Journal

What we did

Pebbles and postcards linking to the themes of the exhibitions in the gallery were provided in boxes as discussion prompts.

Key Moments

An unexpected outcome of using postcards was that people drew on them.

See what was learned in Learnings > Planning

One participant was interested in university staffs’ lanyards and keys that gave them access to different parts of the building.

See what was learned in Learnings > Spaces

What we did

We drew portraits of each other on acetate. We exhibited the portraits for everyone to see.

Have a go at acetate portraits yourself in Actions

Key Moments

The acetate portraits helped us meet each other and start to make art together.

See what was learned in Learnings > Meeting

What we did

We visited the Amalia Pica exhibition in the gallery. It had lots of pebbles and gold sea shells.

We made drawings, wrote notes and took pictures of the exhibition.

The exhibition was interactive and we could sort and hold the pebbles.

Key Moments

When we visited the gallery as a whole group we noticed the sounds of the pebbles, traffic and each other and found it could be a bit busy and noisy.

See what was learned in Learnings > Spaces

When: 01/02/23 Where: Grace Eyre

What we did

We worked at Grace Eyre this week and remembered the Amalia Pica exhibition using photocopies of drawings, text and photographs made in week one.

Key Moments

Participants from Grace Eyre taught new participants, including staff from Grace Eyre, how to make acetate portraits.

Tracing drawings and photographs of the exhibition helped us notice things about it that we did not think about during our visit, for example, the lighting.

Drawings from week one became motifs or repeat patterns and inspired new drawings and ideas.

See what was learned in Learnings > Activities

Working in a different space to the exhibition meant we had to rely on our memories and documentation of it. Not being able to see the exhibition itself helped us to think about and discuss what we had seen.

See what was learned in Learnings > Evaluation

Collaborative artwork by participants reflecting on their visit to the Amalia Pica exhibition

What we did

We made pebbles and other objects out of clay and told stories about them.

Key Moments

A coil pot grew a snakes head in response to a comment that it looked like a snake.

See what was learned in Learnings > Activities

What we did

Different ideas came together, some were directly in response to the exhibition and others came from participants' wider interests and ideas.

Key Moments

A description of the pebbles in the gallery being ‘roller stones’ in week one was developed into a collaborative drawing with movement and marks.

See what was learned in Learnings > Activities

When: 08/02/23 Where: Sallis Benny Theatre & Grand Parade Campus, University of Brighton

What we did

We returned to the Sallis Benny Theatre at University of Brighton, and warmed up by each attaching a gesture to our names.

Try out our 'gestures and names' warmup game in Actions

Key Moments

One participant chose to work on drawings of people throughout most of the sessions. This started with an acetate portrait the first week which he coloured in and drew on top of the second week before making several new drawings during this session.

See what was learned in Learnings > Activities

What we did

Object exploration boxes helped to introduce new materials. Work from last week combined with new materials including gold leaf and grew into new creations.

Make your own object exploration box in Actions

Key Moments

Many of the pebbles took on characters or grew into something new.

See what was learned in Learnings > Activities

What we did

We rolled stones and drew around where they landed.

Key Moments

‘Roller Stones’ was developed by the people who came up with it into a bigger collaborative drawing and movement activity.

See what was learned in Learnings > Activities

What we did

We explored nearby spaces in the university including an outdoor space called the quad and collected and drew fragments we came across.

Make your own object exploration box in Actions

Key Moments

One person documented the water feature.

When: 15/02/23 Where: Sallis Benny Theatre & Brighton CCA, University of Brighton

What we did

Brighton CCA gallery assistants took the lead in this session. They set up a dinner table with places for everyone, in response to Billie Zangewa's exhibition.

We drew a line or trim round the edge of the tablecloth – drawing a section each and passing the pen to the next person.

Key Moments

Everyone joined in drawing the line and we paid attention to each other as we watched and waited as each section was completed.

The line became a pattern, a bus route and handwriting.

See what was learned in Learnings > Planning

What we did

We drew lots of different food and non-food items on the tablecloth and on plates.

Key Moments

Motifs from previous sessions featured on plates and the tablecloth and a diamond motif became a design for multiple items.

What we did

Brighton CCA gallery assistants taught people how to make table centre pieces including candle holders and vases.

Make your own 3D objects in Actions

Some objects were passed around the table and there was lots of role play and socialising using the things we made as prompts. At the end of the session we shared who we would invite to dinner.

Collaborative tablecloth and centre pieces created by participants

When: 22/02/23 Where: Sallis Benny Theatre, University of Brighton

What we did

The invitation was to grow things in our ‘potting shed’ and think about how we worked together.

We connected with materials and artworks from previous sessions. We made prints and drew our ideas.

What we did

We planted our work and made sculptures.

What we did

We didn’t only grow flowers and plants, we grew things that were important to us and planted them together.

Key Moments

Some people chose to use the materials to make other things including bracelets.

What we did

We brought everything together to make a garden.

Key Moments

There was lots of discussion about where things went and how the ‘garden’ came together.

It helped with planning how to exhibit and share what we had made in week 6.

See what was learned in Learnings > Activities

When: 08/03/23 Where: Sallis Benny Theatre, University of Brighton

What we did

We planted the garden from Week 5 and invited people to add reflections about the project on postcards.

What we did

We looked at pictures of the sessions and wrote comments about them or drew responses.

What we did

We invited people to test out the toolkit.

We reset the dinner table and made party hats with something we wanted to celebrate on them.

Some people made drawings and portraits of each other.

Key Moments

The party hats were a great way to celebrate.

People continued to draw in the session making new portraits and drawings in response to evaluation questions.

There was a sense of pride in what everyone had achieved and it was nice to share this with lots of different people. There was lots of information sharing from all involved.

See what was learned in Learnings > Evaluation