Community Day at the Paul Mellon Centre
On 14th June this year, we hosted our first ever Community Day at the Paul Mellon Centre. Members, both old and new, came from far and wide to attend workshops led by members of our community who have completed their Postgraduate Certificates (PGCert) in ‘Developing Teachers’ Research and Practice’.
Here was the programme for the day:
The day kicked off with a warm welcome from Abigail (Professor of Art History and Museum Studies at the University of Leeds) and Rachel (Learning Manager at the PMC) who spoke about the importance of creating opportunities for PGCert teachers to feed back into the community by sharing their dynamic and insightful research, as well as the value of creating space for members to connect or reconnect with the wider network for the first time since attending their respective residential programmes in Leeds.
It was also particularly special to host an ATC event at the Paul Mellon Centre for the first time, and to introduce members of our community to our space and what we do as a research centre and educational charity.
Across the day PGCert teachers, Lolly Stewart-Thomas, Claire Cooper, Nicola McCaffrey and Sue Gibbons, delivered workshops which put their research into practice, inviting each group to think deeply about their own teaching practice and discuss their experiences and reflections with each other.
In Lolly’s ‘The Safe Place’ session, participants pulled real questions and comments students have made in Lolly’s classroom from a jar, and discussed them with each other, while mark making to illustrate their thoughts in concertina sketchbooks. Prompts included thought-provoking questions such as “Do you think the Art Room could be its own Religion?” The discussions prompted plenty of food for thought about how the Art Room can play a critical role in being used by students ‘beyond the lesson’ to express ideas, thoughts, emotions and inclusion.
Nicola’s session ‘Looking in the Art Classroom and Beyond’ shared her research into visual literacy and how Art UK’s ‘Superpower of Looking’ programme can be utilised in both primary and secondary classrooms – especially those where students may have low verbal literacy. In tandem Nicola led the group in practical and playful exercises which invited everyone to look closely. This ranged from looking for the differences between two supposedly identical things, to sorting quickly through a selection of random images based on instinctual preferences.
Claire rendered the PMC’s Ante Room unrecognisable by creating a ‘Temporary Autonomous Zone’. In this space there were no rules and participants were encouraged to embrace their inner child and play. Materials including bed sheets, washing lines, cardboard boxes, pastels and paper were placed in the middle of the room, and the group had the opportunity to build a fort together – prompting them to question what happens when you can create your own environment to be creative within.
Sue’s ‘Interconnected and Powerful’ session brought the workshop model and the power of collaboration to life by inviting participants to co-create interconnecting patterns on one large piece of fabric. At the end of the session the fabric was cut into pieces and shared amongst the group, resulting in each participant having a garment from this collective artwork to wear home.
In addition to these activities, I delivered a writing workshop where teachers were asked to write haikus in response to artworks on display at the Paul Mellon Centre. This workshop invited each person to think about the connection between art and writing, moving their bodies in different ways to look more deeply at artworks, whilst providing ideas and resources to make writing about art less daunting for their students.
ATC tutor, Anne-Louise Quinton ended the day with a talk – ‘Greater than the Sum of our Parts’ – which tied together the themes of the day, spread the word about our online CPD sessions and provided participants with a range of ideas and resources.
Thank you to our PGCert teachers who so passionately delivered their sessions and to our community members who attended. It was a day filled with laughter and connection, creativity and reflection, and we hope that all our members who attended left invigorated and inspired.
Until next year!