Sidestrand Hall School

The Sainsbury Centre Outreach Team visited Sidestrand Hall School to deliver a session as part of the Cromer and Sheringham Arts Festival, Coast.

A mixed group of 25 students from years  7, 8 and 9, spent the morning examining objects from Papua New Guinea and Northern Australia. Using observational skills they considered the forms, colours and emblems of the objects, sketching them and asking questions such as “What is it?” or  “What animal is that?” Also noting what the inscribed patterns reminded them of, such as water or peacock feathers.

Next the students received some contextual information for the objects. Stories and images gave greater background information about the objects and their journey of being formed by people who created with materials found in their landscape. With the theme of journeys in mind, the students went on their own  journey through their local landscape of the school grounds, collecting found materials and also marking a personal special ‘thinking place’ with a ribbon and label.

The materials found during their journey, were the starting point for the afternoon’s creative session with artist Georgina Warne. Some students created journey landscapes on hessian with oil pastels and their found materials while the rest created their journey landscapes from clay also including the materials they had found.