Outreach Arts

For the past year I've been involved in the National Saturday Art and Design Programme, which gives kids and teens across the country an opportunity to get involved in the arts and learn skills in masterclasses that they wouldn't necessarily get to sample until degree level. Today was just a normal Saturday craft session in which we made pages for a collective pop-up book.

I brought in examples of artists' books and simple folded envelopes, as well as my research file from the artists' book module last year to give them a bit of inspiration. We set them each a letter so our book would form an A-Z style collection when combined. Our group is lovely, really inventive and supportive of each other. Maybe they are always like this... (just a mellow, liberal, cool group of teens) but I feel as though Saturday Club is a space for them to be themselves and feel confident, because it's a creative environment where no ideas are bad ideas.

Today we had pop ups on every topic imaginable... football, nature, exorcism, ghosts, gay pride, wrestling, music, memes, single-parent feminist dad octopi...!