Arts Victoria Artistic Concept GREAT PARTNERSHIPS File Name: Arts Victoria Artistic Concept Duration: 00:07:07 Transcription 00:00:00 - 00:00:03 VIDEO Graphic on screen: Title: GREAT PARTNERSHIPS (music under) 00:00:03 - 00:00:06 VIDEO Graphic on screen: THE ARTISTIC CONCEPT GETTING IT! (music under) 00:00:06 - 00:00:28 VIDEO Kate Kantor talking to interviewer including documentation of students, artists and teachers in Artist in Residence and Extended School Residence workshops in various schools. Graphic on screen: Kate Kantor Theatre Director AUDIO: (music under) The creative concept has to be simple, but it also needs to have the possibility of exploring many different layers within it. It also needs to be something that is immediately accessible for the young people, and at the same time exploring new places for everyone. 00:00:28 - 00:00:38 VIDEO Hellen Sky talking to interviewer. Graphic on screen: Hellen Sky Digital Choreographer, Performer, Director and Writer AUDIO: (music under) Artistic concepts have to come from the things that drive your own practice. That is, what you want to be able to experiment with, expand and share with other people. 00:00:38 - 00:00:49 VIDEO Timothy Bateson talking to interviewer. Graphic on screen: Timothy Bateson Leading Teacher (ICT) Thomastown Secondary College AUDIO: (music under) A strong artistic concept in a school, or in a project, needs to be enough to motivate and change the nature of the everyday experience. 00:00:49 - 00:00:58 VIDEO Sue Giles talking to interviewer. Graphic on screen: Sue Giles Artistic Director Polyglot Theatre AUDIO: (music under) It's the thing that makes you most excited about doing the project. It can be an image, it can be a theme, it can be a form. 00:00:58 - 00:01:08 VIDEO Kate Kantor talking to interviewer. AUDIO: (music under) Fear, or dreams, or transitions. There's that that's part of an artistic concept, but also there's the art form. 00:01:08 - 00:01:33 VIDEO Carol Braybrook talking to interviewer including documentation of students, artists and teachers in Artist in Residence and Extended School Residence workshops in various schools. Graphic on screen: Carol Braybrook Leading Teacher Ringwood Heights Primary School AUDIO: (music under) It might be something you've never considered possible before. You might have to open your eyes and think, okay, we'll try it. I think a really exciting thing about an artistic concept is that it allows you to perhaps have permission to be flexible and creative as teachers, and to take risks and try something new. 00:01:33 - 00:01:59 VIDEO Tara Prowse talking to interviewer including documentation of students, artists and teachers in an Extended School Residency workshop and performance. Graphic on screen: Tara Prowse Creative Producer Women's Circus AUDIO: (music under) A creative concept definitely comes from collaboration and it comes from good communication, good relationships between artists, producers, partners, students themselves. Having a concept in which everybody can be a stakeholder, where everybody can have a sense of ownership over that concept without feeling that they don't have anything more to contribute to it. 00:01:59 - 00:02:17 VIDEO Timothy Bateson talking to interviewer including documentation of students, artists and teachers in an Extended School Residency workshop at Elmore Primary School. AUDIO: (music under) When all those things come together and you've got that support that's really strong, then a project's level of creativity and exploration is much higher because it's - it's supported. You know there's the net under it which will catch it and it enables it to go, you know, if it need be, a little bit crazy. 00:02:17 - 00:02:34 VIDEO Carol Braybrook talking to interviewer including documentation of students, artists and teachers in Artist in Residence at Ringwood Heights Primary School. AUDIO: (music under) I think it's conversations with the artists that are really important. It may take several conversations. It may take them coming to talk to staff, and coming to have a look at your school, to see what the learning environment's like, to meet the students, for them to actually then say, this is how it could look. 00:02:34 - 00:02:58 VIDEO Gillian Howell talking to interviewer including documentation of students, artists and teachers in an Extended School Residency workshop with Arena Theatre Company at Westall Secondary College. Graphic on screen: Gillian Howell Musician and Composer AUDIO: (music under) And what I find can happen is that, if I'm working with a school in those initial planning times and we get too quickly on to the how are we going to do this project, such as, which room are we going to use, how are we going to manage things like space, how are we going to manage things like instruments, what are the restrictions that we have to bear in mind, then these how questions can run the risk of blocking the creative ideas from really being able to form. 00:02:58 - 00:03:31 VIDEO Sue Giles talking to interviewer including documentation of students, artists and teachers in Artist in Residence and Extended School Residence workshops in various schools. AUDIO: (music under) You think you've communicated, and you haven't, and part of that's about a really different language between arts and between education. So what we do is, we do a memorandum of understanding, to really state what it is that you want out of the project, as the artist group, what the teachers want out of the project. What do you expect from the school? What do you expect from the teachers? What do the teachers expect from the artists? What are the kids getting out of it? What's the role the children are playing in this? And it's really about a cultural blend. It's a cultural ... we're working together on this. A cultural exchange. 00:03:31 - 00:04:07 VIDEO Michelle Griffiths talking to interviewer including documentation of students, artists and teachers in Artist in Residence and Extended School Residence workshops in various schools. Graphic on screen: Michelle Griffiths Principal Elmore Primary School AUDIO: (music under) We have to be mindful as teachers and staff, that we work in this environment every day and it's very familiar to us, but the people coming in to our school, don't, and they're not used to the restrictions that we have to deal with, or the formalities that we have to deal with. Supporting them in that and explaining to them what is involved, is really important. You know your school, and you know what your school needs, but at the same time, sitting alongside that, you need to be open and trust the artists, because this is their work, they're the professionals, they know what theyÕre talking about. You have to trust them and trust that the project will evolve in the way it needs to. 00:04:07 - 00:04:30 VIDEO Kate Kantor talking to interviewer including documentation of students, artists and teachers in Artist in Residence at Ringwood Heights Primary School. AUDIO: (music under) Often, with an artistic process, it looks rather open and unformed and out of control. ThatÕs the nature of art, is that you need to actually lose control for a little bit. So the teacher needs to trust that thatÕs okay and that the artist is very experienced at holding that. 00:04:30 - 00:04:58 VIDEO Carol Braybrook talking to interviewer including documentation of students, artists and teachers in Artist in Residence at Ringwood Heights Primary School. AUDIO: (music under) In our situation, weÕve found it really beneficial to try and connect the learning that is happening within a school with the artistic process that the artist is involved in. Instead of the project being a stand-alone and students are torn between what theyÕre doing in their classroom and what theyÕre doing with the artist, the two go together. 00:04:58 - 00:05:12 VIDEO Gillian Howell talking to interviewer including documentation of students, artists and teachers in an Extended School Residency workshop at Elmore Primary School. Graphic on screen: Gillian Howell Musician and Composer AUDIO: (music under) So, when we think about success, it can be on many different levels - it can be on an artistic level, and it may be in social development, it may be in cognitive development, it may be in the empowerment of individuals and creating agency, it may be about meaning. 00:05:12 - 00:05:28 VIDEO Carol Braybrook talking to interviewer including documentation of students, artists and teachers in Artist in Residence at Ringwood Heights Primary School. AUDIO: (music under) Does the artistic concept engage that particular group of students? Did it fire them up? Did they love doing it? In our most recent project, I remember the artist saying, the children were running into the little art studio that weÕd created. 00:05:28 - 00:05:41 VIDEO Hellen Sky talking to interviewer including documentation of students, artists and teachers in Artist in Residence at Thomastown Secondary College. AUDIO: (music under) Success is what it does inside of the school, what it might have done to be able to catalyse some other kind of appreciation of different kinds of forms, by the other teachers. 00:05:41 - 00:06:13 VIDEO Michelle Griffiths talking to interviewer including documentation of students, artists and teachers in Artist in Residence and Extended School Residence workshops in various schools. AUDIO: (music under) My staff gained insight into how to let a unit evolve and how to let children drive that unit of work, so instead of them having everything from A to Z planned and ready to go from the outset, having a general concept and a strong concept in mind, but letting the kids drive that, so letting the students say, well, weÕve really enjoyed this first part and we want to head off in this direction now. And be able to ... you know, being secure enough and flexible enough to say, thatÕs fine. LetÕs go in that direction, because thatÕs where the learning and the student need is. 00:06:13 - 00:06:31 VIDEO Sue Giles talking to interviewer including documentation of students, artists and teachers in an Extended School Residency workshop at Elmore Primary School. AUDIO: (music under) You know, itÕs good for the kids, itÕs good for the schools, itÕs good for the artists, to be in that creative space where you are on the teetering edge of anticipation a lot of the time. It could go terribly wrong, who knows? But youÕre at the edge and that means that people are able to change, when theyÕre on the edge. 00:06:31 - 00:06:55 VIDEO Timothy Bateson talking to interviewer including documentation of students, artists and teachers in Artist in Residence and Extended School Residence workshops in various schools. AUDIO: (music under) Something has to happen. Something has to shift. If you can shift something in the way a student thinks, or in the way a teacher perceives that students learn, or you can change the way a teacher might deliver an idea, if an artist can come into a school and empower a school to be more courageous, fantastic. 00:06:55 - 00:07:01 VIDEO Credits: Arts Victoria's Education Partnerships Program is a partnership between Arts Victoria, the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and the Australia Council for the Arts. ??Thanks to: Timothy Bateson, Carol Braybrook, Sue Giles, Michelle Griffiths, Gillian Howell, Kate Kantor, Tara Prowse and Hellen Sky, Australia Council for the Arts, the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, Arts Victoria Staff and Smart Works. We would also like to thank the other Great Partnerships projects featured in the supporting footage. Graphic on screen: Arts Victoria Logo, Department of Education and Early Education Childhood Development Logo & Australia Council for the Arts Logo 00:07:01 - 00:07:07 VIDEO Credits: This Arts Victoria Great Partnerships resource is supported by the Victorian Government and the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. Graphic on screen: Arts Victoria Logo & Australia Council for the Arts Logo For further information visit www.arts.vic.gov.au/Great_Partnerships Video created by Singing Bowl Media