step demonstrated to them how the printing was done. Then let them try. I think everyone who did my workshop enjoyed as there were lots of smiles! The feed back from the children who took part was really positive and some of them wanted to try it again at home.

This is some of the feedback I received from children who did my workshop.

What did you like about my workshop?

• “I liked printing my picture and using the rollers”
• “I like drawing my pattern on the shapes”
• “I liked printing my semi-circle. I can make the same picture with lots of colours”
• “I like that we could design different patterns on the plates”
• " I can use the same picture to make lots of prints!"

How could I have made my workshop better?

• “Use more colours, because I love pink !”
• “A long time ago, I did it in art class so I knew what to do, so maybe use different shapes to print to make it more different”
• “Everyone used all the paint, so there was not enough”

I found it slightly difficult to balance between children doing painting and drawing as people joined workshop at different times. Some of the children were carried away with the fun rollers, but they had fun and that's all that matters.

Following are some of the work done by the children at my workshop.

Overall, I found running a workshop very fun and I really enjoyed sharing my skills and knowledge with others. I would love to do it again.