ALDER, WOODGATE VALLEY 1.- IRENA WIECZERZYNSKA OCTOBER 2005

SUN RISE

WOODGATE VALLEY PRIMARY CARE CENTRE

NONSUCH PRIMARY SCHOOL

IRENA WIECZERZYNSKA

OCTOBER 2005

ROAR Community Arts©

ALDER, WOODGATE VALLEY 2.- IRENA WIECZERZYNSKA OCTOBER 2005

OBJECTIVES

To create a positive piece of artwork that will lift the spirits of patients and staff using the building.

To display and celebrate the wealth of talent that exists in Woodgate Valley’s schools and communities.

To encourage local children to discover and to take pride in the positive aspects of their local environment.

To provide local children with positive engagement in their local amenities as a means of reducing, violence and vandalism.

To link the Health Care Building with its locality and welcome the community into the primary care centre, creating an ethos of a building without walls.

MAPLE LEAVES, WOODGATE VALLEY 1. - IRENA WIECZERZYNSKA OCTOBER 2005

WOODGATE VALLEY PRIMARY CARE CENTRE

The new Woodgate Valley Primary Care Centre opened its doors to the public on the 27th of June 2005.

The state of the art one-stop centre is twice the size of the centre that previously stood on the site and offers a variety of new services including podiatry, speech and language therapy and minor surgery.

The centre has been developed by South Birmingham Primary Care Trust under the governments Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) and is the first of its kind in the Birmingham and Black Country Area.

DANIEL WALLACE – WOODGATE VALLEY RABBIT

WOODGATE VALLEY COUNTRY PARK

Woodgate Valley Country Park is a large area of natural countryside in the heart of suburban Birmingham. It comprises of over 450 acres of meadows, hedgerows and woodland with the Bournbrook running through its centre. Originally, a patchwork of farms and smallholdings, the park has retained much of its rural character. It is the home of a pony trekking centre and Urban Farm, horses and a variety of farm animals can still be seen in the park today. Over 250 species of trees and plants have been found in Woodgate Valley; the damp meadow areas are especially rich and produce wonderful displays of wild flowers in spring and summer attracting many kinds of butterflies, moths and insects. There are rabbits, urban foxes and over eighty species of birds have been recorded in the park.

TIME LINE

1270 – Watery Lane Hedgerow Planted1344 – Hole Farm (Stock and Dairy) mentioned on historical records1500 – Cart Track, main East to west road1798 – Lapal Tunnel. Dudley No.2 Canal from Dudley to Sellyoak passed under Woodgate Valley. 2.2 miles long, boats were ‘legged’ through the tunnel.1926 – Lapal Tunnel closed after becoming blocked1930 – Farming stopped1968 – New homes planned and built along the edge of Woodgate Valley1979 – Birmingham City Council planned to build new industry and roads on the valley.1982 – Woodgate Valley Action Group formed to protest against the development.1983 – Council closed plans.1984 – Became a country Park1987 – Visitor Centre Opened.

NON SUCH SCHOOL

The school is a larger than average primary school with 244 boys and girls aged 4 to 11 situated right on the edge of the Woodgate Valley Country Park. The demographic area the school serves is one of significant social and economic deprivation and there are an above average number of pupils with special educational needs, 40 percent overall, but in some classes as high as 70 percent. Despite these issues, the school gained a School Achievement Award in 2002 and a Healthy Schools Award in 2005.

EXPLORATION AND EXPEDITION-COLOURS IN NATURE

I took two groups of children from years 1 and 4, Non-Such School, out to explore the Woodgate Valley Country Park along with their Teachers, parents and classroom assistants. During the sessions, which took place over two sunny autumn afternoons, I asked the children to find as many different examples of autumn colours as they could and encouraged them to talk about what they thought and felt about the park and the place where they live.

The children, particularly the older ones, took a little while to relax and get into what I had asked them to do, but it wasn’t long before they were charging around the woods and meadows enthusiastically showing me the interesting shapes and colours that they had found.

The younger children chatted easily about their homes, their parents and their best friends and they all wanted told hold my hand – which was lovely. The older kids were very cool, but just as friendly and enthusiastic in their own way. They pointed out the flats where they lived, and talked to me about when and how often they came down to the

park to walk their dogs or to play with their mates. They surprised me by making a point of expressing their dislike of ‘art’ and their feelings that it wasn’t something they would enjoy doing or something that they would be any good at. As I suspected though, they all proved themselves completely wrong in the end.

We had two good long walks; we got very muddy and found a massive amount of material to inspire us in all shades of yellows, reds, oranges and browns to bring back to the classroom.

‘When I look out my bedroom window, I can see this meadow. I pretend that it’s mine’

CLASS ROOM SESSIONS

We took our leaves and thoughts about what we had seen and done back to school and used them in an art session. The techniques we used were;

Leaf printing Line drawings Ink blowing Ink and wash Pastel, charcoal and chalk Collage Frottage

The Children produced a mass of fantastic work, particularly enjoying the challenge of using techniques they had not used before; ink and wash, ink blowing, chalks and charcoal.

We managed, through the energy and excitement of the sessions, to make sure that everyone had a chance to try the whole range of techniques and I think that the children surprised themselves at the quality of the work that they were capable of producing.

The children were very excited at the idea of having their artwork on display in a public place and possibly getting their picture in the paper; being ’famous’. This seemed to make them take the sessions very seriously and make sure that they did their best.

Using the work produced by the children, I then created two large collage panels, graduating upwards from light to dark giving the appearance of a sunrise, to be hung on the stairwell wall of the Primary Care Centre, either side of a long stairwell window, which looks out over the Country Park.

Some of the artwork stood so well on its own, that I decided to frame it. These, I hope to hang along the length of the G.P consultation rooms corridor.

WITH THANKS TO MRS. KING, MRS. BALMFORTH, AND MS. ARROWSMITH

THE ARTISTS

(Year 1.) GERALDO BAJRAMI, CASEY BARLEY, JORDAN BROWN, ANEASHA CHARLES,

CHRISTOPHER COOPER, LEAH COWLEY, CHARLIEGH FAIR, RYAN GILES, BRANDON JAMIE, THOMAS

JONES, CASEY KELLY, KIAN MORGAN, CHARLIE MULCLAY, LABEKA OBUA, SCOTT PROSSER,

REBECCA RICKETTS THOMAS SMITHDALE, LUCAS STONE, JOANNE THOMAS, LEAH WARMAN, HEATHER

WHITBY, JADE WILLIAMS, FADUMO MOHAMMED, ROBERT BUCKLEY, CHEALSEA BURKE.

(Year 4.) CALLUM BUSBY, JOSEPH CASHMORE, JAMES COAKLY, BILLY COWLEY, KATIE DOUGLAS, MITCHELL DUNBAR, HASSAN ELOSSEILI, JEMMA

ERSKINE, TERRI EVANS, CHELSEA FEENEY, DEAN

FISHER, ADAM HANLEY, KATIE HARRON, LAURA HITCH, BIANCA JACKSON, BEN KEARNS, STEPHEN

KIMBER, HEATHER LITTLEHAYLES, JADE LOVERIDGE, ARRON MARSH, THOMAS MCLYNN,

HANNAH O’TOOLE, JAK SHAW, ALEXANDER TAYLOR, DANIEL WALLACE.

NONSUCH PRIMARY SCHOOL, WOODGATE VALLEY

IRENA WIECZERZYNSKA – LEAD ARTIST. ROAR Community Arts©