Bridge College students pleased to take part in an art project
The Turnpike in Leigh launched, a development programme for artists to engage and collaborate with organisations in Wigan, Stockport and Salford. The project is made possible with funding from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
Through this project, artists have been working with young people that attend Bridge college, to initiate mutual learning opportunities and new ways of collaborating.
A group of Bridge College students were incredibly pleased to take part in "The Making of us". Every Wednesday morning, the students were joined by artists Josie and Chris.
Chris and Josie started the sessions by doing some ‘getting to know you’ activities. They then started to make masks with the students in the session. The idea came from the learners' interest in things like wrestling, impersonation, and superheroes. They also thought it overlapped nicely with the student’s recent project on Andy Warhol, whose glasses, wig, and makeup were a mask in their own right.
Josie is a trained dancer, and she has incorporated lots of activities that involve thinking about how we move. For example, balancing sticks on different parts of the body and moving quickly and slowly.
Student Connor said, “I’m enjoying taking part in the art project and I like Josie and Chris.”
Student Aqib said, his favourite part of the project so far was “making the masks”
It has been fantastic to see how the project evolved as the students and artists work together.
The Making of Us is providing a supportive opportunity for artists to develop practices that respond to current challenges such as COVID-19 and Bridge College is extremely pleased to be taking part in this project.
Elizabeth, Art Tutor says, “Our students have had a fantastic opportunity to try out new things including a green screen to make films and then go on to edit them. They’ve also absolutely thrived working with the artists and exploring new ideas including movement art. It was fantastic to see how the artists tapped into the students' interests which kept them engaged and brought the best out of them.”