STORYTELLING AT SJB SCHOOL. A MESSAGE FROM DOMINIC KELLY.

I called in today to say hello to Dominic and Year 3 at the start of their project, and it was soon very clear from the atmosphere in the room that something special was happening.

This is Dominic's report...
followed by the school's own blog.  

"Today the storytelling project kicked off with me telling the children five fun traditional folk tales from around the world. They were a fantastic audience, enjoying the stories hugely. We talked about how these stories are found in different versions in many different places, and that they change over time. These sorts of tales almost demand to be played with, the storyteller adapting the story to themselves and their fancies until it is really theirs, and a new version is born – the same and yet quite different.

I introduced the questions: “What if these stories happened in Ulverston? What would they be like then? Where in the town would they happen?”

The central theme of the project is to explore Ulverston through storytelling. Yet until this moment there was no way of knowing if this approach to the stories (‘Ulverstoning’ them!) would be interest the pupils or not. But the idea was greeted with smiles, widened eyes and ‘ooooohs’. They are definitely up for the challenge and the fun of it!

The children are working on stories in groups, and have chosen which of my folktales they would like to work with. Tomorrow we embark together on the journey of getting to know the tales and adapting them before we prepare to tell them in front of live audiences next month…"

https://sjbprimaryblog.com/2018/06/21/story-telling/

BLEAT AND GREET. SJB SHEEP AT ULVERSTON LIBRARY.

The SJB Year  Five flock is in residence

at Ulverston Library.

You can meet, bleat and greet with 25 of them as they graze the non-fiction section thanks to librarian Hannah Clarke.

Ellie and John herded them into place today, had a catch-up regarding Ellie's work and arranged her next session at the Cottage for June 26th.

Earlier John was at the cottage listening to field recordings made at roughly 1-2am at various weekends for his Ulverston By Night piece. 

You can hear his progress at the cottage on the 26th.

AT SIR JOHN BARROW SCHOOL. TEXTILES WITH LEX BLAKEWAY.

Our programme of sessions at Sir John Sir Barrow School has begun, we have a flock of sheep made by Year 5 with John, and today Lexi Blakeway (right) begins a series of textile sessions with Year 6.

Lexi will be providing each member of her group with needles, yarns and fabric including some donations from the Scrap Store,and together they'll be making some decorative and functional work over the next few weeks..

The sheep sessions were great fun, and the work produced was very good indeed...Here's a couple of sheep at the end of the first session..

...and here's the school blog, with some photos from later in the process,courtesy of Mr Maher..more images to follow,


https://sjbprimaryblog.com/2018/05/23/year-5-art-afternoon/

Lexi will also be at Barrow Library in July demonstrating her felting techniques
alongside an exhibition of her work.

TINY VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY: ELLIE CHANEY REPORTING..

Here is a link to Ellie's latest blogpost.
It's a really good read with more details of her plans, her work at the cottage and the conversation with Jayne Wilkinson of South Cumbria Rivers Trust and the ways in which we hope to link up with her.

https://tinyvoyagesofdiscovery.wordpress.com/2018/05/16/working-in-the-cottage-wednesday-9th-may-2018/

OPEN SESSION: ALEX BLACKMORE. PHOTOS BY LINDSAY WARD

Alex's 'Obby 'oss is acquiring substance.

Our visitors were greeted by the sight of its' skull, built from sheets of  Correx, peering through the leaded windows of the cottage.

Inside Alex was giving the skull volume and corporeality with miles of scrunched tinfoil and hot glue.

Our open session in the cottage was again recorded by Lindsay Ward. The results include the images below,  and you can see more of Lindsay's  work here..
http://lindsaywardphotography.zenfolio.com/

A VISIT FROM LINDSAY WARD PHOTOGRAPHY

Ulverston photographer Lindsay Ward came by yesterday with her camera, and took some beautiful shots around the cottage during Ellie's open sesh.

She'll be with us again on friday, so look out for more.

You can contact  Lindsay and see more of her work here..

http://lindsaywardphotography.zenfolio.com/

OPEN SESSION: ELLIE CHANEY

Just finished our first Open session at the Sir John Barrow Cottage, Ellie and me were in there working on drawings and sound edits and talking about the project and the cottage to a steady procession of visitors.Here's the scene at about 9am, with the sunlight shining on the free rhubarb.

First in was Jayne Wilkinson from South Cumbria Rivers Trust, Ellie and Jayne will be keeping in touch regarding Ellie's waterways work, and looking for Jayne and SCRT to provide the science bit..

Next up was Steve Benn from Natural England, another great supporter of our work in recent years, and a couple of our local
councillors and from there on we
were always busy, and the
comments in the visitors book
show that there's real interest in what we are doing.

It was a good day; a great way of getting the word out.
We'll be back in Friday with Alex Blackmore, and there'll be some images  here soon  from Ulverston based @Lindsay Ward Photography, here's a link to her site:
http://lindsaywardphotography.zenfolio.com/