Live it: Ch-ch-changes

This time last year was so different!  I was living in London as I had done for the past 4 years and having given up my 'it's just not me' job the previous October I was temping and doing workshops to get myself back to being creative and to my dream job!

Then BANG in July I got that job! It's been a long time coming, but it meant however that I had to leave London, which I was not quite ready to leave.  But the fact that I got a job as a Learning Officer in a Museum which means I get to do arts & crafts on a daily basis is well worth missing some of the perks that London gave me.  I still get to see my friends in London as I am only half an hour away in leafy Surrey and now I am actually closer to my family and other friends outside of London, so its not all bad.

I get to teach children how to do arts & crafts and make History and Art a little more interesting.  I get to think up activities to do with school visits and groups alongside learning new skills along the way.  I work with people who might not think that the museum is a place for them at the start and then they end up with an exhibition on display.

The local area is still taking a bit of getting used to, there are no late night museum trips or huge choices in restaurants and markets, but I do have a park behind my house which doesn't have a roundabout around it (I used to live in Shepherds Bush) and there is a fabric shop and Pret for all my other enjoyment needs!  Let's face it if I am not creating, I am eating!

I have sorted myself out a workspace in my rented houseshare and so it's not ideal but small and perfectly formed!  I just have to be a little careful of the projects I choose and keep my hoarding nature in check so that I don't take over!

It's always amazing what difference a year makes, I can't even remember what I did last New Year's and so it just goes to show how many other memories I have made even with a change of pace along the way.  Like the time I dressed as an owl for my friends birthday; the time I became a Barbie; the time it was so sunny in April that we spent our lunchtimes by the canal; the day my niece was born; the time me, Sammy, Anna and Carly made a vintage event; making lots of children happy with workshops; and of course hanging out with all my wonderful friends throughout the year, what better way to spend a year!

Live it

H

The Future of art in our schools

Now I know we don't normally use our blog to spread the word of any really serious issues, but an email into my inbox this week was hard to ignore and it brought about my sad face.

http://www.culturallearningalliance.org.uk/news.aspx?id=93

So, what it means is that the next best thing the government has planned is to stop any arts education for children!  It basically means that it will not be part of the curriculum and so therefore making the arts obsolete in schools.

I can't imagine what I would have done without taking my art and graphics GCSE and I know Sam feels the same, she even changed schools so that she could do just that.  And this also means that Drama and performing arts are in just as much danger, where would we be without all the brilliant actresses and actors we have without their grass roots education?

For a country which once prided itself in being at the forefront of design and the arts, leading other countries to want to study and work here - we are now saying that teaching our children about the arts just isn't important!  They are being told that the academic subjects - which of course are really important - are the only way to learn - which is of course not true.  We each have a very different way of learning, whether it be visual, auditory or kinetic, so one size DOES NOT fit all - are you listening Mr Gove.

If children do not have a balanced and informative education then what chance do they have to be the next Andrew Lloyd Webber, David Hockney or Vivienne Westwood.  We limit their options by making them hunt out for places they can take part in a different education.  And lets face it schools are not for everyone anyway - I hated mine - but at least I had the opportunity to get lost in art and pottery, try my hand - and fail - at being in a play and sand down a piece of wood to within an inch of its life in woodwork all while trying to remember my maths equations and geography cloud formations.

Ok, so I work in a museum in education and so this is something which I guess I would feel passionately about.  But I just think that children must be given the opportunity to explore as much as they can and not have their different paths limited for them - especially by people who are not their parents!

So please do read the article and do what you can if you feel just as passionately as me about it.  I would hate their to be a world where the only education is one sided and relies on academic rather than experimentation skills.

Live it

H