Creative Paths Project – Youth

Ligoniel Community Centre, North Belfast
Project: Kids Arts & Crafts Club
Artist: Shauna McCann
Age Group: 7-10
Participants: x15
12 hours, over 8 weeks

During the course of the year Creative Paths worked with 10 different Belfast City Council centres.  The programme supported their play work activities as well contributing to You Can Play 2 Day annual training event, and gave children and young people across Belfast access to experienced artists to develop a wide variety of arts projects.  This is the story of one of them…

The children from Ligoniel Community Centre came up with the idea of creating the Giant from the Jack & the Beanstalk fairytale to use as a height measure for the Sure Start infant group in their centre. After meeting with artist, Shauna McCann, it was agreed to create a 3D piece that would seem ‘giant’ in proportion to the children using it!

One of the children lay on a large piece of card and the rest of the group traced around him to get a rough outline of the Giant’s body.  Crushing up balls of newspaper they attached them using Papier Mache techniques to give shape to the Giant’s body.  Once dry, the body was covered in masking tape before the whole group took turns painting different parts, adding details like t-shirt, boots, hair and face.  Gradually he took on the appearance of a ‘real’ Giant.

The beanstalk was made using the same method.  The background was painted blue and clouds were added along the bottom, using cotton wool for texture.  This gave the impression of the beanstalk coming up into the sky from beneath the Giant’s feet. Finally the height measure was added. The children used a measuring tape to mark out different heights up the side of the beanstalk.

The project was a great success not only giving the children and opportunity to have fun, it had the added benefit of contributing to the nursery. The completed piece was exhibited at the Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast.  The children were proud of their entry to the No Limits Art Exhibition facilitated by AdaptNi, an organisation helping to Build Equality and Inclusion for all in culture, arts and leisure venues.

[nggallery id=12 template=caption]