Seaview Primary School

Art Thinking : Panel Project

 aesthetic value is an inherent part of the function`

Victor Papanek-Design for the Real World

I was brought into this project as a professional artist and educator with extensive teaching experience working in A+D, from Primary to undergraduate level. I initiated the successful Jute Bag Project For Schools which was a collaborative project between the Society of Scottish Artists (of which I am Vice President), and DOJ, which won the Best Educational Event at this years Educational Events Awards, Scotland.

My job on this project was to work directly with the school children through a series of prepared lessons and mini workshops to produce the visual subject matter for Andy and I to then pull together and create the designs. Because of the limited time available to complete the project, I chose to create a small brief for each class that was quite specific in terms of subject matter and materials used. This meant that we could direct the children's creativity towards the context of the panels and still give them visual freedom to explore.

It gave us a better chance of producing images of some kind which fully acknowledged the topics that the children had listed e.g., fish or insects, gave us the raw materials which reflected the different age ranges as well as giving the children an enjoyable artistic experience. We also had made up a scaled perspex design to show each class what a panel would look like. It was important that the children and indeed the teachers had an idea of what they were working towards to help them engage well with the process. Each brief was delivered verbally and was supported by exemplars of art and design images and demonstrations of a variety of artistic techniques.

The panels had to wear many hats so to speak. They had been part of the architects overall design concept both aesthetically and functionally to help define each primary stage. They had to have longevity which in turn dictated the technical process and of course come in on budget. Through consultation with the children, the architect, the school and all the other educational links these panels grew into a very visual way to engage with children and give them visual voice that reflects their understanding of the place they live and embeds that into their everyday experience.