1. Introduction

2. Overview & Partners

3. Good Practice

4. Project Examples

   1. Arts on the Trail
   2. Bethlehem View
   3. Crossways Toilet Block
   4. Cultural Voices
   5. Journeys - Cotherstone
   6. Peases West Railway Walk
   7. Time'lines
   8. Youth Vision - Ballymena

5. Useful Contacts

6. Groundwork UK

Journeys Around Cotherstone

This was one of five school Parish Map projects that took place in a cluster of small rural primary schools in Teesdale in the late 1990s.

Project Aims

The aims of this project were to create a textile wall-hanging for the village primary school’s library area, inspired by the idea of a Parish Map. Pupils were to be involved in both design and construction, using a variety of textile techniques. Creative writing was to be included in the project with selected text incorporated into the final piece.

Project Description

Each school was allocated a team of two artists with Rosi Thornton and Julie Ward working at Cotherstone. Workshops took place over the course of one term with all pupils (from nursery to Year 6) being involved.

How We Did It

We began with discussions about where the children enjoyed going, their means of travel and local landmarks passed en route. We then asked the children to draw pictures of their favourite local destinations; one child drew High Force waterfall as if it was pouring out of the sun. These drawings became the basis for the design process. We then discussed animal journeys and embarked on a mammoth printing session as we literally laid down tracks using old shoes and toy cars dipped in paint to represent human journeys and potato prints to represent animal presence in the landscape.

Pupils were then introduced to a range of textile techniques that would help them build up features. Rivers, reservoirs and fields were made from drip-dyed fabric, a child-friendly batik process was used to create the sun and moon, a leaf and a flower, trees grew from crazy machine patchwork, the strange shapes of reservoirs were represented by infant hand-shapes, images of children engaged in their favourite activities were made from felt, poems were written and photocopied onto silk. Everything was then embellished with sequins, buttons, wool and embroidery thread. The finished result was exhibited in a local gallery (along with the work produced by the other 4 schools) prior to hanging in the school library. The whole cluster project won an environment award for its work in the field of awareness-raising. Project management was undertaken by Jack Drum Arts.

Key Learning Points

• In a small rural school the children may not live in the village so it was important to go beyond the parish boundary – hence the project title 'Journeys Around Cotherstone'.
• Everyone wanted to have a go so we developed a list of different jobs which needed to be done, with varying degrees of difficulty, so that we could target activities appropriately.
• Look at things through different eyes! A child’s view will invariably be more inventive than an adult’s – viz the drawing of the waterfall emanating from the sun.

Top Tips

• Where teams of several artists are working together good planning is essential so suggest your artists spend time sharing skills and ideas prior to the start of the project.
• Allocate plenty of paid non-contact artist time because for every session spent working with a group there is another session tidying up the work and preparing materials for the next session, and there is a BIG finishing off job at the end to prepare the piece for hanging.
• Keep all the children’s artwork and put it in a scrap-book for the school/group to keep.

Participant Quotes

Taken from evaluation discussions with pupils

"I like the river we made... It's life-like - you can feel the waterfall... The river is special because it's got lots of things in it - it's full of life... If we didn't have a river we wouldn't have fish... The river goes down to the sea... If we didn't have a river we wouldn't have water in the pipes to drink... I never knew the river went off in two ways." Year 2

"If the school gets knocked down when it's old I hope this map doesn't get fallen to pieces because it's history. When I'm a granny I will look at the map and say to my grandchildren I was there!" Year 3/4

"I enjoyed doing the trails with the potato printing. It's a bit like technology - it's better than art lessons... The Japanese Braid Weaving was fun - that was technology... It was like maths... It's like geography because it's a map... It's history because in ten years time things will be different... It's history already." Year 5/6

Further details

Commissioner

• Cotherstone Primary School

Artists

• Rosi Thornton, Julie Ward

Project partners

• Cotherstone Primary School
• Jack Drum Arts
• Arts Council England

Other participants

• School students – nursery to Year 6

1. Groundwork Arts Toolkit

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