SILVER ARTS AWARD

 I'm back for my Silver Arts Award!!!

                        The Silver Arts Award has two units:
                                 Unit 1: arts practice
                              Unit 2: arts leadership

I hope you will enjoy reading about what I have done in all my projects. Please leave feedback as sharing my project is part of the Award:
What video do you prefer?
What do you think of the footage  I used in my videos?
Have you seen the same shows or visited the same exhibitions as me....what did you think of them?
...etc.....
Thank You
Elisa

www.artsaward.org.uk

UNIT 1: Arts Practice

  

Part A: Set the challenge

I have wanted to make videos with my favourite songs for a while, but wasn’t sure how to.

 A while ago, I took part in a short animation course at the British Film Institute. 

 Although I found it great fun, I spent too much time preparing props for my very short movie and didn’t get a chance to learn to use Windows Movie Maker.
This course made me want to know more about how to make videos. 
For my Silver Arts Award, I decided to learn how to make different kinds of videos using Windows Movie Maker as a tool.

Around a year ago, I tried to make a slideshow movie with one of my favourite songs, with one of the free programs on the internet. Unfortunately, I couldn’t download the song that I wanted to use as this program was very limited. So my first attempt will be to finish this movie that I started creating and hopefully create some more.

Part B: Plan, do and review the challenge

For this challenge, I will need:

- to install Windows Movie Maker on my computer
- a camera to film and take pictures
- music to add to my films and slideshows
- good ideas :-)

Planning:

I plan to start by making slideshows with some of my favourite songs, adding pictures and lyrics. Then, I will make movies to develop my filming and editing skills.
I have no experience in editing and very little experience in filming. I do not know how to use Windows Movie Maker, so I will need to learn the basics to make my debut :-) 
I know which songs I want to use to start with and I plan to add lyrics, pictures and bits of film to each song in relation to what the song is about.
I plan to do a tutorial in filming and editing with Movie Maker with one of my friends who is also doing her Silver Arts Award.
I will then use these newly acquired skills to make more videos.

Timescale:

I will start my challenge in November. I plan to make slideshows for a month so I can learn the basics. Then, I plan to make films for another month and improve my editing skills.
I will have a tutorial in January as I am away for a few weeks over the Christmas period.
After my tutorial, I hope to make a couple more movies with the new tricks I hope to learn.

 Doing:

For my first video, I uploaded the pictures I took for my first project. I made a slideshow, but found that I had too many pictures for the length of the song I wanted to use, so I started deleting some pictures to fit the song. I then started playing around with the transitions. There are different ways to do the transitions between images in Movie Maker so I just decided to use transitions and chose them at random. For the last picture, I decided to use a special effect. There are several ones from black and white, sepia, coloured… You can even add more than one effect to a certain picture which I did for my final pic. When I was done with the video, I started with the credits changing size, font, colour of the background and text and I added a short title to this project. Apart from my computer crashing a few times, it was quite straightforward to master the basics of Movie Maker. I enjoyed making this video, it was a bit time consuming at first, but once you get used to the program it’s easy to use.

                                                                                                                                                                                  

                          

I, then, made a slideshow with the song “Stairway to Heaven” with pictures of anime angels. I didn’t realise how long the song lasted so it was very time consuming to find all the pictures I needed and to edit the whole lot, but it was quite simple.
                                                                                                                                                                                                

One of my favourite bands is Nickelback, so I decided to make a lyric video with one of their most popular songs: “How you remind me”

This took me ages!!!!! I couldn’t figure out how to match the audio and the lyrics. I tried everything I could think of, apart from the obvious!!! I finally gave in to the almighty Google and found out how simple it was….you just had to drag the clips sideways  ._.

Once I had discovered this, it helped a LOT!!!! I finished it soon enough and was pleased with the result.

                         

I practiced for a while with Movie Maker and made several slideshows of my family pictures. When I felt that I had done enough messing around with slideshows, I decided to use clips instead of pictures to make movies.

As it was Christmas, I thought I could film bits of Christmas around town and see what I could do with them.

I gathered all the footage I took and sorted them. I chose a Christmas song to go with the movie. I then had to edit the clips to fit with the song. I threw in a bit of transitions, added title and credits and voila…. 

I really enjoyed making this movie.
             
                       

I then decided to make a movie with a song called Skater boy by Avril Lavigne. I went down to South Bank  in London and filmed some skateboarders. I used the footage to make a cool video and added the music.

                         

I had the opportunity to have a tutorial with a friend who was teaching filming and editing for her arts award. We went to the park to film and then began editing. I had the idea of filming moving things and people and learn how to speed up, slow down or reverse clips. Megan taught me how to split clips, mute them, speed them up or slow them down. She showed me a program that I could use to reverse clips. It was fun to film and edit together and the movie turned out really well.

                         

Since we had snow in London, which is not often, I couldn’t miss the chance to make a movie about what my family and I get up to in the snowy season. I took 30 minutes worth of footage and had to reduce enormously!!! The film was fun to make and it’s a nice souvenir of our snowy days. 
                           

                                     



Some of my movies were shown for a special film night organised by a friend for her Silver Arts Award. There were around 50 people at the event. It was quite nerve wracking to have people watch my movies because I was not sure they would like them!! There were different types of movies shown during the evening and it was great fun!!

           

Reviewing:

Over the last few months I have greatly improved my skills in movie making. I feel more confident now. I have come a long way from making slideshows to creating short movies. I have also learned a lot about Windows Movie Maker. I didn't know anything about it, but I learned a lot, more than I thought I would.
I learned all the basics: transitions, speeding up, slowing down, adding effects...
Taking part in a tutorial helped me discover new  tricks and overcome some difficulties. It also gave me ideas for my films.
 I had a lot of fun creating my slideshows and movies. I will definitely make more movies and continue to learn tricks about Movie Maker. I would also like to improve my filming skills as they're not very good, quite wobbly in fact!! I guess I should use a tripod!

                                  

Part C: Review Arts Events

Animal inside out

My mum took me to see an exhibition at The Natural History Museum in September. It was called “Animal Inside Out”.

There were various different animals artistically displayed to show their arteries, muscles and their organs.

I found the exhibition really good and not at all what I had expected. I had expected it to be very “sciencey” with more explanations about how the animal’s body worked and general information about biology. Instead I found it was very artistic.

It was quite dark in the exhibition which really helped bring out the colours of the artwork. It was really striking with the shark as his arteries were a vibrant red against a black background which make it looked like a 3D painting. On the other hand, the bull who was displayed to show only the muscles seemed more like a sculpture.

Despite the fact that there was no skin on certain animals, the blood vessels made it easy to recognize the outline of the animal without looking at the text.

 I found it quite funny to see the muscles of the animals as it often looked like they were plaited. I had never seen anything like this before and found it quite intriguing.

Nickelback concert 

On the 1^st of October I went to see a Nickelback concert at the O2 with my mum. It was my first concert. When we got there, there was a huge queue winding all around the inside of the building.

When we finally got in, I was amazed at the size of the room they were playing in, it was gigantic!

The first band was called Daughtry, I had never heard of them before I thought they were pretty good. 
Then Nickelback came on and everyone went wild! They started by playing a song from their new album.

They also played my three favourite songs: Rockstar, Photograph and How you remind me.

 By then I was so excited that I would have danced like crazy if we weren’t sitting so high and I wasn’t scared of heights, but that didn’t stop me from singing like I was nuts! There were some really nice light shows and the “ambiance” was great! I had an amazing time it was so much fun I’m definitely going to more concerts!

Tutankhamun

This summer I went to Paris with my family and I saw the Tutankhamun exhibition. It was pretty expensive but it was worth it!

The exhibition was in a sort of warehouse type building and was an audio guided tour lasting around 90 minutes with over a thousand objects on display.

The original objects have remained in Egypt because they are so delicate that they cannot be moved.

 All the replicas have been made under close scientific supervision by the best Egyptian craftsmen.

The exhibition followed the explorer Howard Carter in his discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922.

 It was the exact replica of 3 funeral chambers. The funeral chambers were full of many different items: the sarcophagus of his stillborn children, Tutankhamun’s throne, beds, chests and many everyday items and small pieces of furniture.

The rooms were filled with golden treasures and it was very shiny. The most precious item was probably his famous mask! It was quite creepy as its eyes gave you the impression that it was watching you!! The details on the tombs and sarcophagus were amazing. It was hard to believe that all of this was handmade.  The decorations and colours on the mask were stunning and really made it stand out.
It was very interesting to discover and learn about the “Rosetta stone”.

Engraved upon the stone is a text repeated in three languages: Hieroglyphics, Demotic and Ancient Greek. The French man Jean-Francois Champollion succeeded in deciphering the Hieroglyphs by studying the stone.

The audio guide gave a lot of information regarding the items on display and it was great to discover more about Howard Carter and Tutankhamun’s tomb as well as seeing the “real” thing.            




 

The Prince and the Pauper at the Unicorn Theatre

I went to the Unicorn Theatre to see a play called “The Prince and the Pauper”.  It is the classical tale from Mark Twain where two lookalike boys meet and exchange clothes, but are then mistaken for each other.

It was really good and very funny. The decor was made of two half circles on wheels that you could slide together or pull apart to create two different sets. I thought it was quite impressive and practical because it saved time for the team and the spectators.

Some actors played different roles so the clothes were made so that you could take them on and off very quickly and easily. There were only eight actors playing all the different roles. The prince and the pauper were played by twins I was really surprised as it is not often that we can see twin actors in theatre.

 I really like the Unicorn Theatre because they always do really good plays there and I would definitely recommend any of the plays at the Unicorn Theatre.

Richard III at the Globe Theatre

I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to go and watch a play at the Globe Theatre. It was not open to the public as it was a private end of term play by the students of Syracuse University, USA.

The students have just spent a term in London studying Shakespeare and their end of term play was a shortened version of Richard III. Because the play was a shortened version it was quite hard to understand the story if you didn’t know it (I didn’t!!!), but it was still fun to watch especially as the actors were switching so that all the actors had the opportunity to try being different character. It would have been really confusing if it wasn’t for the fact that the main characters had a prop that they would pass on to the next actor playing this role (sword, crown…).

It was a great experience even though the weather was quite cold, it was raining and 3 planes passed overhead!

The Globe Theatre is an amazing place, it’s really impressive once you are inside it. This was my second time at the Globe, but it was my first time coming to see a play in the evening and it added to the atmosphere. Well done to all the students at Syracuse University. Your play was AWESOME!!!  

Part D: Find out about Artists and Arts Organisations

The Courtauld Institute

For this part of my award, I have decided to learn more about art restoration and what sort of jobs exist in this domain.

My dad took me to the Courtauld Institute of Art where I was able to meet Dr. Aviva Burnstock and spend the day with her.

The Courtauld is an international centre for the study of the history of art and conservation and is also home to one of the finest small art museums in the world. Aviva is the head of the Department of Conservation and Technology at the Courtauld Institute of Art.

What is restoration ?

Restoration is the fixing and maintaining of paintings to help keep them in good shape.

Why do we need to conserve and restore ?

We need restoration and conservation to protect important paintings that form part of our cultural heritage.

Paintings need to be restored as they might have been damaged and because the paints and varnishes change chemically over time.

How are paintings restored?

To restore a painting, the person restoring it studies it to find out how it was painted, what paints were used and what painting technique was used. Finally they make a plan of how they are going to restore it. This is very complicated and takes a long time. They use lighting techniques, X-rays and microscopes to examine the painting. Electron microscopes might be used to examine samples of the painting.

The Courtauld Institute offers a post graduate degree in art conservation. They only accept five students each year and it is a three year course. Students have different backgrounds; some are science graduates, some fine artists or even English graduates. The majority are art historians. They must all be able to do fine art work.

There are a lot of different kinds of paintings. The earliest paintings were painted on wooden panels and then, later on, artists began to use canvas.

Over the centuries paints have also changed. The first paints were made using a mixture of egg and natural pigments. Later paints moved on to be a mixture of oil and natural pigments. At first, artists had to make their own paints. Later when paints became commercially available (in shops), artists could take tubes of paint and were able to paint outdoors easily for the first time.

The Courtauld students need to know about how the paints were made, what they were made with. They also needed to know what materials artists painted on and how these were prepared.

They learn how paintings and canvases were made.

They might use X-rays or Infra Red cameras which give information about the paints used. To help them with this, students copy works from the galleries using the appropriate techniques. Including making their own paints.

Students start off studying a series of military portraits belonging to the Royal Collection. It is a large collection and is well understood.

It gives the students a shared experience. Later they are each given a piece of work to study and restore. The students are training for careers such as conservators, restorers or conservation scientists.

 A week later, I met Aviva and her students at the Electron Microscope Unit at the Natural History Museum to observe their work.

They were putting little samples of paintings into the electron microscope and looking at the chemical composition of the paint.

Interview with Dr Aviva Burnstock

What is your role as a curator/researcher?

I am a teacher of conservation postgraduates and I supervise and undertake Research in fields related to conservation practice and in the materials and techniques used for painting. This includes old master paintings and modern works that are portable (typically painted on wood or canvas) and not wall paintings.

How did you arrive at this point in your career?

I have been an academic at the Courtauld for 22 years. Before that I worked in the scientific department of the National Gallery. I have a degree in neurophysiology, a PhD in conservation science and a postgraduate diploma in the conservation of easel paintings.  

Do you collaborate with other people?

All the useful research in my field is done by collaboration with scientists and art historians or curators.  I do this routinely. 

What would an average day be like?

I teach theoretical aspects of conservation and technical study. I supervise students doing practical conservation work. I liaise with the gallery curators and conservators to see to their needs for study or exhibition. I make contacts with external collaborators for research and teaching. I manage six members of staff, five PhD students and fifteen graduate conservation students.

What do you like most about your job?

 Looking at paintings close up, out of their frames.

What inspired you to do this job/follow this career?

After my neurophysiology degree I thought I would go to art college, but I couldn't afford to go. So the careers advisor at Sussex University told me about conservation.

I thought I could combine my interest in art with my science. It isn't at all like making your own art, but I was able to get a job and I can still look at art so it was a good compromise. My grandparents helped me financially and that was important as I could not have done three years of post-graduate studies full time without their help. So it was a practical decision. 

What routes do students take to end up in the same sorts of role as you?

There are some from science backgrounds but more come from art history or fine art. 

What kinds of careers are available in this domain?

Practical conservation jobs in museums or the private sector, and conservation science jobs usually in museums, though there are a few private people.

What sort of paintings have you restored in your career?

Impressionists. For example, paintings by Renoir and Cezanne, early Italian paintings such as Berto do Giovanni. Gainsborough, Derain, Patrick Herron, Alan Jones, and Luca Signorelli and many more…

How long does a restoration take?

It depends on the problems the painting has. It could take from one day to several years. 

What is your favourite piece that you have worked on?

Cezanne’s still life with a plaster cast in the Courtauld Gallery.

 I really enjoyed the time that I spent with Aviva and her students. I didn’t know anything about restoration, but realised how complex the process is.

I learned a lot while spending time with them and it was interesting to discover what happens behind the scenes at the Courtauld Institute as well as to find out about all the different career paths that are available in this domain.

I would like to thank Dr Aviva Burnstock and her students for letting me spend the day with them.

Also big thanks to my amazing Dad!!!! It would not have been possible to meet Aviva without him.

UNIT 2: Arts Leadership

  

Part A/B: Plan

I thought a lot about this project and looked at lots of portfolios on the website. I really wanted to do something that I would enjoy and when I saw the idea of making a book in a portfolio online, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I love books and reading, so making my own book seemed like the ideal thing for me. 
It seemed natural for me that the subject of the book should be something I am very familiar with: Home Education.
The book will be a collection of the experiences of children who are, or have been, home educated. I will be in charge of all the editorial and publishing process and hope to publish the book on Blurb. I would like the book to be an account of how different home educator's life style can be and to give people an inside view of “our world”.

I would like a variety of stories and have not set a limit as to how many people can take part in this project. The length of each text is not important so I could get a few lines, a drawing or a long essay, therefore I will not set myself a minimum number of participants either. I plan to get some of my friends to take part in the project, but I will also use my mum’s contacts in the world of home education so I can reach more people.

What must be done:

-  Write a letter explaining the project and asking for participants. Mention it can be anonymous.

     - Send letter to contacts.

     - Set up a secret group on Facebook for those willing to take part. 

       The group will be a place to share ideas, post updates and answer questions.

     - Make a mailing list for those not on Facebook so can keep contact through email.

    - Set a 1^st deadline to send contributions.

    - Chase/Harass!!! those who are late.

    - Set up 2^nd and last deadline.

    - Collect everything and start editing : download software from Blurb, edit, publish.

    - Wait for the book to arrive.

All I need for this project is a computer, access to the internet and software downloaded from Blurb.
As I am working online, I will be taking some precautions. To ensure the safety of my participants, the Facebook group will be secret, meaning no one can search for the group or see any posts or members, unless they are members.

What could go wrong???? I guess the major problem will be not having enough participants (or none!!!). I didn't set a minimum number of participants as I am considering the material (length of text) instead of the number of people.
In this case, I would consider my project not viable and look for another idea.
There is also inevitably some technical problems which could happen, but they can be overcome with ....... great patience!!!

Part C/D: Deliver the project

I started by writing a letter to explain my project and sent it to lots of contacts in the Home Ed world.

Hello,

My name is Elisa and I am a 12y old HE kid!

I am doing my silver arts award (artsaward.org.uk) at the moment and for my leadership skills, I would like to make a collection of experiences of children who are or have been home educated.

I would be in charge of all the editorial and publishing processes, but I need stories about your life as a Home Educated child. I hope to publish the book on Blurb.

This is not going to be an anti-school book, but an account of how different our lifestyles can be and to give people an inside view of “our world”

Your story can be as long (or as short) as you want, drawings are also welcome.

I will be very grateful to anybody who takes part in this project.

Thanks

Elisa

PS: You don’t need to give your real name. First name, nickname or initial would be enough + your age.

 I set up a group on Facebook and added people who agreed to take part. I also kept a mailing list for those not on Facebook. I posted some suggestions in the group so people could get started. Every couple of days, I posted an update, some new ideas, my own story… to keep people interested and motivated. Once I had set up the first deadline, I waited anxiously… 

At first, I didn’t get many stories, but a few days later more came in. One was from a mum who found that adding her view was a natural thing to do so I decided to include parents in the project. 
After writing my own piece, I started getting ideas for how I wanted the book to look. I downloaded the editing software from Blurb and waited for more stories to arrive. I posted an update about letting parents take part in the project and contacted a few more people.  I, then, decided to set up the last deadline as I had to consider the time I needed to edit the book, publish it and wait for it to arrive. All of this well before my moderation date. 
 In the meantime, I went on an unexpected holiday ;-) so I decided to move my deadline back by a week so that people who had not sent their stories could finish them....hopefully!!!
Before leaving, I also asked the participants who had already helped me in my project for some feedback. I gave them two questions as a guideline to help them.
Then, started the "eternal" wait....................it was extremely stressful and a big part of my project!!! This was the hardest part. It is not easy to manage a project when the only way to contact participants is through the internet and also because I didn't know many of the people taking part in my project. I relied completely on their cooperation which I found quite frustrating as I could not control everything!!!
Once I was back from my holiday, I added the last stories to my book and started editing the whole lot. The editing process was very tedious. It took time to choose the different fonts and sizes that I wanted because there was so much to choose from. I played with the fonts and sizes so you could see the difference between the stories. Fitting the texts into the pages took a lot of time, but the worst part was proofreading.
I had to do this several times, with all of my family pitching in to help me make sure that I hadn't left any mistakes. I hope I didn't after all that work!!!
I made an introduction to my book to explain what Home Education is about and I included the text of law to prove that it is legal to Home Educate.
Once I finished editing my book, it was time to publish it. I only ordered one copy for my Silver Arts Award as well as a PDF file which I will  send a copy to all those who participated in my project.
I got some feedback from some participants which were very kind and encouraging.
I can't wait to see my finished book!!!

                                  Part E: Review the project

I really enjoyed doing this project. Although it was not my first choice, as my first idea was not suitable for the award, I still found it very interesting to make a book with the stories of other Home Educated people like me.
My favourite thing in the project was reading everybody's stories. It was nice to discover so many different lifestyles as it shows we are all unique.
My least favourite part would have to be the editing. It took so long and was very troublesome as I didn't have any experience doing it. If there is a next time, I will be better and more familiar with the software ;-)
The whole project lasted approximately a month so it really helped me understand how valuable a good plan was.
As a leader, I learned that I am responsible for my project, that I need to be organised, that I must be able to explain my project clearly to those taking part and be persistent in getting what I want, while remaining pleasant.
I have learned a lot about editing using the program Booksmart  which I downloaded for free from Blurb. I was able to choose everything from the size of the book to the layout of the pages as well as playing around with fonts and sizes.
I was thrilled to be able to get 28 stories/drawings in total considering the short amount of time I had and happy to have the stories of people from different countries such as Australia and Canada.

This was a great experience and it taught me a lot about being in a leadership role.


Below is some feedback that I have received:

Jordan:  The project is very well thought out and an incredibly good project theme to have. You did a very good job, very organized.

Meri:  The project seemed well thought out. Lots of people research home ed, but not many get stories from the young people who have been home educated. You decided what you needed and worked out how to get it, and stayed friendly but persistent to get your stories.

I thought you did a good job of managing the project, in that you were polite but persistent and reminded people as necessary to get their stories in time for the deadline.

Ross:
I would say that your questions were clear and therefore easy for me to answer so definitely well thought through and the contact you had with me was always very polite and obviously well managed! 

1- Did you think my project was well thought through?

I think it was fairly well thought through.However, it seems that you needed someone to write for you at the last minute.

2-  Did you think I did a good job of managing the project?

Very. You had questions to help people if they were stuck, you were prompt in answering and you got it all wrapped up, with a bow on top.

From

Emeline

I think it was very well thought through. I also think that you did a very good job of managing it.

 Beth 

Hi Elisa, we think your project was well thought through and you did a good job managing it. Using a FB group is a really good idea.

Raquel/Quela

I think that this project is brilliant, very well thought through and yes, it seems very well managed. I'm honoured to have been asked to be a part of it and would love to know how it progresses and see the final finished collection. 

Jai 

We thought it was a very well thought through project. An interesting,innovative project with a clear objective that was explained clearly. The idea of letting home educated young people tell their own stories reinforces the philosophy of many home educators while at the same time allowing people who have no experience of home education to get a sense of what home education is about.

Our experience of your management of the project was one of efficiency and well defined parameters. Our enquires were handled speedily and appropriately.

The project was encouraging as the aims and objectives were clear, also the outcomes. Making the choice to take part on the project easy.

There was enough time for getting started and to coordinate plans with ideas. There were timely reminders to keep on track, helping me to stay focused on the brief. 

Finishing work was made easy as the deadline gave a point to work towards so submission was possible.

:-D

My feedback on how you managed the project is that I think you've done a brilliant job. I thought setting up a Facebook group to keep everyone updated was a really good idea and I thought you were very diplomatic in the way you chased up our contributions.
Elsie and Oren's mun
 

Update: 

I have received the book!!!!
It only took a week to arrive so  I am pleased about this :-) It is great and the black cover makes it look really professional!! The back cover is a picture of me and my brother....when we were younger!
The colours have come out really well, except from one drawing which is a bit dark.
The other pencil drawing is fine, but the comic strip looks a bit faded.
I am really happy with the fonts and sizes, it shows the difference between texts very well.
I haven't found any mistakes....yet!!! Very proud of myself :-D although it feels very weird to look at the book and see my name on it and realise that the whole idea for the book was mine!!

Home Ed Life Stories of the Unschooled by

Thank You for reading my blog.
Please leave a comment, it will be greatly appreciated!!! :-)

Elisa