Education

Using our philosophy of creative working can encourage social change

The primary focus when using our form of creative working is upon “soft” outcomes, such as participation, acceptance, social understanding , communication, self-motivation, enhanced sense of self, ability and value. These soft outcomes underpin and encourage academic attention and enthusiasm, enabling people of any age to feel included and less lonely, return to or move forward into mainstream learning programmes that otherwise they might not have felt motivated so to do.

Using a wonderfully forgiving medium like clay and focusing on creating a human face allows the exploration of self-identity and reflection - it works because with our methodology there are no wrong answers, no one way of doing things, and all approaches are correct within the usual behavioural boundaries.  Often, these workshops create much more than sculptures alone, the atmosphere promotes discussion, which can be of a deep and personal nature, it lends itself to quiet contemplation and problem solving as well as group supportiveness and provides a forum for conciliation and gentle education that intends to bring awareness to many prejudices - both of an individual nature and wider social issues.

 Group workshops are person centred and flexible but are grounded within a structure that encompasses age, emotion, ethnicity and cultural diversity, similarities, differences, public and private faces, disability and image awareness.  These workshops are particularly effective with people who have never considered themselves to be creative or have never before engaged with creativity.  The workshops encourage people to develop their own powers of focus coupled with relaxation and so promote and build further levels of confidence in dealing with their own personal issues, which in turn will enable social inclusion to the point of pursuing a positive life path.