Sheffield Children’s Festival 7 June – 6 July 2014
Creative Classrooms and Showtime!
There are two ways for your school to get involved in Sheffield Children’s Festival. You can
book onto one of our specially devised art projects led by professional practitioners and
artists or put on a show or concert in a theatre.
Our art projects are listed below followed by details of how to put on a show in a theatre
together with information on a special Arts Award offer. We hope you can take part this
year and help us celebrate our children’s creativity.
To book any of the projects or a theatre date simply call us on 0114 273 4400
Or you can e-mail michelle.taylor-steer@sheffield.gov.uk
Inyerface Arts Showtime 2013
Dream Birds Creative Classrooms 2014
Glass Harp Creative Classrooms 2013
Creative Classrooms:
Project 1
Tales from a Tommy
Let history live in and inspire the heart of your school with this project designed by Griffin
Theatre Arts to commemorate the centenary of the start of World War I. Characters from
local and wider UK history will be transported into your school where they will deliver inrole living history sessions. These sessions will not only teach pupils about different aspects
of World War I in a very accessible way, but also act as an exciting springboard for visual art,
creative writing and literacy work.
Each workshop will last a full school day. During the morning each group of children will
experience a carousel of three living history sessions set up in different areas of the school.
Professional actor practitioners will lead each performance and explore different elements
of the Great War including a tale from a soldier and the home front.
In the afternoon each participating group will be visited by the in-role practitioners who will
set a creative writing task inspired by the immersive morning sessions. Children will also
have an opportunity to illustrate their written work if they wish.
A selection of the work produced by each school will be displayed in the Winter Garden
during part of the festival. The remaining work will be placed in a folder and displayed to
the public in the Central Lending Library.
Learning: History (local and UK wide), English, Drama, Literacy, Illustration
Availability
Cost to school
Age Group
5 schools - Up to 180 children per school
£500 (for 180 pupils works out at £2.77 each)
Key Stage 2 (Years 3 to 6)
Project 2
Dream Birds
A project designed to capture the hopes, dreams and aspirations of children led by
experienced artists Charlotte Armitage and Wayne Sables. Also taking part in delivering the
workshops will be Veolia’s Kate Townroe. The project will use the mediums of storytelling,
creative writing, film, sculpture, visual art and installation.
The children will listen to and engage with a specially created story written by the artists
and Veolia. This story will include the message of reuse, reduce and recycle and will be
turned into a keepsake picture book for the school to keep.
Then the children will each create their very own unique dream bird from a re-cycled plastic
milk bottle. Inside each bird will be a scroll on which each child will have written their hopes
and dreams. The children can also illustrate their scroll if they wish. The birds will become
part of a special flock installation within the school and the artists will advise on the hanging
of the artwork.
The children will participate in a beautiful short film celebrating key elements of the Dream
Bird project. The film will be projected as an art work in the Cube in the city centre Winter
Garden as part of the Children’s Festival. A DVD copy of the film will also be made available
to each school as part of their keepsake book.
Learning: Literacy, Storytelling, Recycling, Creative Writing, Sculpture
Availability
Cost to school
Age Group
10 schools - One class / 30 children per school
£300 (includes the half-day workshop, filmmaking, Veolia’s special
workshop, keepsake book and inclusion in the DVD)
KS2: (Years 5 and 6)
NB: Each school will collect 30 plastic milk bottles (one per child) in preparation for the
workshop. School scissors, paper and pencils will also be required.
All children must have permission to be filmed and photographed throughout the process
for documentation purposes. Some footage may be used as part of the final installation and
as evidence online. If individual children cannot be filmed the artists should be informed.
The project is supported by Veolia
Project 3
Re-inventing the Wheel
Celebrate your local area and The Tour de France with this visual arts and text project led by
professional arts practitioner Jenny Seymour who will work with the children to create
beautiful pieces of visual art shaped like an old fashioned bicycle wheel with spokes.
After learning about the visit of the Tour de France to Sheffield, children will be work in
groups to discuss what is special about where they live and their favourite places. For the
final artwork, each child will create a picture of something special to them about their local
area. It might be their home, a park, school, their road – whatever inspires them. Children
can choose to draw or paint, use fabrics or collage to create their individual artwork . Each
picture will be designed on a pre-cut triangle which will be provided.
Each triangle will then be placed within their group’s bicycle wheel so that the end result is a
colourful, visually exciting representation of the local area on two wheels for each class (as
on a bicycle). Children will also contribute words describing their area and celebrating Le
Tour and add these to the ‘tyre’ of the bicycle surrounding the artworks. These sessions will
not only inspire pupils to think about where they live, but also act as an exciting springboard
for visual art and text.
Each workshop will last for half a day and is for one class or 30 children. The finished
artwork will be exhibited in the Winter Gardens during the festival and possibly in a further
city centre venue.
Learning: Visual arts, literacy, fractions and angles, exploration and discussion of locality
Availability
Cost to school
Age Group
10 schools - One class or 30 children
£250
Key Stage 1 and 2 (Years 2 to 6) The project can also be made
available to Reception classes
NB: All materials will be provided except for non-consumables such as scissors, dabbers,
paint trays and pencils.
Project 4
Garden Up : The Sculpture Trail
Sheffield’s Botanical Gardens are the inspiration for this project to fabricate a fantastic
series of sculptures which will form a sculpture trail or art walk through the Botanical
Gardens. The trail will be launched as a key feature of the major event Garden Up to be held
at the gardens in June 2014 and will remain in situ throughout the summer, to be viewed by
thousands of visitors. Garden Up is Sheffield’s new garden innovations and inventions show
in collaboration with the RHS. The event will focus on plants, gardens, new technology and
sustainability and is expected to attract thousands of visitors from Sheffield and across the
region. www.gardenup.org
Schools have the opportunity to take part in this exciting event by creating unique
sculptures using a variety of materials and an array of tools and techniques. The project
can be taken up on 2 different levels and to an extent this will lead the processes and pieces
that schools make. This project offers the chance to participate in some specialist activities
working with processes and materials unusual to schools.
Young people across the city will work on this sculpture project. Individuals and schools will
make their own sculptures to be suspended or ‘rooted’ along the trail in the gardens. The
workshops will be led by professional artist Lucy Coyne who will spend either 1 day or 1 and
a half days in each school working with 30 children.
Schools will experiment with a variety of materials – you might work with wire, metal sheet,
yarns, card, recycled materials and natural resources collected from the Botanical Gardens
to create separate intricate, detailed pieces or a dramatic, bold piece as a group sculpture.
Techniques may include wirework, metalwork, weaving, wrapping, hammering, patination
and printing. There are a range of sites within the trail and many exciting opportunities to
explore inspired by the plants, trees and wildlife found in the Botanical Gardens. Pupils will
focus on and emphasise the incredible details, textures and structures of the natural world.
Learning: Visual arts, sculptural techniques, sustainability, the natural world
Availability
Cost to school
Age Group
8 schools - 30 children per session
£340 1 day in school inc materials
£440 - 1.5 days in school inc materials
Key Stages 2, 3 and 4 (Years 4 to 9)
Project 5
Onomatopoeia (on•o•mat•o•poe•ia)
1. the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named e.g. cuckoo or sizzle.
In this creative workshop, children aged 9-11 will delve into the dictionary in search of
onomatopoeic words which they will capture and bring to life using film and animation.
Working together, teachers, workshop leaders and children, will explore the relationships
between words, sounds and pictures by asking: What does a sound look like? How might
words move? How can we capture the meaning of words using drawing, collage, movement
and sound? The workshops will be led professional digital artists Janet Jennings and Jon
Harrison.
Through speaking and recording onomatopoeias the children will experiment with adding
emphasis to the sounds of words. They will visualise a selection of words in a variety of
ways, using experimental animation and video recording techniques. The children will then
see how they can create 'sound sentences' with words like 'boing', 'jangle', 'drip', 'clatter',
'slither' and 'squeak' to experiment with rhythm and syncopation. The children will use a
range of film techniques to explore visual metaphors. For example amongst a rhythmic
sequence of sharp and explosive words a pile of pans might ‘crash’ to the floor in silent slow
motion. In other sequences, descriptive verbs like 'scuttle' will be given living characteristics
such as running haphazardly across the screen to take cover from a buzzing bee.
A selection of sequences will be compiled to form a video art installation in Sheffield’s
Winter Garden as part of the Children's Festival accompanied by an online gallery.
Learning: Literacy, vocabulary, film making, visual arts, animation
Availability
Cost to school
Age Group
10 schools - 60/90 children
£450 for 60 children (1 day) £650 for 90 children (1.5 days)
Key Stage 2 (Years 5 and 6)
NB: The workshops will require a quiet, clear space such as a hall or classroom and variety of
interesting everyday objects and art and craft materials. All equipment will be provided.
Children will need photographic / filming permission and the artists must be informed of
any children who should not be filmed.
Project 6
Roman Sheffield
In the year 43 AD the Romans invaded Britain. By 47 AD they had settled and built a fort at
Templeborough to guard an important supply route - a roman road that ran through
Sheffield. Sheffield and the surrounding areas were very important to the Romans and over
the years many Roman artifacts have been found. Among these finds are pieces of jewellery
decorated with animals such as hares, owls and peacocks, pottery, bronze sculptures of
animals and coins.
In each workshop the children will learn about Roman Sheffield and see some actual Roman
artifacts. They will learn about the bronze, silver and gold figurines and animal sculptures
which the Romans created and what they were used for.
Then each child will make a miniature Roman style animal figurine which looks as if it is
made from bronze, silver or gold. Working with artist Richard Johnson of Kidology Arts,
children will use special paints, patinas and aging effects to make their figurine look 2000
years old.
Once complete, the animals will be arranged as a large scale sculptural installation
resembling a wonderful archaeological find. This display will be shown as one of the first
exhibitions in the newly refurbished Sheffield Cathedral.
Learning: Roman history, local history, visual arts
Availability
Cost to school
Age Group
10 schools - 60 children
£350 full day workshop
Key Stage 1, 2 and 3 (Years 1 – 8)
Notes: All materials are provided and each school will receive animal sculptures back
following the exhibition. The workshop will be adapted to suit different ages.
Project 7
Who eats Who?
Greno Woods is an ancient woodland in Sheffield which is home to a large variety of living
things including over 60 species of birds. In May 2014 Museums Sheffield will be opening a
new display at Weston Park Museum to highlight Greno Woods and to show how food
chains keep the woodland alive.
Professional practitioners from Museums Sheffield will work with your class exploring the
food chain and discovering how it works. The children will work together on a sculptural
artwork which illustrates the food chain. Taking the idea of Russian nesting dolls the
children will create sculptures of some of the consumers of the woods. The sculptures will
be displayed at Weston Park Museum and Grenoside’s historic Reading Room during the
festival and can be used as a tool to demonstrate who eats who.
The materials used to create each part of the sculpture will be mod roc and wire.
materials will be provided.
All
The workshops will be held at Weston Park Museum from 10am until 2.30pm with a 30
minute lunch break. Schools will have use of the lunch space at Weston Park Museum.
Learning: Science, Ecology, Nature, Visual Arts, Sculpture
Availability
Cost to school
Age Group
10 schools - 32 children per session
£400 full day workshop
Key Stage 1, 2 and 3 (Years 2 to 8)
NB: Children will need photographic permission and we need to be informed of any
children who should not be photographed. Gloves will be provided for children with
allergies and the workshop leaders must be informed of children this applies to.
Showtime!
Available dates in the Montgomery Theatre are:
Monday 16 June
Tuesday 17 June
Wednesday 18 June
Monday 23 June
Wednesday 25 June
Thursday 26 June
Monday 30 June
Tuesday 1 July
Wednesday 2 July
Tuesday 8 July
Wednesday 9 July
The Montgomery Theatre seats 420. As well as a large stage, the theatre has a good
number of dressing rooms. The hire cost is £420 which is for the theatre hire from 10am
till 10.30pm and will include a lighting technician from 12noon until 5pm, then from 6pm
until the end (this can be flexed, but the tech person must have a break between sessions).
Schools generally cover the cost of the hire through charging a ticket price. We can help you
work out this budget if you wish.
The Montgomery Theatre does not yet have disabled access.
www.themontgomery.org.uk/venue-hire/
The Blue Shed
Some dates are available in The Blue Shed – just contact us if you are interested.
www.theblueshed.co.uk/spaces/
Sheffield Children’s Festival and Arts Award
Did you know that taking part in Sheffield Children’s Festival can count towards an Arts
Award?
Arts Award is a nationally recognized, arts based qualification that inspires children and
young people to develop their arts and leadership talents. It is a creative, valuable and
accessible award that can be achieved at five levels - Discover (KS1) Explore (KS2), Bronze,
Silver and Gold (all of which are accredited except the introductory award ‘Discover’)
CapeUK has teamed up with Sheffield Children’s Festival to offer Arts Award training and
support to schools and creative practitioners involved in the 2014 festival.
An Arts Award can be incorporated around any arts or media activity and can be used as a
framework to engage young people in the arts and creativity. There are no entry
requirements, no time limit for completing the award and no set rules on how the final
work is presented.
Find out what inspires your young people. They can share their talents, and they will walk
away with an award that makes a real difference in the world of work and the arts.
To become an Arts Award adviser and support children and young people through Arts
Award you need to successfully complete a training course. We are offering a special
bespoke training geared towards Sheffield Children’s Festival at a reduced price.
We’ll be running information and training sessions in February or March (depending on
demand). To register your interest please email rachael.harrison@capeuk.org
Arts Award is managed by Trinity College London in association with Arts Council England.
Employers and colleges recognise it as proof of skills and commitment. To find out more
about Arts Award visit www.artsaward.org.uk