Explore Hampshire: Spring Edition
By Faye Phillips
During the last spring break, In Focus hosted “Explore Hampshire” in conjunction with Hampshire youth offending team. The aim of the project is for young people to try out different creative activities, meet new people, have new experiences, all whilst completing their Explore Arts Award. Each Explore Hampshire project takes place over four days.
This spring break we ran two different ‘Explore Hampshire’ projects. One in Havant and the other in Basingstoke.
All participants worked with DSLR cameras, completing photographic scavenger hunts and testing out their shutter speed skills. All the young people involved also worked with creative writing, making their own personal black out poetry and making a group poem inspired by photography taken by other young people who have worked on previous projects with In Focus.
In Havant, the group took a trip to the Spring Art Centre and were given a tour of the music production studio by Music Fusion. The group were able to see the recording and editing rooms and try out some of the musical instruments. The young people also had a brilliant time checking out the exhibitions at the Spring Art centre.
In Basingstoke, the group went to the Sainsbury and Willis Museum where there was a Lego exhibition. The exhibition included objects made from lego, artworks and video that used Lego as their medium but also the rest of the Sainsbury and Willis museum which included historical objects and exhibitions showing a great range – including a mammoths tusk! The Basingstoke group were lucky enough to make a quick trip The Anvil were Community Engagement Officer Flis Pittman was able to tell them all about The Anvil, its history and the kind of works they show.
Both groups in Havant and Basingstoke completed some artist research as well as their research into arts organisations.
Having made some awesome images and beautiful creative writing, both groups got to have their say on what their final piece would look like.
The Basingstoke group decided their final peices would entail drawing over images that they had made. Their subjects included cars and people.
The Havant group took on a bigger task – they each made a board that included work from their entire four days, a mixture of photographs, mixed media and some blackout poetry.
Both groups excelled and made some fantastic work. Work was created, research was done and friendships were formed. A very successful Spring break – a big well done to all those involved and congratulations on completing your Explore Arts Awards!
We can’t wait to see what will be created in the next Explore Hampshire projects! We’ll be hosting the next ones in Aldershot, The New Forest and Wichester this summer holiday.
