DACA

I am interested in possibly working with DACA because my plan for the last few years has to train to become an art teacher after university.  

I mostly want to work in a Further Education college but would also love to work in a secondary school or sixth form.

DACA's art department seem incredibly enthusiastic and supportive of their students more than I've seen at any other school so I'd really love to be involved with working with them.

They have their own art gallery containing student and graduate work, named DART Gallery. This also now houses designed and illustrated products made by the students which teaches how to market, package and sell your work and also encourages entrepreneurial acytivity in the students as they receive all the profit if their product sells.

Even though I want to try working in a school I don't think I will choose a DACA placement during this module. Instead I'd like to push myself to try something new that I've not considered as much such as Start. I'm also trying to get a  placement at my old college and possibly getting one either there or at a second school next year.

Unit X Third Week

My girlfriend is a youth worker at the Joyce Leyland LGBT centre and so I spent one afternoon session observing the group that she helps to run. I worked for a while with one of the quieter members of the group which at first I found intimidating as I’m really shy myself, but once I got chatting it became easier. The Joyce Leyland centre has been open opposite MMUnion for around thirty years and is run mostly by part time staff and volunteers.I feel the work they do at the centre is of massive importance as it provides a safe space for the young people to express themselves, get support and make new friends. 

I also attended an afternoon of workshops Lynn ran on objects and their narratives. This was based in creative storytelling and thinking about the history, relevance and value of objects. I found this workshop very helpful as storytelling is something I'm not naturally good at but is very important to my own practice as an illustrator.

 

 

Unfortunately I missed the induction to the Start facilities because of a relapse of my own mental health issues but am aware that I’m going to be participating in the Visual Arts sessions and have made plans for ways to get around the issues I had with getting to the venue for next week.

I also reclaimed and started using my studio space within the main Interactive Arts studio to catch up with my individual practice this week. I have decided to have a break from doing illustration which I was beginning to find frustrating and unenjoyable and have instead decided to experiment with costume design.

Unit X Second Week

The week began with Kirsteen’s workshop where we worked in groups and came up with preliminary ideas for workshops we could run for potential clients. We started the session by discussing in our groups what each of us would potentially like to base a workshop on and which groups of people we would like to cater our workshops for. I told the group that I'd been thinking about working in mental health for a while, I've also been wanting to do some work with women, for example at shelters or volunteering at a Rape Crisis centre. I am also interested in holistic approaches to care. I feel I would be good in these roles as I have personal, first-hand experience of these issues so could empathise with the women and people suffering mental ill health.

After this discussion we were then given a selection of images without any explanation to them and asked to produce ideas for a workshop based on these images. This was designed to force us to think laterally and in new ways about how workshops can be run and what they can achieve.