SHEEPFOLDS AND OTHER ART FORMS

CASE STUDIES

Between May and November 2000, Cumbria County Council commissioned a series of workshops run by professional artists in twelve schools across Cumbria as part of the Sheepfolds Education Programme. The artists were placed in primary and secondary schools which had expressed an interest in the work of Andy Goldsworthy and had not previously worked with a professional artist. The schools were also selected to represent the six County districts.

The aims and objectives of the workshops were:

Aims
to run a 3 day arts workshop for a selected group of pupils using Andy Goldsworthy's Sheepfolds as a starting point;
to provide opportunities for children and teachers to work with other professional artists;
to provide monitored and evaluated arts activities which might act as models of good practice and inform future workshops and educational materials.

Objectives
to develop understanding of the work of Andy Goldsworthy and link that to the work of different artists working in other art forms;
to explore cross-curricular connections with the Sheepfolds public arts project;
to develop specific art form skills and knowledge within schools.

The artists worked in a range of art forms including:
poetry
photography
printmaking
drawing & painting
mixed textile media
felt-making
printed textiles
lantern-making
dance
music

This section shares the outcomes of this work in the form of descriptive case-studies. Further information about the work can be obtained from the schools themselves or from the artists involved whose names and addresses are included in Resources and Funding.

In addition to the Sheepfolds workshops, several other schools have embarked on their own programmes of work making use of visits to Sheepfold sites and materials borrowed from the County Visual Arts Officer.

At Ivegill CE School, a visit to the Mungrisdale folds and an exhibition of Andy Goldsworthy's original sketches for these, provided the starting point for work involving study of local history and geography and the production of very high quality drawing, painting and writing by Key Stage 2 pupils.

In Brough School, the loan of the Sheepfolds preparatory drawings gave the children ideas for some imaginative 3-dimensional work using clay and found materials to design their own folds.In addition to this work, there were some impressive drawings of folds and graphic design work to produce a poster to advertise Andy Goldsworthy's visit to build the pinfold cone in the school grounds.

At Bolton School, an extended study of local wildlife was linked to the theme of dry stone walling and the Sheepfolds. Examination of the pattern of stonework and the Goldsworthy sketches, also inspired some excellent collages and pastel drawings. All the teachers involved in this work commented on the attention their projects aroused within the local community and the displays produced within the schools became the focus of great interest.

Milburn School planned an interesting programme of work which unfortunately had to be postponed because of the Foot and Mouth epidemic in the area. Nevertheless, the school plans to initiate the work in the future after a preliminary visit to Megan's Fold in Bretherdale. The theme of 'enclosure' will lead to collage work, drawing and study of contemporary sculpture in the landscape. The school also sees the work as linked to the notion of 'reprise' and a way of helping the children from the farming community overcome the trauma of the culling of 3000 local sheep.

Prism Arts, the Carlisle-based disability arts group, organised two projects to promote Sheepfolds to disabled visitors.

'Deaf View - Sheepfolds' was a programme run by the photographer Steve Messam with members of the Barrow deaf community which resulted in a small touring exhibition of their Sheepfold images. 'Through the medium of photography, the participants were able to form their own individual responses to the Sheepfolds. They also discovered that not all contemporary art is inaccessible to non-artists and that the nature of the sculptures did not discriminate those without hearing.' (Artist's report to Prism)

In South Eden, Prism arranged a storytelling project run by Taffy Thomas and provided an opportunity for students with long term mental health needs to exchange memories and stories about the history of the area and, in turn, to listen to Taffy's stories about the environment, seasons and sheep.

Photographs From top: Displays of Andy Goldsworthy's preliminary sketches and children's work at Ivegill, Brough and Bolton Schools; 'Carry Stonecase' by Debbie Pitts from 'Deafview-Sheepfolds' project.