MozFest fringe blog takeover: Day 1

With less than two weeks to go until MozFest opens its doors to the public, we’re continuing the MozFest Fringe takeover week on the blog. A selection of Arts Award centres from across the country share their digital Arts Award plans for activities and events this autumn.

We hope their ideas and advice will inspire you to think about your own digital Arts Award delivery. Whether it’s taking part in digital arts activities, finding out about digital artists and arts organisations, or using digital technology to explore arts and cultural collections – this is a great time to get involved.

Today we’re introducing See Think Make CIC who are based in Scotland.

What is it?

See Think Make CIC is an Arts Award centre and training agency. They support and promote Arts Award so that more young people in Scotland can gain a recognised qualification in the arts in a fun, simple and flexible way.

From 24-28 October, they will be delivering Discover, Explore and Bronze Arts Awards with children at Kaimhill Primary School in Aberdeen as part of their ‘Arts Award Takeover’ event.

What does it involve?

‘Arts Award Takeover’ is a whole school project taking place over one week – more than 200 primary school pupils will take part in a range of digital arts and mixed media activities. All the children will be going off timetable and immersing themselves in creative activities.

Children aged 5-7 will be completing the Discover certificate, those aged 7-10 will take part in Explore and 11 year olds will complete the Bronze Arts Award.

Throughout the week, the children will take part in a range of artist led workshops, they will watch a performance and prepare for a celebration on the final day. There will even be a ‘Takeover’ flash mob dance to surprise pupils during the week!

The children will be supported by digital arts experts to creatively evidence their Arts Award journey using film, animation, green screen and apps such as Do Ink, Tellagami and Garage Band.

As well as digital arts, the children will be taking part in activities in music, dance, theatre, visual arts, design, writing and photography.

The project will be carefully evidenced and the plans, film, photos and evaluation will be shared on the See Think Make website to inspire others to do something similar.

The ‘Arts Award Takeover’ is taking place in partnership with the University of Aberdeen and Youth Arts Collective North East. It is funded by Big Lottery Awards for All and Time to Shine.

Top tip for digital delivery:

If your resources allow, try to work with somebody on your project who has experience of using the chosen digital apps regularly in a school environment. This will help with preparation, supporting the children and their teachers to use the technology, and troubleshooting as you go.

Arts Award digital fact file:

Do Ink, Tellagami and Garage Band are all apps that can be downloaded for use on the ipad and are great tools for supporting Arts Award participants to take part in digital arts.

Animation & Drawing by Do Ink is the fun, creative way to make animations on the iPad. The app was designed to be easy for beginners and young animators, but with powerful tools for creating advanced animations.

Green Screen by Do Ink makes it easy to create green screen videos and images on the iPad or iPhone. The app combines photos and videos from the camera roll with live images from the iPad or iPhone camera.

Tellagami is a fun way to share animated messages. Users can customise their own character, change its mood or outfit, then record their voice or add dialogue before sharing.

Garage Band is a music creation studio with its own sound library and software instruments with settings for guitar, voice and drummers. It lets you learn, play and record your own music.

MozFest – what you need to know:

MozFest is a digital festival hosted by the Mozilla Foundation taking place in London on 29 and 30 October where Arts Award will be hosting the digital arts and culture space. We’re inviting you to get involved by attending the event with young people, or by taking the inspiration from our fringe activities to shape your own digital arts delivery for Arts Award.

MozFest youth tickets are £3 (under 18s) and educators go free. Tickets provide access on both days as well as lunch, drinks and a goodie bag. Group tickets can be booked through this link. Schools and youth organisations that need assistance with ticket costs can contact festival@mozilla.org - remember to state that you are an Arts Award centre in your email.

For further information about attending MozFest, contact julie.neville@trinitycollege.co.uk