Visual artist interested in place, networks and honesty Artist gweledol gyda diddordeb mewn lle,
rhwydweithiau a gonestrwydd.
Lockdown Deliveries, 2020
As part of my Lost Library project, when going from live performance to online in Spring 2020, I asked people for questions currently concerning them for me to ponder through movement.
One of these questions “How am I going to sustain the energy required to keep the kids interested in education?” was the inspiration for do at home art activities which evolved into letterbox art project delivered by hand and digitally.
Knowing about the difficulty parents faced, I offered children, via their parents, an art challenge. I began by posting handmade art materials through letterboxes with a suggested activity - based on my own interests and discoveries.
As the project progressed the theme for each delivery stemmed from a word sifted in the Lost Library in lockdown performances and became art activity sheets.
All the information needed was on the sheet so there was no need to refer to the internet,
showing contemporary and historical art, beginning with children in mind with adults also requesting the sheets for themselves.
The nature of 2020 was of digital overwhelm and so wanting to reach out and share the project with as wide and diverse an audience as possible I adapted my approach from social media to posting through doors, resulting in a much stronger response.
When local arts organisation PEAK became aware of the project they invited me to share my weekly inspiration in their weekly sPeak youth newsletter.
Example art activity sheet
At a glance
Age range
4-80 years
Dates
7 April - 25 August 2021
Number of participants
18+
Weekly deliveries
20
Location radius
Printed version 1.3 miles
Digital version 4271 miles
Contemporary artists work shown:
Curious
Peter Fischli and David Weiss
Richard Bavin
Elena Thomas
Jess Stockham
Amy Fransechini
Becky Sumpter
Ash Roberts
Andrea McLean
Jackie Yeomans
Emily Speed
Dame Ethel Walker
Allison Neal
Bridgit Riley
Agnes Martin
Anne Truit
Historical artists work shown:
Hokusai
J. Price
Paul Klee
Gwen John
Elizabeth V igée-Lebrun
Anne Redpath
Cherry Pickles
Emily Mary Osborn
Phillida Nicholson
Winifred Nicholson
Feedback
'The sheets were a joy to receive. The excitement was palpable on the kids faces as they found a new art delivery had arrived overnight and were eager to open it straight away- before breakfast! The tasks were a welcome relief from homeschool and helped us to keep an educational/creative balance during the day. '
'The kids’ favourite tasks were: the make your own pattens with the multicoloured strips, and the cardboard circle map painting task. We in general loved that it was a surprise on our doorstep in the morning. I liked how the materials were often pages taken from art magazines as it was nice to have art tasks that didn’t need screen access at all ( for research or content or planning) as there was SO much screen needed for the more general school based homeschooling. '
'The surprise of receiving them added to mine and my son's mental wellbeing during the solitude of the first lockdown.'
'When Lockdown was a fairly new 'thing' and fear of catching Covid was scary, it was nice to have something like your project to look forward to, especially as each time it was quite different from the previous one. '