The Education projects for the Lichfield Festival 2009 were extremely varied and provided opportunities for up to 1000 young people across Staffordshire and the West Midlands to get involved in the Arts. This year we focused on the themes of Creation and the World Around Us and delivered projects in Music, Literature and the Visual Arts .
For further information on our projects please contact our Learning and Participation Manager, Jennifer Smith on 01543 306275 or email
Music
Dreamfighter - Compositions
Students from Wolgarston High School, Penkridge and John Willmott School, Sutton Coldfield worked with visiting animateur Hannah Conway and composer Tim Sutton on their own scores for Dreamfighter. Their pieces were performed as part of a schools performance with the Scottish Ensemble at Lichfield Garrick Theatre.
MANTRA - Musical Conversations across the Indian Ocean
In June and July, the Orlando Consort visited Chasetown Specialist Sports College working with students on a 'fusion' competition of early choral music and indian rhythms. The students had the opportunity to work with singers from the Orlando Consort and musicians Kuljit Bhamra, Jonathan Mayer and Shahid Kahn. They performed at the Lichfield Cathedral on Sunday 12th July.
The Sixteen
Working in association with the National Centre for Early Music, The Sixteen and Lichfield Cathedral MusicShare Chorister Outreach Programme, the Lichfield Festival visited six primary schools in Lichfield, working with KS2 students on the music and life of Henry Purcell. Happy Birthday Henry! celebrated the 300th anniversary of Purcell's birth. The children leant extracts of his music and incorporated them into a biographical performance at Lichfield Cathedral.
Literature
The Very Hungry Caterpillar UV Puppet Show
'One Sunday morning the warm sun came up and pop! - out of the egg came a tiny and very hungry caterpillar!'
In October 2009, 400 children and their parents visited Wade Street Church for a puppet performance based on The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The show was devised by the Festival Education team in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Eric Carle's classic children's story. The audience were treated to a short glow-in-the-dark puppet performance before having a chance to meet the puppets and puppeteers. Everyone then received their own puppet-making kit to take home with them.
"Truly Magical" - Parent on exiting the performance.
"My sons had a fantastic time. They came home, made their puppets and at bedtime demanded the Hungry Caterpillar as their bedtime story." - Parent
Dreamfighter - Family Learning
In association with Staffordshire Adult and Family Learning Service - "supporting adults through life-long learning", the Lichfield Festival worked with the students and families from ten local primary schools. Story-tellers Ellen Mills and Fiona Collins worked with the children on the Dreamfighter and other Creation Tales by Ted Hughes. Children studied the varying techniques of written and oral story-telling; developing their own explanatory tales and then putting them into a performance. Each school created their own Dreamfighter character and devised new stories which were showcased at Lichfield Garrick Theatre.
Dreamfighter - Multicultural Stories
KS3 pupils in Birmingham, Walsall and Lichfield performed their own stories; looking into Creation Myths from different cultures and the stories from their own histories which have shaped the way they live today. Students from Holyhead School, Handsworth; St Francis of Assisi Catholic Technology College, Aldridge and Saxon Hill School, Lichfield worked with theatre practitioner Zoe Haworth to consider the contrasting features of such stories. Each group considered the various ways in which stories have been told across the centuries and selected a style in which the whole class would perform.
Rocklands School and Saxon Hill School each played host to a Visual Arts creative acitvity day, with students working alongside visiting classes from Lichfield Cathedral School and Christchurch Primary School. Local arts company Pumpkin Arts taught the students how to create printed banners from their own designs. The students created simple shapes and patterns, taking as their inspiration both the natural and man-made items found in their daily life. The designs were collated and printed on large banners and displayed in shop windows in Lichfield City Centre during the Festival.
Bugs, Butterflies and Bark - Early Years Activity Day.
To celebrate Children's Art Day 2009, the Lichfield Festival joined forces with Erasmus Darwin House and Beacon Park to offer two art activity days for Under-5's. Over 200 children can took part in a variety of activities based on a nature theme. Art activities at Erasmus Darwin House included leaf printing, collage, minibeast design and contributing to a giant jigsaw puzzle which were displayed in the Festival shop. Chidlren were then able to follow the nature trail through Beacon Park, where the Park Rangers were on hand to go on woodland walks, go pond-dipping and more.
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