This project was an example of the partnership collaboration which brought three organisations, CCWM, St . Basil’s, Sidney Nolan Trust to create ‘It’s My World’. The project’s focus was on children and their place within their family and community. It’s aim was to offer children opportunities to find their inner voice. By inspiring them to express themselves creatively, our aim was that children gain a revitalised and empowered sense of themselves and their place within the family.
We identified the need for children and their families to spend time together in a safe and inspiring environment where the pressures of everyday life can be set aside. We have also recognised the value of providing creative experiences that allow participants to take the lead in what and how they learn.
Sidney Nolan Trust, The Rodd welcomed very informal and fluid workshops with a structure that provide options and enables participants to follow their own inspiration by getting involved in activities. These activities have ranged from playing with clay and carving ceramic tiles, through photography, mono-printing, drawing, and painting to digging vegetables, picking cherries meeting farm animals and splashing in the shallow waters of the river Hindwell brook. Everyone takes part at their own pace, help, encourage and teach each other. At the centre of each workshop is lunchtime ranging from sandwiches and fruit and a picnic to a BBQ.
The programme successfully bridged the white, rural and arts-based world where the Trust is located with the urban, diverse and disadvantaged world inhabited by the participants where there is little opportunity or access for art and creativity. Young people and children made their own discoveries, of creativity and of nature, which offered an encouragement to the young people. This also challenged minds and changed people’s attitude towards art and creativity. The project enabled the participants to see art in a wholly new light. For people who normally saw photography and pottery in a rigid manner there was encouragement to view the outcome without a right-wrong binary. It also sowed seeds which may possibly bear fruit in the future. This project was created through the funding from Ragdoll Foundation.