South Eastern Education & Library Board
Title: Sculptural Magic
Artform: Visual – Sculpture
Organisation: Hillhall Primary School, Lisburn
Creative Partners: Genevieve Murphy, John Kelly, Declan Carville (artists).
Participants: 49 students 4 - 11yrs

Synopsis: This project began with an application to the Action Zone Programme with Creative Youth Partnerships SEELB. The project involved the purchase of a sixteen foot fibreglass boat. This was to form the central structure for an interactive sculpture for the children of St.Joseph’s Primary School, Lisburn and also function as a teaching aid for the staff.

Background: A request was made to Creative Youth Partnerships SEELB for the placement of a visual artist to work with a small primary school in Lisburn. The school has participated in many arts projects but felt that they needed support when it came to sculpture. CYP Artist Jim Russell worked with both KS1 and KS2 children to create three large sculptures. Hillhall Primary School was the second school to engage an artist in the first year of Creative Youth Partnerships.

Residency: CYP Artist Jim Russell worked for three days with all the children in Hillhall Primary to create three sculptures. The ideas and designs for the sculptures were generated through preliminary drawings with the children. The children then discussed their drawing and decided that they would like to create a donkey (similar to the donkey in Shrek – in scale also!), a dragon again of a similar scale and an Inuit hut. These were created from willow canes, coloured tissue paper, pva glue and cling film. The sculptures were bold, bright and vibrant. They were weighted down and placed on a grassy area in the school playground where the children had much fun playing with them.

Showcasing: The showcasing for this project happened on a relatively small scale with parents and friends of the school visiting the school to look at the sculptures and enquire about their creation. The children of the school have thoroughly enjoyed their creative arts experience and this can be verified by the amount of time they have spent playing in and around the sculptures.