New Curators

The second session saw all of the students that missed the first session – therefore it was a very large group that bordered on problematic given the limitations of the space.

Exactly the same thing happened in the first room – a weighing up. Perhaps due to the success of the first session, we took the point were the students became relaxed enough to joke as a good sign to move on.

However in the next room it turned out that the humour was unfocused and that there was a tendency for things to get silly, without really exploring the issues.
It was the wrong dynamic for this lot, a reminder that in workshops a formula never works twice.

The third room was a surprise – although it was perhaps the least accessible set of images, the quieter students began to assert an interest in the idea of collection – because of this the group gels – ideas of collecting, and vernacular come pouring out. One student even admits to having a collection of  WW2 German bank statements, an admission that a few rooms ago would have been met with laughter – quite personal unguarded stuff begins to come out – this group are much more interested in the ‘meaning’ of what is portrayed with less of an emphasis on the formal aspects of the images.
Some very deep and satisfying conceptual discussions occur amongst a group that I would have not expected it from.

During this curation exercise the ‘exhibitions were  much more meaning based and literal than in the previous session – but this makes complete sense regarding the manner in which they engaged with the idea – rather than identifying formal aspects such as colour or linearity, this group organized work on the basis of gaze or ecological impact – as with the first group there was an underlying sophistication in the understanding of formal relationships between images, but these issues were not caught in the flow of discussion, instead a more journalistic concern with what was being said by the exhibition was explored.

Conclusion

Dealing with the issues surrounding the image, collection, exhibition and meaning was bound to be complex – these workshops found their own entry point into these subjects and developed them well, increasing knowledge and awareness – as well as making the link with curation as a profession that values these issues and makes them core skills on which to build a career.

Further workshops would ideally tackle the aspects of curation that didn’t arise organically from the group, so that the students would get a fuller understanding of all the associated concerns.

The first of the workshop sessions involved a smaller group than was originally expected – due to "unforeseen" exams.

In the first room of the show the discussion was extremely awkward, with everyone weighing each other up and getting an idea of what was expected – we took great pains to prove that any comment was valid and that every observation was a good one – by the time we left that room we were all laughing.

Subsequent rooms saw a very spirited banter – like when friends enjoy commenting on a corny film by adding dialogue – during this banter it was easy to emphasise when sophisticated concepts had been touched upon and turn them into features, reinforcing them and challenging the students to enlarge upon them.

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The exhibitions that were curated seemed to concentrate on composition. Colour as a unifying theme emerged unbidden – as did playing with the difference between looking "into" and "at" an image.

To approach the subject of curation amongst the students of Longhill High School we planned our first two workshop sessions to be held at fabrica. The Idea was to interogate the Current exhibition at Fabrica, Martin Parr's House of Vernacular, to identify some issues and effects of curation and then to make a short exhibition from randomly collected images, to test our findings - followed by a critique.

There are many strange dynamics amongst workshop groups, it always takes a while to warm up, too rigid a plan can go horribly wrong, and the best experiences for all are to be had if everyone approaches the sessions as equals  – with schoolchildren this can be tricky, they are used to being the target of directed education, it can take them a while to realise that there is no ‘right or wrong’ in this situation and that their well honed avoidance techniques aren’t going to be needed.

Structure
The structure of the initial workshops placed an emphasis on the students themselves to decide: why they thought exhibitions happened, what a collection was, how they read images and sequences of images and what aspects of the exhibition influenced their reading of the work.

To begin with a very general, open ended discussion was encouraged where any comment was valued and elaborated upon – we made it clear that the group were defining their own rules for the subject. Whenever the subject  got close to a ‘traditional’ curatorial issue we would seed the discussion with tricks of the trade and watch the new information become normalised amongst the group. The discussion was very lively, and familiar – it became clear that the students were extremely sophisticated in the way that they analysed the visual, and had very clear opinions – that they were fully accustomed to critique, but had not seen it as having a constructive value. As they became aware that their familiar banter about what they are looking at was one of the main skills of the curator, the creative development of the subject took off. 

We purposefully allowed a good amount of time to relax into a flowing discussion, like any family gathered around a T.V. set might, with orchestration this chat covered such complex concepts as the flow of the eye into an image, the significator in an image and the way it varies between people, the form and the content of the photograph, implied narratives across unrelated images, the idea of a conscious collection and an inadvertent collection and how significances change within a collection.

By the time the discussions ended most of the students felt sufficient ownership of the subject to curate a collection for themselves – the next part of the workshop.

The students were presented with a very large number of random unrelated images ranging from a few classic art prints, through fairly ordinary stock photos of ‘interesting items’, to the discarded snaps from old rolls of film.

In small groups they were asked to select an unspecified number of images that made some (if any) sense to them and construct a quick exhibition on blank wall spaces in the gallery – adding, removing or changing images as they saw necessary – negotiating amongst themselves for agreement on what should be placed where.

Finaly the entire group was toured around these ‘new exhibitions’ and the creators were asked to explain their reasoning, this was followed with discussion and critique in a similar way to our exploration of the original show.

I should add that throughout the process an emphasis was laid on the quality of exploration rather than the slickness of the display skills, we all understood that this was an exhibition in principal, notes for an exhibition.

Longhill High school, in conjunction with Fabrica Gallery, and LCP has begun a ground breaking initiative that will perhaps change the way we consider both school environments and how schools approach the display of work alongside the curriculum.

A bit of background

The opportunity to explore this subject came about through a partnership between 'Landscape Cities People' LCP and Fabrica Gallery. The idea for the project was originated by a small group of students at Longhill High school.

During a discussion at Longhill several students began a spontaneous critique of the school environment, which developed into a considered series of questions and a search for answers. The gist of this enquiry was concerned with why the school environment doesn't begin to reflect the aspirations of both the staff and the students. That while the ambition invested in subjects and aspiration is high, the work is still pinned up to shoddy noticeboards in dismal corridors.

A direct comparison was made of the school with modern business premises, shops, shopping malls and galleries - the idea of curation as a form of design consideration was formed.

Considering the school environment

Most schools, almost purposefully present a clinical institutionalised environment for the staff and students to operate within. In many cases it is difficult to identify the difference between a public hospital, government office or a school – except perhaps by the types of warning messages that are displayed.

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This Spartan approach to the interiors of schools appears to have come about by default, rather than through any considered strategy, as if a puritan rejection of all things decorative will in some way lead to an improvement in the learning environment.

Today most enlightened workplaces realise that the surroundings have a marked effect on the quality of experience in the workplace. Bearing in mind that school is where life skills are gained and attitudes are first formed, it seems even more crucial that an awareness of the effects of environment and context are considered, and acted upon. Not only for the benefit of students and staff in the short term, but for society in general in the longer term.

Noticing the problem

At Longhill High School the students themselves identified the issue of the dismal environment in schools almost by accident,  A new year 11 canteen had been built, it was furnished with modern well designed and interesting furniture and fittings, the walls were painted in colours and there were several posters framed upon the walls.
Without exception the students recognised this room as one that confirmed their maturity, aesthetic intelligence and more realistically portrayed the world they occupied outside of school.

Even those who were not yet old enough to enter the canteen recognised the enlightening effect it had on the school just by its presence. One student even noticed that the time seemed less oppressive on a blue faced clock, than on the standard uniform white ones.
But the factor that was to give us most food for thought were the posters, these where A0 art prints that you might find in a print gallery, and were carefully chosen to have broad appeal, yet without referring directly to anything that smacked of curriculum.

These prints triggered a student led critique of the rest of the schools imagery and displays, one that was eye-opening, if a little brutal at times.
Briefly, the key observations on the school as a whole were:

• Existing display is limited to a variety of  large soft-board panels fixed to the walls around the corridors.
• Display panels are shoddy and untidy – some are decorated with church fete like signage and frills.
• Staff attempts to ‘brighten up’ display boards are reminiscent of kindergarten (primary colours, clipart cartoons etc).
• Only schoolwork is ever displayed on them – often for so long no-one remembers who did the work.
• Students work, unless of an exceptional standard, never sets as high aspirational goals as professional images/displays would.
• Other students work is more often annoying or embarrassing than interesting.
• Essays make appallingly dull display (text in general too).
• Staff seem to feel obliged to represent curriculum subjects on display boards, but are seldom creative about it (portraits of great men).
• Some staff cannot produce displays that match the visual literacy of the majority of students.

Some students felt the display boards were actually aimed at parents and visitors – to demonstrate the standard of work expected by staff, rather than to inspire and stimulate students on a daily basis.

There was minimal need for active notice boards, for timetabling notices etc, what space remained was generally dealt with poorly.

Classrooms however were felt to be much better considered as environments for learning, and that many teachers created interesting and inspiring rooms.

Corridors were often treated as a sort of no-mans-land of un-adopted passageways between subjects, yet these are the spaces students inhabit between subjects.

Action

The result of these rather unexpected discoveries is that Longhill High School has begun developing a strategy to address display within the schools corridors.

In combination with this project the school has removed all of its old pinboards, and has designated the corridors of the school as a 300 frame "gallery" which is to be devoted to the display of curated imagery (not curriculum or solely student generated work).

The next step is to address curation of this new exhibition space amongst students and staff, through this New Curation project.