ArtWorks Fellowship – The Organisational Perspective
April 2016 update
Ruth Evans and Literature Wales
Ruth Evans (AKA Rufus Mufasa) and Literature Wales’ Louise Roberts have begun a consultation process with
internal and external consultants looking at new evaluation structures that can support the organisation and the
artist. The aim of this new evaluation framework is to capture the progression of the facilitator and the participants
in a way that can inform and improve their mutual project development and engagement with local community
groups.
As a result of sharing models of good behaviour with Grassroots and its staff through meetings, documentation
and evaluation, the parent group Ruth has been working with over the last few weeks has been thriving, with
participating parents supporting each other throughout and children growing in confidence with themselves, each
other, the space and the equipment they use. The children and parents have also engaged fully with the language
and play, and have said that they use the tools they have learned during the group sessions at home.
Ruth has also spent some time engaging with local artists at the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City, which has
given her an insightful first-hand experience of Poetry Slam and the power it has for the audience and community.
Themes that were being explored were profoundly political, current and important. There was a great amount of
emphasis on black suppression, black hate crimes, and highlighting white supremacy. Ruth understood this was
something she had to comment on carefully, as a white woman who didn’t fully understand the true turmoil of black
communities and the difficulties they are trying to overturn.
She has been working alongside UK based hip-hop educators/poets, Adam Kammerling and Simon Mole. They
are London based, but collaborated at Wyeside Arts in Builth Wells, Wales. The trio worked with young people and
performed some of Ruth’s own material, given her confidence that she could hold her own when working
alongside experimental practitioners. There were a few male members that also rapped, and they really benefited
from hearing a female voice and had a lengthy discussion about Ruth’s influences, music and poetry, and gave her
some grime flow tips.
Sue Townsend, Effie Burns and the National Glass Centre
Sue Townsend and Effie burns have been delivering participatory workshops for University of Sunderland’s 3rd
year BA Glass & Ceramics students whilst also introducing them to the full range of their practice.
Effie is confirming arrangements for Katharine Coleman, one of Britain’s leading glass Engravers, to visit National
Glass Centre for a 1:1 mentoring session.
Sue has made further contacts at National Glass Centre and has started to prepare for the work she will do in the
Cold Workshop. She has also spent a considerable amount of time researching theories relating to participatory
practice and how these approaches relate to her own work.
They are both looking forward to showing original work resulting from their Fellowship at the National Glass
Centre as part of an exhibition that will run from September 2016 – January 2017, whilst Julia Stephenson, who is
the Head of Arts at NGC, and Effie are working together to curate an exhibition to be shown from October –
March 2017 exploring concepts of Feminism and femininity expressed by artists working in glass.
Christine Egan-Fowler and the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
Artist-Teacher Christine Egan-Fowler has been learning about blogs and social media by inviting guest artists to
lead sessions at the Royal Grammar School in Newcastle focusing on blog development and photography, which
have been attended by the artist and her students.
She has also delivered a 10 Artists/Stairwell Conversations series at BALTIC, allowing her to develop an innovative
body of research material using sound recording and photography, which will feed into future strands of her
Fellowship.
Her presence at BALTIC 39 (20 hours over 5 weekends) has enabled connections to be made and relationships to
grow with other artists and staff based in the building.
When asked about new insights she had gained from engaging with the ArtWorks Fellowship, Christine said:
‘The Fellowship has given me affirmation, I am so grateful for this affirmation, it is a recognition that is rare and
very precious. There has been a sea change amongst staff at school and I feel part of the vibrant art community
that I didn’t feel as an artist teacher, I’ve been able to start new kinds of conversations with school staff and artists.
There is a sense of curiosity about the Fellowship and the work I am doing, the Art community is interested and
everyone wants to help me. I am keen to keep thinking, working, reading and reflecting as well as actually making
my work public and then showing it through blogging (a work in progress!).
The work I make now has a sense of experiment about it because I have the Fellowship. I am much more inclined to
try new things or collaborate with others, and people keep suggesting new ways to work. I am working with two
sound artists, making work that has involved many unknowns but have confirmed that my basic structures and
rituals that form the scaffolding to my work are well received, light enough in touch to enable collaboration and
are enabling me to hear stories that are very profound for myself and the person telling the story. I am interested in
witness and in observing and these are two roles I cherish in school too.
I know the worries of new working methods and am able to support my students to create more insightful
responses than just the baseline ones. I have got so much out of conversations and just talking with Artists, of any
age.
The Fellowship puts your mind on high alert all the time, it’s a searching, scanning, magpie brain I’ve got at the
moment…at any time a new idea can really make a difference. I keep journals at school and I’ve stopped having a
separate one for the fellowship, as Susanne Burns (ArtWorks Fellowship mentor) pointed out in a lightning bolt
comment (another one!) my work as an artist and teacher are as bound as string, untangling the strands will take
time and what is the point really?
My urge for people to take part in Art , performance or be creative by discussing ideas is because I also feel the
magical transformation of creative activity I get amazing things from making work that involves people and
teaching does that every day for me... Involvement in the Fellowship gets me out of school! Stops me getting
bogged down in the shift in education that seems to be happening where we count things but don’t get time to
spend with people. At school I’ve tried a Charette week, with lecturers from Northumbria University where lessons
in my room went on hold for a week. Each session in my room, no matter who came through the door were given a
university style and at times level introduction to mapping…students then made their own responses to this idea! It’s
a project I would never have had the courage to do before the fellowship, it seems titles give you power.
I’ve got the Barbican logo! I’m being BRAVE.’