Creative Partnerships

Another way that schools are encouraging enquiry in learners is through Creative Partnerships between creative professionals and schools (PwC, 2010).  LOCWS Schools is a participatory education project running in Swansea that brings together school children and creative agents to encourage expression through the arts. Throughout the experience pupils are exposed to Swansea’s culture, architecture and heritage from which they create pieces of artwork for public exhibition (Haste, 2014).  In a report commissioned by the Creativity, Culture and Education Board (2010) it was suggested that some of the benefits from creative partnerships include; increased comprehension of the curriculum, increased motivation, higher attainment at GCSE level with more pupils progressing to further and higher education, as well as increased parental engagement.

To gain experience of Creative Partnerships our group attended an excursion to The Grand Theatre in Swansea where we were able to see the final product of the most recent LOCWS school collaboration and also speak with the Director of Art in the City, David Haste. Haste (2014) explained the process of Art in the City as a 3 day workshop where the children would, along with the assigned creative professional, go through a four step process on their journey to creating a final piece. First of all they would look around the city by taking their learning outside of the classroom and encouraging the pupils to observe, document and then reflect upon what they had seen during their excursion. In the next part of the process they would be asked to discuss what they had seen and what their thoughts and feelings were from the trip, this would be transformed into a mind-mapped plan, and at the end of this session the children would have an idea of what they were going to create for their final piece. Depending on the speciality of the creative professional collaborating with the group, this final piece could be anything from a painting or sculpture to a poem, story or song. The third step in the process would be the creation of the final piece, the creative professional assuming the role of facilitator and the pupils leading the activity. Finally, the piece would be presented or displayed in a way that would, according to Haste (Haste, 2014), bring the children sense of pride and achievement thus encouraging them to continue on a creative path.

 

From the information gained during the visit to The Grand Theatre as well as the information presented from research I would conclude that Creative Partnerships appear to be of benefit for pupils, parents and teachers alike. The output from the workshops not only increases the attainment of the child as well as improving personal attributes, self-confidence, for example; the relationships between student and teacher is also improved as the pupil is gaining a richer experience than in a traditional teaching setting. With regards to learning and creativity in the twenty first century it is evident that the creative partnerships provided by LOCWS are including varied enquiry methods due to the child led nature of the workshops, as well as incorporating modern technology to plan, document and present their pieces.