Arts / Colourful collaboration between Sandwick pupils and visiting artist
THE BIKE shed at Sandwick Junior High School has been given a colourful makeover thanks to a collaboration between pupils and a Glasgow-based illustrator and street artist.
The initiative has also seen temporary artwork grace the front of Mareel in Lerwick.
The HIDE_OUT project, which focused on wellbeing through creativity, saw artist Ursula Kam-Ling Cheng team up with pupils at Sandwick over a number of weeks.
The project involved Shetland Arts and the council, while it was supported by Education Scotland.
Shetland Arts’ Jane Matthews said: “This project has been running in Sandwick over the past four months and we devised it with the school bike shed as the focus – an inside-outside space for the pupils that marks a physical boundary between home and school, but also – possibly – a psychological boundary between comfort and discomfort, between fitting in and not fitting in.
“The project offers scope for an exploration of well-being through expressive creativity via a physical space outside the confines of the classroom.”
In March, Cheng led workshops with S1 pupils at the school using photography, drawing, mark-making and spray- painting.
The aim was to have fun with new materials and learn new skills whilst taking time to consider the positive health benefits of art and design.
Back in her studio, she combined all the resulting work to create a design to transform the bike shed and has returned this week to complete the work with the help of her team of young artists (now at the start of S2), transforming the space into something bright and welcoming.
Cheng said: “Everyone has the capacity to be creative and use their imaginations. These workshops in Sandwick allowed the young people to see that art can be used as a tool to treat anxiety, they can tune into the power of their senses and benefit from being mindful and present in every aspect of their lives.
“The work they created during these sessions directly influenced the overall outcomes of the bike shed ‘hide-out’ – this shared space between home and school – and the public artwork at Mareel. They were able to create the work with me as part of the process.”
Sandwick Junior High School headteacher Stuart Clubb said: “It has been a fantastic project that has empowered the pupils to totally transform our bike shed at the front entrance to the school whilst working with a professional artist.
“What was previously a fairly non-descript building is now a work of art and I would urge you to pop along and see for yourselves.”
The artwork commissioned for the front of Mareel brings the project to the wider community, celebrating the achievements of the young people at Sandwick.
It will stay put on the front of the building all summer, while the artwork in the new-look bike shed at Sandwick Junior High will remain for years to come.
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