Art third years embark on project with primary school children in Dunbar

Art students from Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) have been working on a collaborative project with children from Dunbar Primary School.

In their third year, ECA art students have the opportunity to undertake an external project as part of their coursework. These projects are wide ranging, from undertaking micro residencies at National Trust of Scotland and Historic Scotland properties to working on public art commissions.

Now in its third year, the Making Art in Schools project brings 20 third year students to Dunbar Primary School over a period of five days, to work with over 140 Primary 4 pupils. The ECA students taking part are working directly with Primary 4 children, working on a series of ambitious contemporary art projects through a series of one-day workshops.

Intermedia Lecturer Susan Mowatt, who has organised the project, said:

“The project benefits both the students and the school pupils. The students gain first-hand experience of working with children in a school setting and are introduced to an important aspect of participatory arts practice. 

Concurrently the pupils have had great fun exploring many ideas such as ideal future cities, super heroes to conquer fears and animal/human hybrids. They have been introduced to printmaking, creating wearable sculptures, stop frame animation and building stage sets and dens. Spending an entire day on ambitious arts projects with students gives them freedom to explore materials and space to develop individual responses.”

... the pupils have had great fun exploring many ideas such as ideal future cities, super heroes to conquer fears and animal/human hybrids.

The work created in the classrooms will be developed by the ECA students and will culminate in an exhibition of work at West Barns Studios, Dunbar.

All 140+ Primary 4 children will spend a morning in the exhibition spaces hearing about the artworks from the students they worked with. 

The exhibition will remain open for parents, grandparents and the wider community to visit, taking contemporary art practice and University of Edinburgh activities outside of the city centre. The project aims to bring contemporary art to a rural area and a school without a specialist art teacher.

The project is generously supported by the Gordon Cook Foundation.