Bridgemary School litter sculpture workshop
Addressing the aspirations of young minds, we recently encouraged creative discussions at Bridgemary School in Gosport on Tuesday, November 14th, as a part of Artswork’s Young Cultural Changemaker Programme. The aim of the workshop was to develop ideas highlighted by Artswork’s on-going whole-school survey, which has received over 400 responses from pupils so far. Findings from the survey included:
- Most young people are proud of where they live
- Most young people do not like the way that Gosport looks
- An environmental issue that many young people prioritise is litter
- When asked about the types of creativity they would like to be involved in, the highest number of votes was for physical interventions in the town (such as murals, art trails and sculptures) and filmmaking and podcasts
The purpose of the workshop was to work with a small group of students to develop ideas for a youth-led sustainability and climate change project for the spring term that will help the young people connect to the creative community of Gosport.
Peta Rainford, Artswork’s Placemaking Creative Producer for Isle of Wight, Gosport and Havant, and artist Trudie Wilson, had an unusual passenger when they caught the Isle of Wight ferry to visit Bridgemary School in Gosport. The back seat of the car was occupied by a larger-than-life size chicken wire armature of ‘Litter Person’, who formed the centrepiece for this youth-led project promoting sustainability and climate change awareness.
The young people involved with this workshop made direct links to the litter and pollution in our oceans – of which they are surrounded by on the Isle of Wight. This provided a great talking point to the day and meant that we got some invaluable insight into the thoughts of the young people taking part in this project. The insights gained from this workshop will impact our spring term creative projects focusing on sustainability and climate change,which will be led by the young people of Gosport. This will alsoaim to maintain connections between the community of Gosport, creating something that can be enjoyed by everyone and open conversations between generations.
This programme is made possible with support from Arts Council England.