Limitations Unlimited - A Creative Starter

To introduce the new Cubitt Artist Educator recruits, this month's session saw a return of the Limitations Unlimited theme from December (see previous blog post).

For the first hour of our session we played with another pile of random materials that had been gathered from the debris of a recent Education Studio refurbishment. However this time a brief for making a self-portrait was set.

It was fascinating to witness the variety of responses to the task and materials and with a brief description, on completion, from all participants about their work and thought processes we all learned a lot more about each other (and had a bit of a giggle too).

Creative starters like this exercise are really useful in facilitating the transition from passive learner to active creator.

The second hour focused on the idea of Creative Starters and working in small groups of three the Artist Educators generated as many activities, games and questions as time allowed which were then shared with the group.

Some examples include:

* Using a viewfinder, look around the room for a composition and draw it.

* In groups, recreate/model yourselves into works of art from a selection of images.

* Ask the question "What is art?".

Many more ideas were generated and the next step is to take the notes from this session and together create a 52 card deck of Creative Starter Cards that all Artist Educators can use as a resource.

The next Material Knowledge session will be on Monday 16th April 6-8.30pm in the Arts and Crafts room of St Luke's Community Centre, 90 Central Street, EC1V 8AJ