The Journey...
30/03/09 11:48
Croeso and welcome to the Anthem470 website.
The Idea, aims and objectives: An exercise in 'cultural mapping'.
My name is Bill Taylor-Beales and I am the one who thought it would be a great idea to travel up the spine of Wales meeting high school students and finding out what they thought of their school, where they live and what their hopes and dreams were... I never expected it to be such a brilliant experience. The project has developed out of several years of working in schools in Wales with all age groups. Our main focus is to fulfill our mandate of ‘educating, encouraging and inspiring’ people to ‘reach higher, shout louder and close the gap between their dreams and their reality’.
Here is a list of the key elements and dynamics we wanted to explore through this project.
I would like to say a huge thank you to the Millennium Stadium Trust for their belief in the project and their financial support.
The Journey: South to North and back again.
We got to travel through some truly stunning countryside, I had not been further than the Pembrokeshire coast and higher than Brecon before, so this was a great chance to take in the spectacle of the Welsh landscape and what better road to do that on than the A470. Not only did we see the landscape change as we climbed up the spine of Wales but we experienced the change within the communities and the cultures of the different counties and their high schools.
The Schools: Cardiff - Brecon - Dolgellau - Aberconwy.
All the schools welcomed us and made our visit memorable, plus we got to stand in line again and sample many a school lunch!
The chief aim of the project was to use the arts to help unpack ideas and thoughts about life for a 14-year-old in diverse parts of Wales. We wanted to explore the similarities and the differences of the geographic locations through creating lyrics about their school life, where they live and their hopes and dreams. The project used a series of inter-related music, art and drama workshops.
The Workshops: Art, music and drama sessions realised in a multimedia platform.
Working as a team was a key aspect of all the workshops, both in their own groups and as a year group, as one class handed on their lyrics to another class to interpret in art and drama.
Our workshop practice is always to ‘gently encourage creativity’ as it can be a terrifying ordeal to have to express yourself in front of a large number of your peers. However, the students rose to the occasion brilliantly and as you can read, listen and see on the website, they produced a high standard of work that they can be proud of.
The Multimedia: DVDs and Website.
All of the work described above was taken back to the studio, where Bill and Project Assistant Becky Matyus produced a DVD for each school and then formatted these for this website.
Please do get in touch for more information, if you would like to discuss this project further or if you would like to invite us to your school or community to explore this project.
Thanks - Diolch
Bill
The Idea, aims and objectives: An exercise in 'cultural mapping'.
My name is Bill Taylor-Beales and I am the one who thought it would be a great idea to travel up the spine of Wales meeting high school students and finding out what they thought of their school, where they live and what their hopes and dreams were... I never expected it to be such a brilliant experience. The project has developed out of several years of working in schools in Wales with all age groups. Our main focus is to fulfill our mandate of ‘educating, encouraging and inspiring’ people to ‘reach higher, shout louder and close the gap between their dreams and their reality’.
Here is a list of the key elements and dynamics we wanted to explore through this project.
- set up a democratic process within each team
- unpack their school and community reality, not shying away from the negative aspects that are identified but name them for what they are and look for positive solutions to them.
- honest dialogue where all serious comments are valid even if they are describing a negative, this is especially relevant when we look at their local community.
- ‘hopes and dreams’ - often more light-hearted but containing a deeper element when we consider how these dreams and aspirations might actually be achieved.
- discussions are brought full circle when we engage with the role that their education, community and they themselves play in achieving their hopes and dreams and a better community to live in.
- concepts are then cemented through the creative processes of lyrical construction and visualization in art and drama.
I would like to say a huge thank you to the Millennium Stadium Trust for their belief in the project and their financial support.
The Journey: South to North and back again.
We got to travel through some truly stunning countryside, I had not been further than the Pembrokeshire coast and higher than Brecon before, so this was a great chance to take in the spectacle of the Welsh landscape and what better road to do that on than the A470. Not only did we see the landscape change as we climbed up the spine of Wales but we experienced the change within the communities and the cultures of the different counties and their high schools.
The Schools: Cardiff - Brecon - Dolgellau - Aberconwy.
All the schools welcomed us and made our visit memorable, plus we got to stand in line again and sample many a school lunch!
The chief aim of the project was to use the arts to help unpack ideas and thoughts about life for a 14-year-old in diverse parts of Wales. We wanted to explore the similarities and the differences of the geographic locations through creating lyrics about their school life, where they live and their hopes and dreams. The project used a series of inter-related music, art and drama workshops.
The Workshops: Art, music and drama sessions realised in a multimedia platform.
Working as a team was a key aspect of all the workshops, both in their own groups and as a year group, as one class handed on their lyrics to another class to interpret in art and drama.
Our workshop practice is always to ‘gently encourage creativity’ as it can be a terrifying ordeal to have to express yourself in front of a large number of your peers. However, the students rose to the occasion brilliantly and as you can read, listen and see on the website, they produced a high standard of work that they can be proud of.
The Multimedia: DVDs and Website.
All of the work described above was taken back to the studio, where Bill and Project Assistant Becky Matyus produced a DVD for each school and then formatted these for this website.
Please do get in touch for more information, if you would like to discuss this project further or if you would like to invite us to your school or community to explore this project.
Thanks - Diolch
Bill