With 20 years’ experience of socially-engaged creative practice (in visual arts & crafts/ mixed media, literacy), Community Artist-Educator & Cross-Cultural Practitioner Jay, feels blessed to relocate to Medway, back to her roots. In celebration of this Home-Coming, she is co-creating with students & staff at her secondary school, on experiential, enriching projects, to be featured in public spaces. After graduating from the University of South Wales in Communication Studies, Jay was employed by the London Studios, & the BBC, before retraining in Childcare & Playwork with Medway Council, to whom she is grateful for the first of many celebratory commissions. Passionate about lifelong learning, her work remains child-centred & reflexive.
In collaboration with universities & schools working on customized, cross-curricular educational workshops, her diverse experience includes local & regional Artist Residencies with Children’s Centres, libraries, museums, galleries, trusts, councils, agencies & charitable organisations, bringing people of all ages, abilities & backgrounds together through a shared love of Creativity, Nature-Connection & Belonging. Jay’s interest in the embodiment & cultivation of Heart-Centred Leadership, & the conscious process of ‘Unlearning’, continue to fascinate her, as responsive explorations of heritage, identity, & indigenous ways of Seeing, of Thinking, of Being, unfold, collating narratives, dialogues & oral history along the way. She is training in Counselling for Children & Young People, in contribution towards Intergenerational Healing.
Presentation: Collaborative Learning/ Active Listening
Co-Presenting with Emma Sutton
Working together, Jay, a local community artist-educator & Emma, a local secondary art and design teacher will share their experiences, their joys, & the challenges involved in developing, delivering &
displaying innovative, enriching creative projects across age-groups. Examples include:
- ‘Young Artists 2023’ features Year 9 students who responded to themes surrounding nature and the environment using Lino Printing on mixed-media backgrounds. Visual communication is supported by statements, allowing space for reflections to be explored between image and word, for Medway Print Festival #MPF23
- Working in collaboration with the sixth form, building on Student Voice to plan enrichment activities which allow time and space for discourse around issues that are important to them, reflection and play.
- ‘Mental Health Awareness Week’ (with this year’s theme being ‘Anxiety’), celebrates the link between literacy/ words & visual expression as modes of communication for the ebb & flow of mental health & human experience, normalising conversations surrounding this, & making connections.
- World Environment Day 2023 (in planning) on the theme of #BeatPlasticPollution (05.06.23)
Through visual presentation & dialogue, Emma & Jay will highlight how the work of students has informed their respective practices, how the process has affected them individually, shaped their creative partnership, is impacting the school & the wider community.
During this ‘hands-on’ experiential workshop, 18 participants will be invited to listen, reflect, engage in
dyadic & group discussion & creative activities inspired by the pupils’ work, in addition to sharing in
circle.’