The opening chapters of Emily Carroll’s book ‘Letters from the Lighthouse’, inspired the art, dance, baking and writing opportunities for 6SK’s Arts fortnight.
The exploration of materials and papers informed pupils on what they would use in order to capture St Paul’s Cathedral during the Blitz. As a result, collage, acrylic, pastel, pen and graphite were used in different ways on different paper size and colour. Pupil choice encouraged independence and ownership of their art even though the brief and stimulus was the same.
Searchlights, Luftwaffe, bombs, shattering glass, buildings collapsing and fire devouring were the words and phrases given as prompts for the gestural section in the dance piece. Seeing the collaboration within each group to portray the Blitz was really powerful. Thank you 6SK for the energy and commitment each of you put into your piece. As one parent shared, Friday’s performance ‘showed the experience of war-embodied’.
Inspired by Abram Games and other war artists who produced posters during WW2, we had a go at creating our own slogans. There were a number of challenges including creating a legible font and having the scissor skill in order to cut out the letters. Perseverance and patience was required. However, as the screen printing on the posters show, we got there in the end-with some prints created on the Friday afternoon in the art studio.
Below are some of the lovely comments shared by parents:
‘Really enjoyed the time with kids and teachers. We are excited to see the different dimensions they are exposed to-art, dance, cooking, history. Thanks to all of you.’ Rohan’s Dad.
‘An absolutely amazing performance. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Great writing as well’ Areena’s Mum.
‘Thank you for another wonderful experience. Such high quality learning and the standard of writing and art was amazing.’
‘It was excellent learning around my kid Rayyan. An excellent way of teaching.’
‘Children have been engaged in amazing activities from which they have learnt a lot about WW2 and beyond. Thank you very much.’
‘Dancing showed the experience of war-embodied. Doing dancing helped us understand all the work that had gone into the performance. Art amazing and inspiring as always.’