artzero children’s art was established in 1998 by visual artists Bryan Holdsworth and Lucy Brennan-Shiel. They met a few years earlier on the MA course in Fine Art Printmaking at Camberwell School of Art, London.
They have developed their child-centred creative art activities with the aim of empowering children to create work that has integrity and reveals children’s innate humanity and unique perspective of the world. Through reproducing and exhibiting the children’s pictures, the artists hope to give them an audience within their own and wider communities.
schools
Building on their child-centred educational approach,
the artists have tailored the focus of their projects to meet the requirements
of the UK Primary Curriculum. The artists also fully embrace the beliefs
and principles of the IPC (International Primary Curriculum): ‘helping
children learn academically, socially, spiritually, emotionally and physically’. Projects
for schools are called Big Picture and
focus on developing children’s confidence and self-esteem, by encouraging
both individual creativity and teamwork.
community
The artists continue to develop their programme of community projects
both in London and overseas. These focus on promoting understanding of children’s
culture and environment. In London’s they have responded to culturally
diverse, inner city communities by developing specific projects that encourage
children to celebrate their rich cultural heritage. In Greece an ongoing
project is creating pictures inspired by children's songs.
art and storytelling
Recently
artzero children’s art have collaborated
with storyteller Kevin Graal of talking
tales.
Kevin has over twenty years experience working with schools and major arts
organisations such as the Hayward Gallery and
Tate Modern. This collaboration has resulted in an exciting new range of
creative projects for schools. In a dynamic integration of art and storytelling, picture
this has been designed to open up imaginative approaches to the Primary
Curriculum.
funding
artzero children’s art is
an independent artist-led initiative funded on a project-by-project basis. They
have been supported by the British Council,
the Irish
Electricity Board, Friends
of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park,
the Children’s Fund,
the Local
Network Fund and British
Waterways.
With the support of Creative Partnerships and Education
Action Zone funding, exciting new projects have
been successfully piloted in a number of challenging inner London schools.
Recently artzero
children’s
art has
developed initiatives with Tower Hamlets
Education Business Partnership receiving funding
from City law firm Ashurst and
the Royal
Bank of Scotland.
Another recent initiative has been to develop family-learning inspired projects
in primary schools with funding from New
Cross Gate NDC (New
Deal for Communities) – a government funded, community
led regeneration programme. In Greece, an ongoing project is funded by the
sale of calendars and cards based on the children’s
pictures. This non-profit making venture is organised by a committee of local
parents and school teachers.
