Garnetbank for the Arts

Primary 7s at Garnetbank Primary School took part in a week-long residency at the CCA to make, create and collaborate in the main exhibition space. Over the week, we worked together to create a future city that we want to live in. The residency resulted in a public-facing exhibition, so the adults of the city can see our powerful art, from sculpture to zines, and discover what matters most to us.

Monday

To begin the residency, I visited the pupils in their classroom. We discussed what we think an artist does and who could be an artist. We played a game of consequences to make abstract collaborative drawings, proving that anything can be art!

To finish the session, we collectively decided on a list of values we would follow for the week.

Tuesday

We got straight into some messy fun on Tuesday. We began by creating a collection of prints using everyday materials, like bubble wrap and cardboard. We experimented by overlaying colours and patterns. By using our imaginations, we were able to conjure up some great ideas about what our abstract prints could represent. While our prints dried, we created an illustrative map that covered the whole gallery walls! We drew different locations that were of importance to us. To finish off the day, we used our prints to make abstract personal maps. We loved seeing what everyone based their maps on. We had maps of dream beaches, munros to climb and one titled As Busy as New York. Once our maps were completed, we considered composition by choosing the perfect spot to display them.

Wednesday

After working in 2-D, it was time to move on to 3-D! We discussed as a group what issues we think we will face in future. Lots of us were concerned with climate change while others wanted to help animals. In teams, we thought of imaginative creations that would solve future problems. We used clay and everyday materials to sculpt solutions for the future. Our city now has an animal sanctuary with a spa, robots that suck up bad gases, more farming land so to grow our own food and a relaxing space where no AI is allowed.

Thursday

To start the day, we considered all the different types of art that exist. We discussed our opinions on artworks and justified why we like or dislike something. We created zines that detail what our city of the future would be like - what changes would be made, what our values are and who will live there. We learned that zines can be pictures, words or both! It was great that we were able to develop our own work in a direction we were interested in. With our finished zines, some of us dressed up and performed them to the rest of the class.

Friday

We were all very excited on the last day of our residency, but there were some final things to do before opening the exhibition to the public. Our first task was to decide the title of the exhibition. We submitted our ideas into a suggestion box and then voted for our favourite.

We created gallery handouts so visitors could learn about the artworks from our perspective.

After a yummy pizza lunch, we did the finishing touches to our exhibition and then welcomed our friends and family to view the show! We had a fun time listening to music and showing visitors around. Some of us welcomed guests, some gave tours to CCA staff, and others were official photographers.

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