This summer, hcmf// ran a two-day Creative Summer School for young people aged between 7-17, all working towards an Arts Award ‘Discover in a Day’ qualification.
An Arts Award is a brilliant way for children and young people to meaningfully participate in a creative activity which they may or may not have tried before. For ‘Discover in a Day’ activities, young people are invited to collect evidence in an individual log book documenting their participation in the activity: researching professional artists and sharing of their findings.
Our Creative Summer School was led by artistic practitioner Alison Cooper in partnership with staff at the home of the hcmf// archive and British Music Collection, Heritage Quay. Two days of activity were collectively organised, involving an introduction to field recording using handheld recorders and hydrophones, a trip behind the scenes of the archive at Heritage Quay, and printmaking, collaging and zine-making inspired by the hcmf// poster archive.
The first day saw the group explore how to use handheld recorders, collecting sounds from inside Heritage Quay (some interesting samples of the lift inside the building were a particular sonic highlight!) and outside on the canal, where the group got to grips with recording underwater sounds using the hydrophones.
‘I liked recording all of the sounds and I liked finding sounds that sounded “right” instead of finding sounds that sounded muffled.’
‘I liked learning how to use a handheld recorder and I liked using the hydrophones in the canal.’
Day two was all about the hcmf// and British Music Collection archives. The group were delighted, looking back at hcmf// posters from years before they were born. They noted a ‘creepy’ theme across past marketing materials, and this inspired much of the artwork they created using collage and print techniques. The group also looked at graphic scores from the British Music Collection and were amazed by how written music can be presented in many exploratory forms.
“I enjoyed looking through the archives and the old festival posters. I liked the poster from 1979.”
“I liked using the label makers and making the zine.”
All of the participants took part in collectively creating a zine and have achieved an Arts Award qualification.
Facilitating the session, Alison Cooper said: ‘Running the Creative Summer School was inspiring for me. We were able to introduce the participants to new sound recording techniques and gave them space to communicate creative visual ideas. Giving young people a voice and the tools to express themselves is so important in their everyday life. I loved seeing everyone explore the archives at Heritage Quay. I could see that experiencing a range of graphic scores, older hardware music formats and the hcmf// poster archive gave them a lot of food for thought!’
Big thanks to everyone who took part, the staff at Heritage Quay and Alison Cooper for running the event.
Supported by The Arnold Clark Community Fund and IVE
About IVE
IVE is a creative education provider who design programmes and training that develop peoples’ creativity. IVE’s work is grounded in the belief that ‘creativity’ has the power to build better futures for people, the economy and the planet. IVE is the bridge organisation for the Arts Council England in Yorkshire and Humber. Please visit www.weareive.org for more information.