Artists Bruce Williams, Maarten De Reus, Gordon Dickinson, Mobile Media, Evil Twins

Moredon Primary School is one of the schools involved in the North Swindon Schools Project which arose in response to Swindon Borough Council’s Public Art Policy, Artpoint was appointed by a division of John Laing Plc, to develop a £580,000 art programme for seven new PFI built schools in Swindon.

The development of the art programme for all seven schools is overseen by an Executive Steering Group (ESG), which is comprised of representatives from all partners as listed above. School Working Art Groups (SWAG’s) have been established to determine the artistic needs of the individual schools. Each SWAG is represented on the Executive Steering Group by a representative from that group. They usually comprise of a representative from Artpoint, the Head Teacher of the school in question and where appropriate, school children.

Each of the schools received a permanent main commission, a temporary education commission and a web or media workshop.

The new Moredon Primary and Nursery School brought together the existing schools Moredon Infants and Moredon Junior.  The school services an area of high social, economic and cultural deprivation. The opportunities for the pupils to enjoy active engagement in arts activities are very limited. 

Main Commission

The work of commissioned artist Maarten de Reus revolves around ‘public spaces’. These public spaces are the streets and squares of cities, the cyberspaces of the internet, large scale infrastructures such as motor highways, information-landscapes, as well as the rhetorical spaces of public discussion.

Maarten completed a period of research with twenty-four pupils from Moredon Junior School, using visits to the new school site, hands on workshops and discussion with the pupils.  He has made a work to mark the entrance of the new school, based on the theme of transition.

The artwork plays with the notion that something is complete nonsense (although in this version it is clear there is something 'over there' from all standpoints) until you come closer to a certain point in which it becomes apparent. The work is about the notion of standpoint and perspective, expressing the idea that it matters where you are in relation to what you will see. This is a given, far more universal than just an optical trick. It is a powerful metaphor especially in the realm of education.

The artwork plays with the notion that ‘here’ is all over the place. Random shapes are fixed above the entrance so you see immediately that ‘there is something over there’ but it is not until the viewer rests their chin on a totem sculpture placed in an exact position in front of the entrance that the word ‘here’ forms. The twist is that ‘over there’ is the word 'here'.

Education Commission

At Moredon Primary and Infants School, local artist Gordon Dickinson delivered a series of workshops to pupils. The workshops were designed to tie in with the ‘transition’ theme of the main artwork, and to help focus the pupil’s thoughts on the new school learning policy ‘your learning journey to new horizons’.

Gordon spent a day taking digital images of children from four classes of varying age groups asking them to pose as if they were encouraging the viewer to follow them. Images were then digitally enhanced by computer and painted onto wall mounts. These have all been placed around the school pointing towards the main hall to aid with way finding.

Six further figures were then produced over a three day workshop with six pupils selected for their quality of work. These young people created “self portraits” using the process described above, involving drama, digital photography, IT and painting skills.

Selected pupils covering all ages and abilities were then asked to think about what the future holds, and represent their aspirations in sculptural forms. This formed a display in the hall situated above a group of figures pointing up towards these aspirations to represent the school's learning policy. This project has given all involved new skills and a clearer understanding of how their time spent at school will affect their futures.

Media Workshops:

Artpoint appointed Mobile Media to develop and undertake a series of creative media workshops for the Swindon Schools Art Programme.

The outreach wing of Create Studios, Mobile Media, is a unique youth arts project taking the excitement of new digital technologies and professional arts practice to children and young people in school and community settings throughout Swindon and Wiltshire. Using animation, web-based work, moving and still imagery, Mobile Media aims to create positive opportunities for young people and their communities.

The workshops for Moredon were delivered by ‘Evil Twin Artworks’, brothers James and Mark Carroll, who are locally based digital artists.

The delivery of workshops with selected pupil groups from each school to contribute to the design and development of the art project website.

The aim of the workshops was for the students to create material on themes around the move to their new schools: journeys, transport, transition, to include in the projects website.

Commissioner

Swindon Borough Council

Partners

Education Support (Swindon) Ltd, Equion Facilities Management, Swindon Borough Council, Laing O’Rourke, Architect CoPartnership, The Landscape Partnership, First Light

Budget

£580,000

Funders

PFI Initiative

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