Presented as part of the new 2021 Cambridge Festival, Children are Place-makers is a discussion about the work of ArtScapers, a children-centric programme exploring the North West Cambridge Development through the lens of the arts programme curated by CAS Consultancy. The panel includes colleagues from programmes in Bath and Berlin with similar values and practices.
ArtScapers takes an open-ended approach in which creative activity provides new modes of relating to Cambridge as a developing city. It invites children and their communities to join in creatively with the process of change.
This online discussion was chaired by Dr Esther Sayers with opening remarks from Daniel Zeichner, MP for Cambridge. Then with contributions from:
Paula Ayliffe, Co-Headteacher, Mayfield Primary School
Discussing the Artscapers project in Cambridge
Dr Penny Hay, Reader and Research Fellow, Bath Spa University
Talking about Forest of the Imagination in Bath
Andrew Amondson, Artist and Film Maker
Talking about working with children and nature alongside his work with Studio Olafur Eliasson in Berlin.
The session coincided with the launch of Artscapers: Being and Becoming Creative publication.
About ArtScapers
Exploring how creative activity can support young people to become confident citizens constructing their own cultural lives, ArtScapers is framed by the overarching questions: What role do artists play in the development of new places for living? How do young people relate to the city as it changes and how can they help others to think creatively about these changes?
Developed collaboratively by Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination’s Ruth Sapsed and Dr Esther Sayers from Goldsmiths University alongside a number of CCI artists and postgraduate researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Education, the project builds partnerships with schools bordering the new site of North West Cambridge. Children and the adults who work with them take on the role of ArtScapers exploring their city as it grows.
Artscapers explores how art, making and the work of artists can help children relate to their ‘place-world’ as it grows, how children can teach others to think about change and how arts education can have a transformative effect on children, parent helpers, artists, teachers and school curriculum models.
About Cambridge Festival
The new, interdisciplinary Cambridge Festival (replacing the Cambridge Science Festival and the Cambridge Festival of Ideas) takes place from 26 March to 4 April 2021. The Festival includes a uniquely Cambridge eclectic mixture of over 350 events and activities: from panel discussions, film premieres, and self-‐guided walking tours, to ‘try this at home’ activities for the whole family. Topics cover the breadth of Cambridge research and are presented across the Festival’s four themes: Society, Health, Environment and Explore!
About CAS Consultancy
For over 30 years, CAS Consultancy has provided exemplary art advisory services for a diverse range of clients and sectors in the UK and internationally, including central government, developers, hospitals, local authorities and universities. Our knowledge of the field is unparalleled.
We curate and manage art projects in a range of contexts and environments, working with outstanding artists to produce contemporary art collections, art strategies and public art commissions of the highest calibre. With an enviable history of identifying promise amongst early career artists, our projects and strategies contribute to the cultural life of our towns and cities.
What differentiates us from other art advisory services is that we are a charity. Our fees support the organisation’s charitable mission: to develop public collections across the UK for the benefit of audiences everywhere. Our work enables the Contemporary Art Society to support living artists and build critical knowledge around contemporary art.
Plus Andrew Amondson, Mayfield Primary School and House of Imagination