Badger Badger Badger Badger

Last week I was lucky enough to get a place on the Vinspired ‘Big Societys Big Mouth – Social Action Training day. The training day was aimed at young people in Knowsley aged 16-25 who want to make a difference in their local community.

The aim of the training was to teach us;

• Project management skills
• Creative thinking and problem solving
• Volunteer recruitment
• Managing and delivering our own projects

I went along with Cousi, the other volunteer in Halewood Arts Association and it was such a good day. There was only 4 of us there, along with the two Vinspired representatives and also two young volunteers from Knowsley who where helping to deliver the training.

 

I learnt so much! They basically taught us step by step how to plan, organise and then partake in our own event / community project. Working within Halewood Arts Association, a volunteer led organisation, it was great to get some formal training in how to apply for funding, how to get other volunteers on board and how to deal with any problems along the way. Carole at Halewood Arts has already taught me so much, but any extra training is always a bonus.

 

I was on team ‘Badger’ as our scenario to work through was the tidy up of an adventure park, that also had an endangered badger settlement within it. The word badger was thrown about far too much and now whenever I hear the word badger, me and Cousi can’t help but giggle.



Team Badgers wonderful 'Volunteer Recruitment' Poster, my best peice of work to date.

It was also great to meet some other local volunteers within Knowsley who we could swap details with and potentially work with in the future! It definitely inspired me to carry on with all my volunteering work. (Although if you are reading this and would like to offer me a full time / any job, feel free!)

 

I am about to start the event managing of a ‘book launch / celebration’ evening with Carole at Halewood Arts and I will definitely be using all the information and training I was given when planning this project. I will blog more about this when I know more details, as we are in the very early stages of planning at the moment.

 

The next couple of months I have a few exciting projects / opportunities coming up and although I was shouted at yesterday for looking ahead too much I can’t wait to get stuck into them all.

Knowsley Vinvolved Awards 2011

Last week, Me, Cousi, Carole and Anna were invited to attend the Knowlsey Vinvolved Awards 2011. There was a superhero theme on the night and we where invited to attend in fancy dress or formal wear. I went for formal wear. Although some volunteers did attend in fancy dress, there was even a giant kangaroo (i think) and scooby doo. I had been told in advance by Carole who I volunteer with that I had won an award, she very kindly nominated me, but I was unsure as to how I would recieve it and what it would be. Anna, Cousi and Me were also going to recieve a certificate to recognise the hours we have given whilst volunteering.

Cousi and Me being escorted down the red carpet on arrival by a Superhero!

The night was presented by a group of young volunteers, in fancy dress of course and they did a wonderful job. It was really nice to know even the running of the event had volunteers involved. As an active volunteer within Knowlsey and Liverpool it was great to get to meet other young volunteers and here about all the other projects going on.

Since June 2010, I have been volunteering within Halewood Arts Association and National Museums Liverpool. I think I am on 400+ hours at the moment. Volunteering is something I love doing and I especially like giving something back to the community I have grew up in and to gain recognition for the work I have done at Halewood Arts Association was lovely.

Anna, Cousi and Me recieving our certificates from Jackie Davies, Chief Executive of Knowsley CVS

Awards were presented by Colin McKeown, TV/Film Maker and Producer of Independent Production Company LA Production and Jackie Davies (pictured above). The award ceremony was decorated very nicely, with each table themed under a different superhero. We were on 'The Incredibles' table and as an 'Event Designer' I spent a lot of my time looking at the table decorations and event styling. Which I really liked, huge cocktail glasses filled with different coloured lighting where on each table and there where cute bat decorations around. 

There was a caricaturist at the night too, giving free portraits to all attending and we were entertained by the brilliant Kirkby based dance group Performance Studios, local band Major Major and singer Jay Norton (who was really good!)

Carole, Project Manager of Halewood Arts getting a free Caricature 

The night was brilliant and it was lovely to receive an award. I was not expecting to get a real award at all and I also got £30 worth of vouchers which was lovely. Overall there was 9 of us who won Youth Volunteer of the Year and after hearing why we all received an award, every one was really deserved.

Cousi, Carole, Me. Halewood Arts Association.

7 of the 9 Youth Volunteers of the Year 2011

My lovely award

I am very grateful for my award and would like to thank Carole a lot for not only nominating me, but also giving me the opportunity to volunteer within Halewood Arts Association. I have learnt so much there and recieving some recognition for the work I have done there has been wonderful.

If this is the first time you have read my blog, feel free to browse my portfolio on my website.

Thank you to KCVS  for the photographs. You can read the official press release from KCVS for the awards here.

January Update

It's coming to the end of January now and as I have had a little spare time, I thought I would use today to update all the things I have been meaning to update for a while. My blog being one of them. If you follow me on twitter, or read my blog at all, then you will know at the beginning of January I started a four week internship at National Museums Liverpool in the design department. I have been enjoying it so much and learning such a lot about Auto CAD and the work that goes into designing an exhibition. 

At the moment I have been lucky enough to work on the Living Apart by Ian Berry exhibition. As it is a photography exhibition I have been trying to work out the layout of the moveable walls and the photographs. Its been a great starting project as it has allowed me to get really stuck into learning AutoCAD. Luckily I know the exhibition space pretty well, as it is the space the museum kindly allowed me to use as the location for my final major project at University. It is great to be able to learn how a real exhibition comes together and see how the designers work alongside a large number of other departments and people to make an exhibition come together. After a meeting this week, where I shown the plans I had come up with (very nerve-racking) I was asked if I would like to extend my internship until the beginning of March. I am so happy to be able to stay longer as I feel I am learning so much another four weeks would be brilliant.

Things are definitely looking up for me at the moment, I have been getting really stuck into Halewood Arts Association and I am currently in the process of planning and organising a really exciting project for the Junior Artists Club. It will run over a few weeks and involve the local community and Halewood Park. Fingers crossed the children enjoy it, I will blog more about it when the details become more finalised. Me and Carole are also in the process of applying for lots of funding, so if you are reading and would like to give Halewood Arts Association some money, feel free.

There is a lot to look forward too over the next couple of weeks. I will be graduating (finally) on the 8th February and can't wait, even if I am very nervous about standing up on stage.

I have finished updating my website too and feel happy with how it looks now. If you would like to have a look through that would be great and feel free to give me any feedback... but please be nice.

Museums, Events and Meetings

It has only just occurred to me that I haven’t blogged in 2011. I have been pretty busy lately and keep saying to myself, I will blog tonight and then completely forgetting. So here it is!

I have been up to quite a bit in the first 12 days of the year. Firstly I have been back at Halewood Arts Association. Me and Carole have been trying to work out the years events and what we would like to do within Halewood Arts. One of the first things we are thinking about is getting Halewood Arts online. I have been put in charge of the twitter account. Ever since the Good Food Show in Birmingham, I have become completely addicted to twitter. Not only are all the people on their lovely, supportive and always on hand with advice, it is a really great way of networking and meeting people with similar interests and careers. It seemed the obvious thing to do to get Halewood Arts Association on there. If you are on twitter it would be great if you could follow us. I am trying to get our followers up at the moment.

@halewoodarts

Carole has asked me to take lead with some of the childrens art workshops too, which is great. I am just trying to come up with some exciting things they can do. A lot of the children have been attending for a number of years and it can be hard to think of new things for them to do each week.

I am also having a large input in the events going on with Halewood Arts Association this year and assisting Carole with applying for funding and thinking of interesting things we can do within the community and with the children. I shall keep you posted on anything we come up with.

On Monday I started my internship / work experience within the Liverpool Museum Design department. I have only been there two days but I am loving it already. The design team mostly work with Auto CAD, a program I haven’t used before. Simon, one of the lead 3D designers talked through the program with me for about an hour and I seem to have picked up the basics now. On my first day I recreated some plans they have and managed to get them as close as I could. I am working on a real project now, working on wall plans and photo layout. I am really enjoying it and look forward to the next four weeks. If I come away from this with a new skill of being able to use Auto CAD it will be brilliant.

I also had a great meeting with Rich Pontefract from Another Media based in Liverpool. I got in touch with him to ask for some advice about getting ahead in the Event Management industry and he kindly offered to meet with me to discuss it in person. It was one of the most informative hours I’ve ever had. He gave me pages and pages of advice and also explained to me how he set up his business and what he has done since University. It was extremely helpful and it was nice to have someone reassure me that everything I am doing at the moment is good. Sometimes you need someone who isn’t a parent or friend to tell you that you are doing well. I came away from the meeting very positive and look forward to meeting Rich again in the future.

This weekend I am hoping to go to the Liverpool Wedding Show with my cousin who is due to marry in 2012, should be a great way of meeting people within the event industry also.

Habits and Habitats - The Big Draw 2010

This blog post has been a long time coming. If you regularly read you will know that I volunteer at Halewood Arts Association each Wednesday and here I help to organise and plan events. All summer me and Carole planned a Big Draw event, funded by the Big Lottery Fund (THANK YOU) for the local Halewood area. It took place in October and I have been waiting for the photos Ian Edwards took (Karens husband, his are a lot better than mine and thank you for them!) before I updated here.

Me and Carole wanted to include the Junior Artists Club as much as possible in the process and asked them what they would like the theme to be. After Carole spoke with the children who attend, we decided to come up with the theme of habits and habitats for the event. This also allowed us to take full advantage of the environment centre and the Halewood Triangle.

In the run up to the event we arranged a number of workshops for the Junior Artists Club, all around the theme and with the help of some local artists, Anthony Smith, Karen Edwards and Becky Bryson created artwork to be displayed within our event.

On the day we where a little worried at first, as the weather was awful. The night before had been torrential rain and as a majority of our event was outdoors, it made us worry that people would be put off. We couldn't have been more wrong. Over 200 people came to our event and took part in everything.

There was so much to get involved in. Indoors Anthony drew out a huge mural, showing the journey bees go on when they go out looking for honey. The visitors where invited to help fill in the mural and take part in a huge collaborative piece. It was great to see people aged 5 standing beside people aged 80 all getting involved in the same image. With a great final outcome.

One of our main aims with the event was to get local people to use Halewood Park and Triangle more. It is an underused resource and we wanted to include it as much as possible within our event. There was lots to do outside and using artwork the children had made in previous sessions, we decorated the park area to draw more people in.

As we wanted to ensure as many people where involved in the event as possible, The Halewood Walkers Group also got involved. They assisted Karen Edwards in making honeycomb to adorn the park area. This was a great idea and everyone loved exploring the park and breaking open the honeycomb to discover what was inside.

Outside there was so much to get involved in. Becky Bryson from the Liverpool Lantern Company was helping the visitors to make 2D fish. This was very popular as the visitors loved being able to make something and then take it away with them. With some visitors returning a few times, to make a Mummy, Daddy and Baby fish.

Barry Worrall was also there to assist visitors with drawing and collage. We wanted the visitors to take in their surroundings and create some images of the area we where in. This was really successful and the final images we got where so successful they are now showing in an exhibition in Halewood.

To keep with the theme of bees, Karen Edwards (the lovely artist who gave us a tour of The Bridewell... see previous blog post) came up with a 3D beehive that everybody could get involved with. The visitors where asked to get involved and decorate the individual panels of the beehive. It was really enjoyable and we had people from 2 up to 85 getting involved. The pieces where then put together the week after in the Junior Artists Club.

Overall the day was a huge success! It was great being able to get involved in the whole process from start to finish. Working alongside Carole and all of the artists has taught me so much about how to plan events and being able to do something within the local community was great. The feedback forms for the day where great, and we got 100% positive feedback. I'm looking forward to the Big Draw 2011 next!

Huge post so thank you if you are still reading and thank you so much to Ian Edwards who provided amazing photos from the day, I was going to take some myself but got that into all the activities didn't get the chance.

Minibus tour...

On Saturday, Me, Carole and Cowsie took some of the Junior Art club and the Halewood Walkers group on a trip around the Biennial in Liverpool. It was a really interesting day and it was great to see some unusual and different art.

We started with a tour of The Bridewell. Karen one of the artists who is based here gave us a tour of the whole space and even let us into her studio. Something I am very jealous of, her studio was amazing and I want it myself haha. Her work is lovely too, her website has images of some of the lovely prints she produces... click here to have a look.

Part of the exhibition by Carol Ramsey. Inspired by the Everton Tower. The children loved going inside here.

Next stop was the Oratory outside the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. This was the first time I'd gone into the grounds of the Cathedral... (being a scouser this is shocking I know)... I could not get over the size of it. I knew it was huge, but standing within there I really could not get over the size, exploring the graveyard with the children was fun too. Even if they where really scared.

We where at the Oratory to see the Temple of a Thousand Bells installation by Laura Belem. It was lovely and I would definitely recommend a visit before the Biennial ends.

The next place we went to was Mann Island to see Hector Zamoras Synclastic/Anticlastic. The children really liked this one and I did too. It was empty when we visited and I felt the concrete silhoettes looked like birds, feeling like you where walking amongst a giant flock. One of the chlidren said it felt like they where being attacked by flying dinosaurs... I'm sure that is exactly what Hector wanted his visitors to get from it.

This week has been great. Busy but great and I am really looking forward to what I'm upto this week and in the weeks ahead.

Architecture and Life Drawing

So Anna (my little sister) got home from Spain on Sunday and this week has mostly involved catching up with her. She's been living in Spain since February and it's been great having her back. She's even decided to start coming along to art club and helping me and Carole out with the children.

Art Club - This week I have been helping Carole to put together our report about the Big Draw something I am still due to blog about... (awaiting photos then I shall write up a proper summary of the event). We also let the children do what they wanted this week in the Junior Artists Club, as long as it went along with the theme of fireworks. So there was a lot of splattered paint, string and tissue paper everywhere. All fun of course!

I also went along to a second training / workshop day with Places Matter. It is in association with The Royal Institute of British Architects and I have been along to one of the days before. Its a way of getting architecture more into the curriculum and as I volunteer with children 7-12 I could go along and pick up tips on how to turn what we learn into workshops for the children. I really enjoyed it. The two training sessions included lectures and presentations from some of the architects and urban designers involved in Liverpool 1 and Liverpool as a whole. It was great to do something design based again, it really made me miss Uni and it was great to learn more about the architecture of Liverpool.

This training day made me realise I want to make the most of all the opportunities Liverpool has to offer. When in the Places Matter office I picked up a LOT of leaflets and have now signed up for a free life drawing session as part of the DaDa Fest '10 and I have signed up for some lectures ran by the RIBA. Which I am really looking forward to.

Carole has asked me to plan a trip around the Liverpool Biennial for the children, so I have two weeks to sort out where to take them!

I also have my Halewood Arts at Home presentation next week, so I should get on with that too.

Liverpool Lantern Carnival

Halloween this year was spent very differently to how I have ever spent it before. If you have read previous posts, you will know that I have been working on a set of lanterns with the children at the Junior Art Club, Carole and Becky. Halloween was spent taking part in the Liverpool Lantern Carnival, ran by the Liverpool Lantern Company. It was amazing! Me, Mum and Anna went along and it was a really different way to spend Halloween. Thousands of people turned up to Sefton Park to watch the Lantern Walk procession and then to see the amazing finale. This years theme was above and below the water so there was a lot of fish, boats and of course the jelly fish I helped to make. There was so many performers, lanterns and at the end fireworks. It was a really amazing night and the atmosphere was great.

The Junior Artists Club getting ready for the walk.

Lewis and Charlie with the JellyFish lanterns they had made.

Finale, the ship exploding.

Photographs from the Liverpool Echo, The Procession.