Designing with Materials / Understanding Electricity

Key Stage 3 students worked intensely with artist Jon Bielstein in full-day outreach workshops following their visits to Paul Granjon’s Oriel Factory. Students engaged in lively group exercises that illuminated how electricity works, then made their own simple switches to control moving elements within their scrap sculptures.

To create these, Jon led them through a series of processes based on designing with materials, prototyping, justifying their decisions and team-working. This project was part of Oriel Davies’ Start programme funded by The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts.

Whirligigs Workshops with Angharad Pearce Jones

Artist and blacksmith Angharad Pearce Jones spent four days in a local school working with Year 4, 5 and 6 pupils, where they created individual ‘whirligig’ constructed sculptures. Oriel Davies will be displaying these and other young people’s artworks made during the 2011-12 Start schools programme in the gallery’s education space this summer term. Angharad is also featured in our Beyond Pattern resource pack for teachers.

Recycling and Sculpture from Waste Packaging

Artist Helen Kennedy worked with two of our Start Programme primary schools after their visits to Paul Granjon’s Oriel Factory. Key Stage 2 pupils collected waste plastics, cardboard and metal, discussing their particular recycling issues, characteristics and functions and explored how these could be used to construct robots with moving parts. Another school focussed on the environmental implications and creative potential of plastic objects found in marine flotsam and jetsam to make a huge temporary floor installation, as well as an owl sculpture from milk bottles for their school garden.

Schools Visits to Paul Granjon’s Oriel Factory

Poet Chris Kinsey and education officer Helen Kozich accompanied school groups visiting the workshop zone and robot-inhabited gallery space that was Oriel Factory. Pupils learned about artist Paul Granjon’s ideas and working processes, interacted enthusiastically with his experimental robots and had a go at generating electricity on a bicycle power station. They used drawing and creative writing to develop robot designs, inspired by the discarded and up-cycled electronic waste and ideas about recycling and energy use they encountered during the visit. Participants later developed their own sculptures back at school as part of Oriel Davies' Start outreach workshops programme.

Robot workshop with artist Jon Bielstein

Artist Jon Bielstein led a workshop with, Key Stage 2 primary school pupils who had been inspired by visiting Paul Granjon’s 'Oriel Factory' exhibition in the main galleries.

Children made their own simple electrical switches, using them to control a motor salvaged from a discarded toy car, which now propels their new robot sculpture across the floor. Here is the canine robot! These sculpture workshops form part of Oriel Davies’ year-long Start programme linking the gallery with local schools, funded by The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts.

Children & the Arts: 'Start' Programme 2011-12

We are very pleased and proud to announce that Oriel Davies has been selected by The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts to become one of its new 'Start' partners for the 2011/12 academic year.

This will introduce over 350 primary and secondary pupils to the work of contemporary artists who work with new technologies, issues of sustainability, sculpture, animation and drawing. 'Start' provides gallery exhibition visits and creative workshops for pupils as well as resources and training for teachers. The 'Start' programme at Oriel Davies begins this Autumn with projects based around Paul Granjon’s exhibition 'Oriel Factory' which sees the Gallery turned into a robot factory, and continues in the Spring Term with activities inspired by the animations of artists Pia Borg and Sibyl Montague.

Ceramic workshop with Anne Gibbs

Ceramisist, Anne Gibbs, who is an artist showing in the exhibition 'Placement: Ceramic Connections: Wales & Scotland led an exciting and highly creative ceramic workshop for pupils at Ysgol Carno. There were some fabulous ceramic pieces created by pupils, including this beautiful model of the footbridge over the Severn.