EXPLORE HAMPSHIRE, SUMMER EDITION!
BY FAYE PHILLIPS
This summer we continued our successful Explore Hampshire project in three other areas of the county; the New Forest, Aldershot and Winchester.
We 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.
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.
Young people in the New Forest attended the Forest Arts Centre in New Milton where they explored the venue and its surroundings. The group tested out shutter speeds alongside their football skills for awesome action shots. The young people in this group loved learning about shutter speeds and their final pieces really show it!
We had the pleasure of hosting Explore Hampshire in The West End Centre in Aldershot, where we were able to explore the whole of the venue and learn about it’s history as a converted Victorian school. The participants in Aldershot also enjoyed experimenting with shutter speeds and light painting which can be seen in the final piece below. This particular final piece was inspired from the blackout poem that one of the young people made.
Our Winchester venue was the Vineyard Church which leant itself nicely to our slightly different offering of this Explore week. We invited Louis Duarte from SoCo Music to assist us in our delivery and help the young people create their own music. Luckily the Vineyard church came with its very own drum kit and keyboard! The group took a visit down the road to Hampshire Wardrobe where they were able to learn about the rich history of costume design and even got to dig through the collection and try things on! The week finished with young people performing their own personal songs in front of a small audience.
We had a fantastic summer delivering these projects and all the young people involved produced amazing outcomes. A big well done to all those who participated and achieved their Explore Arts Award! We can’t wait to do it all again next year!