After a successful initial engagement session in 2020, a few members of our Place studio recently took part in further workshops with a group of students from Stebon Primary School in Poplar, LB Tower Hamlets. The school is part of the Letta Trust, of which our client Poplar Harca is a stakeholder, and they put in touch with the school when we started our work on Bartlett Park.
The first workshop started with a presentation and discussion about the work of landscape architects. Following this, we were ready for some real-world exploration, so we went for a walk around the nearby Bartlett Park, which we completed in 2021, with the students taking photos through red painted frames of aspects that interested them.
At the second workshop we all had a look at the students’ brilliant photos, which were really diverse, including some abstract excerpts of different textures/materials. Next the students each selected an image that appealed to them and made a collage inspired by it, some choosing to work in teams of two. Every great artwork deserves a frame, so these fantastic creations were then stuck into the frames used at the previous week’s site visit and photography session.
We were really impressed with their creativity, and the feedback has been great, both of the trip to the park and the following creative process, confirmation of the positivity that places and creativity can bring!
Atlanta Duffy, the Art, Design and Technology Lead, said: "Our children loved this project. Working alongside the Levitt Bernstein team enabled them to gain insight into the job of a landscape architect and the ways in which that work can bring about positive change to their local environment. It also broadened their understanding of career possibilities in the arts. As their art teacher, I relished seeing them take creative ownership of the activities: looking ever closer at the natural and built elements of their local park through photography and collage. One child judged it to be 'the best day ever'. For another, 'the project made me feel like myself'."
