Rachel has undertaken some Art based projects in conjunction with Schools in both Essex and London, including a Christmas Penguin Project for Ilford Mall and the 'My Southend' project for 'The Victoria' shopping Mall in Essex.
These projects involved a wide range of children aged between 5 and 13 taking part in workshops that were devised and staffed by Rachel and her team of helpers and various teachers from the schools taking part.
The children were involved in the design and production of these projects and their efforts were then proudly displayed at the various sites mentioned. The children found the sessions great fun and were very proud of the work they created with Rachel.
Rachel enjoys working with the children to develop their creativity and artistic skills, finding this work both challenging and rewarding. 'I think it has an immense effect on the self esteem of children when they see something they have created on show in a public place'.
Project Penguin
Ashingdon Primary Mural (Click here)
This mural was sponsored by The Royal Bank of Scotland. It measures 24ft x 8ft and is painted on six 4ft x 8ft exterior grade mdf panels, with opaque exterior water based acrylic paint which is guarantee. The reception/year 1 students were given a choice of possible theme for the mural and the majority vote was for 'Mini Beasts'.
The children worked on pictures of their own and a workshop was held to discuss/work on the content of the mural. The children had great fun suggesting suitable creatures and environments. The school had expressed an interest in the mural being educational in some way and Rachel designed it with this in mind.
The mural shows life-cycles of certain creatures, varying numbers of creatures, some hidden beasts and various developmental stages thus making the murals both pleasing to the eye to brighten up the infant playground and useful as a learning tool for counting, colours, biology etc.
The children were thrilled with the finished mural and were very happy to have their photographs in the local paper. The Royal bank of Scotland were also happy with the finished mural.
The Penguins Project (Click here)
This project was done in conjunction with 'The Mall' shopping centre in Ilford, Essex. Three local primary schools took part with an age range of between 5-11 yrs.
Having constructed 3 giant penguins from timber framed, chicken wire and ModRoc, some accessories were also created for each penguin. Workshops were then arranged in each school for a group of children to to decorate their own penguin and accessories in each schools' colours.
The Workshops took place in the art room or another suitable area of each school and were run by Rachel, her assistants and the children's' own art teacher/head of art. Lasting between 2-3 hours per session, the children thoroughly enjoyed being creative with the accessories and were very proud of their finished penguins.
The penguins were installed in The Mall, Ilford for the public to see over the Christmas/New Year period and the local press came to photograph them with the children involved.
My Southend (Click here)
This project is called 'My Southend' and was for 'The Victoria' shopping centere in Southend, Essex. Three local schools were involved with an age range of children from 6-11 years.
Meetings were held to brief the teachers on the requirements of the client. In this instance the 'My Southend' project was split into three main themes with each school being given a seperate theme, Beach, Shopping and Entertainment. The children were prepped by their teachers as to the theme and workshops were run during school hours with up to three staff including myself, plus the childrens regular teacher.
The children produced some lovely work with our help and guidance, then the work was collated and displayed by myself. The artwork was displayed in the central atrium of 'The Victoria' shopping centre for three weeks to celebrate the re-opening of the centre.
The children were invited to visit during the unveiling which was covered by the local press.