Listening

We have got a short clip up on Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination’s website.

Its a collection of little clips of the children talking about Kettle’s Yard.

Listening to the Children Talking about Kettle’s Yard

And we’re planning to make more clips soon – watch this space…

Half Way and Thinking Through

In the past few weeks we have been busy thinking through what has happened so far and what is still ahead. The Children Take the Lead project is about half way through now!

Things that have kept us busy include for example;
- Talking to designers and product development people ( there is a whole world out there so its taking us some time. Its like learning a new langauage)
- Meeting with other cultural venues and finding out where else the Props Box might travel to and how best to do that…
- Planning the next phase at Wysing Arts Centre-There is a lot to do as we have to plan the workshops and get ready to introduce 60 more children and their families to Wysing and the Props Box – very exciting!
- Thinking through ways of returning with the props box to the Spinney School, where it all started. We’d like to show the children what the research with them has made possible.

We’ll be in touch again soon to tell you more…

What people said about the PropsBox

Now that the first trials of the props box are behind us we are collecting the evaluation and the feedback.

Here is a small selection of the comments we’ve had so far (and the images don’t necessarily relate to the quotes). We will post more in the coming days once we have gathered them all.

‘I enjoyed the most being forced to focus on not too many things. Having to look at a few things in detail really makes you ‘see’. If I had come on my own I would have whizzed around and not really taken much in’.

Adrianna came with her 3 children (aged 6 to 11) and explained how it was different from visiting other museums or galleries: This was not the usual approach, not historical. It was lively, more fun and there was more stuff to do. You could do stuff. Having objects made it different. They created more interactions with the art and encouraged dialogue. It helped you communicate with the work and the artists. Normally you stand and look so feel separate and distant but this was like a bridging thing that helps you cross that line.

Marie (a mother who came with her baby and daughter) said: The Props Box was a nice way of introducing some joy into looking at art.

Mehrdad, who came with his toddler and 6 year old daughter commented: We noticed the sense of interesting confusion straightaway as we came in and saw the paintings and boxes. Questions instantly came up.   I’ve always liked coming here but it is great to come with children into such an atmosphere and to have the box to facilitate the process – we didn’t have to come up with ways to sustain their interest. We used the dice to explore and talk about every painting and in the process talked in detail. My daughter wanted to go round all of them and repeat it. It was such a strong tool. We shared really complex conversations.

Games inside the Props Box

The games we suggested were based on some of the games the children had invented during the school workshops.

The blindfoldmask has two games. One of them is called blindfold tour. The rules of the blindfold tour were as follows:

Someone wears the blindfold.

Someone else finds an artwork and describes it.

The blindfolded person is spun round gently.

The blindfold is removed and they guess which artwork was described.

The describing the painting takes more time than the spinning round and guessing that succeeds it.

The Phono Cups were also very popular. One of the games was  ”Muffy Man”-  Someone chooses an artwork. Someone else puts the Phono Cups over their ears. First player describes their chosen artwork to the second player. The second player then passes the Phono Cups to the next person, and repeats the description, as best they can, to the new wearer of the Cups. When the Phono Cups get back to the person who had them first, the description is spoken out loud. On the count of three everyone points to the artwork that they thought was described.

Some people said that the strange echoey quality of the sound that came out one end when you spoke into the other end made it particularly fun. They made you more aware of the act of talking. One Dad told us that it was more fun to talk and in this way it generated new and different discussions.

We designed the props to have an ‘in between’  quality. We wanted it to be unclear exactly what they were for, and so for the objects to invite the invention of new uses. These two girls made up two games which were variations on a theme. In the first game, one player chooses colours and the other player guesses which ones the first player chose. The second game is similar, but the first player chooses holes instead.

Trying out the Props Box

When you open the props box, you see six compartments, each with an object. Ontop of the object is a card with some suggested ways to use the object. For some families, it was not obvious what to do with … Continue reading →

Assembling The Props Box

This gallery contains 4 photos.

Limescale The Kettles Yard Dog

The box that we gave to each family included a dog lead for an invisible dog. The dog’s name is Limescale, and he lives at Kettles Yard.

Alistair is holding the dog lead with Limescale ‘the invisible dog’. This is the end of his go with Limescale. The dog leads him into the corner close to the gallery entrance. Then the dog lies down underneath the bench and Alistair hands the lead to his Mum. Alistair’s still full of energy, from using the dog lead perhaps, or just from being who he is. Straight after he’s handed over the dog lead, he does a rhythmic walk around the space in front of the bench, moving his arms like a cartoon of an ancient Egyptian.

Later Leo (Alistair’s Dad) tells me that Alistair took on the idea that Limescale was leading him around the gallery. Alistair stopped in front of the pictures that Limescale liked. Alistair had to translate for Limescale, since none of the others in the family could hear or understand him. As it happened, Limescale liked all the same pictures as Alistair.

It seems important