Artist Bank is the company's new project for artists working in primary schools building on the success of Primary Bank, the company's year long pilot project with Charlotte Sharman Primary School. The project explores choreography and collaboration, aiming to provide opportunities to discover how dance artists, visual artists and teachers can find ways to communicate and work together to benefit their individual professional practices.
Two dance artists, Catherine Bennett and Pari Naderi, and two visual artists, Lucy Cash and Ruth Gibson, were appointed to take part in this professional development project. Following a research and development phase at the end of 2009, the artists are currently delivering weekly sessions in the following four selected local primary schools:
- Alfred Salter Primary School (Southwark)
- Bessemer Grange Primary School (Southwark)
- Charles Dickens Primary School (Southwark)
- Wyvil Primary School (Lambeth)
Over 260 Key Stage 2 children and their teachers are taking part in movement and visual art sessions with the artists to explore a variety of choreographic ideas. This term the project will incorporate visits to Tate Modern and the Natural History Museum as well as some sessions taking place at Siobhan Davies Studios. In Term 3 all the schools will be working together to create a large scale, high profile performance event as part of Big Dance in July 2010.
Artists, teachers, children and the Creative Projects team are contributing to a new private online discussion forum, Artist Bank Exchange. This new learning and communication tool enables participants to connect with each other and provides a space for everyone to share their thoughts, questions, feelings and discoveries in the one place.
Helen Thomas, class teacher at Alfred Salter Primary School, shares her thoughts and hopes for the project:
I am excited about working with the children in different contexts and developing new skills and ideas as a teacher. I am interested in observing how the children express themselves, how they respond to different stimulus and hopefully see them grow in confidence throughout the project
Artist Bank is funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation with additional support from the Newcomen Collett Foundation.
