Latest news: Art Auction Sat 22 July 6pm
Posted: July 10, 2017
I am delighted to be donating a piece of work in aid of the Home Project:
A collaboration between
Boskenwyn & Germoe Schools, Cornwall
Jana Udaya School, Kathmandu
Local artists & Global Action Nepal
Exhibition: Fri 21st & Sat 22nd July, 10am – 4pm
Auction: Sat 22nd July, 6pm
at Porthmeor Studios, St. Ives
Auction conducted by David Lay FRICS
Background:
The Home project has emerged out of a recent partnership between Boskenwyn & Germoe Schools, and Jana Udaya School, Kathmandu, through UK-registered charity Global Action Nepal. Following an assembly given by GAN’s school-link coordinator, when the children were introduced to Nepal and some of the ways in which UK schools have been building friendship links with schools affected by the devastating 2015 earthquakes and helping support their recovery, pupils of Boskenwyn and Germoe school were determined to come up with interesting ways in which to communicate with the children in their partner school, and share their experiences. Boskenwyn and Germoe pupils were keen to learn more and early discussions at school led to thoughts about home, belonging, safety and community. It was realised that children communicate universally through drawing and play and the earliest conceptual understandings of their world and their environment is explored through a repetition of schema also displayed in their mark making. Interestingly, despite the vast cultural differences experienced between children around the world, we began to think about how the early development of markmaking is universally similar. The earliest stages beginning with a random scribble later developing into symbolic representation. At this stage (around about the time when children start school) the cultural narrative emerges. The cultural exchange that has been so successful between children from schools in Nepal and Cornwall has highlighted the way in which children will represent in their drawings a common image – their home and their communities. This, of course, is particularly poignant for the Nepali children involved in the school-linking programme, many of whom lost their homes in the 2015 earthquakes and are still living in temporary shelters two years later. In the Nepali language, as in English, the word for home घर्(ghar) means much more than physical structure where someone lays their head at night. It embodies community and cultural heritage, and is often used to refer to a family’s ancestral home. Let’s organise a charity art auction……. Leading to that sunny afternoon discussion when we began to think about the beauty of children’s art work, the importance of visual communication through drawing, and our feeling that art (and the child’s voice through drawing) is undervalued in education. Whereby a project brief began to take shape. Working from outcome to inception we discussed how it would be great to exhibit children’s art work in a space where the gravitas of their voice could be acknowledged, heard and valued alongside that of adults. We decided to plan a charity art auction to fundraise for Global Action Nepal and the work they are doing to improve access to, and the quality of, education for poor and marginalised people in Nepal – including the children and families at our partner school, Jana Udaya. The educational context We have since developed a unit of work for Cornwall schools picture a place called home where we will be looking at the meaning of home from a personal perspective and comparing it to a global context. It is anticipated that we will be touching on absolute and relative poverty, as well as loneliness/ belonging, homelessness/home and questioning what home means through an enquiry based approach to teaching and learning. The outcome of the educational project will be a selection of visual and 3d works which will be created after children have explored their own lines of research, during an art day in early July where they will work with a professional artist. Children from Jana Udaya School have also created artwork on the theme of home which has been shipped over to be exhibited and auctioned alongside their peers. Charity and home. The culmination of the project will be the exhibition and auction of children’s artwork alongside that of professional artists on Friday 21 st – Saturday 22nd July at Porthmeor Studios. Already much interest has been generated and so far eighteen professional Cornwall-based artists have generously offered to donate work, along with a Nepali artist based in Kathmandu. We are in the process of creating a catalogue and website for the charity event. These will feature all of the artwork available for auction and links to artists’ websites. We will also be promoting the event via the local press and social media, and would be grateful if you could help us promote the event amongst your own networks too.