Creative Reboot: Artists sharing practice

Part of Engage Scotland's sharing practice events across February and March 2021.

Overview

In collaboration with three freelance artist educators based in Scotland, Engage Scotland is offering sharing practice sessions aimed at gallery educators, artist educators and art and design teachers, during February and March.

These online sessions, delivered via Zoom, have been designed to support, refresh and reinvigorate your creative learning practice during lockdown.

When planning these sessions towards the end of 2020, and even before the introduction of the latest lockdown, we were mindful of just how hard teachers, artists and gallery educators have been working to create fun, interactive ways of delivering great creative learning opportunities in less than optimal conditions. We wanted to create space for three artist educators, who work in a range of settings, to share some of the ways that they have addressed the challenges of the last few months.

We’re doing that in two ways; first with a sharing practice session delivered via Zoom and then as a follow up, with a block of 4 Creative Reboot sessions, also delivered via Zoom.

The artists have put together this video to give context to these sessions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC9SMSCori8&feature=youtu.be

Event description and booking details

Join freelance visual artist educators, Louise Fraser, Heather Lucchesi and Sam Rutherford, as they share some of their approaches to delivering creative learning sessions during lockdown, reflecting upon being adaptable and getting the best experience from virtual working.

This session will look at the creative possibilities of using Zoom. Focusing on communication and creativity the artists will look at the enriching and interactive alternatives working online can offer and whether we can flip some of what have become expected norms in a Zoom session on their head.

This 2-hour session will feature:

• welcoming introduction (15 minutes) followed by:
• 3 rotating breakout sessions (giving participants the opportunity to meet with each artist for a short session/workshop - allowing each group to get to know each other and experience 3 different approaches to this way of working)
• factored in break times/ sharing/testing spaces

Fees:

Engage members - FREE

Non-member freelancer- £10 + booking fee

Non-member organisation - £20 + booking fee

Artists’ biographies

Heather Lucchesi

Heather Lucchesi founded the social enterprise company Light Bulb Arts in Edinburgh in 2015 to explore the health and wellbeing benefits of taking part in creative art activities.

She sees visual art as a powerful form of communication, accessible for all ages and stages, and arguably more important now than ever.

With a background in textile design, art and design teaching (specialising in additional support needs for 10 years), gallery education and projects with carers and mental health charities, Heather continues to adapt to changing ways of working. Her first Zoom class started in March 2020 and is still going strong.

More than 30 years after graduating from Grays School of Art in Aberdeen, she remains enthusiastic, continues to learn and loves to collect and share ideas.

Sam Rutherford

Sam Rutherford is a digital artist specialising in community art projects. She has over 20 years of experience as a freelance art educator working at the National Galleries of Scotland with a variety of groups.

She has a passion for using the visual arts as a means for people to have their voice heard and has recently worked with young people and a homeless charity to explore different ways of doing this.

Louise K Fraser

Louise Fraser has been working as a teaching artist for 15 years. Her time is balanced between creating her own artwork from her Leith studio and her education practice.

Her practice is diverse and stems from her BA and MFA studies in Tapestry at Edinburgh College of Art which gave her multi-disciplinary view to creating art.

Since then she has been developing and expanding her knowledge and experience as a teaching artist, through formal and informal training.

Lou has undertaken numerous residencies, set up her own consultancy Lou. Kin Art. She has initiated and hosted a lockdown educator support collective, mentored young artists, and worked with Galleries and Councils across Scotland.

What drives her is the concept that learning opens the possibility of ART to everyone.

Technical requirements for attendees

You can attend this training from anywhere using a compatible computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone connected to the internet.

Please note, some organisations have additional security settings that may prevent you from accessing the training on a work device. Please check that your organisation permits access to Zoom. If they don’t provide access, we encourage you to use a personal device, if possible, as we are unable to provide refunds when there are issues with participants’ IT which prevent them from accessing a training session.

Refund Policy

If you are unable to attend the training for any reason the training fee will still apply. As a not-for-profit charity, Engage needs to ensure that we cover the running costs of delivering training, which means that we are unable to reimburse attendees if they are unable to participate in a training session.

Join Engage to benefit from discounted event fees plus professional development support, access to ground-breaking research projects, resources and publications and a national and international network of peers. http://www.engage.org/join

This event reflects Engage Scotland’s ongoing commitment to the policy asks of the Visual Arts Sector Manifesto https://www.visualartsmanifesto.scot/ launched in partnership with SCAN and the Scottish Artists Union.