Young People
Cultural Ambassadors
Cultural Ambassadors is a 12 week creative course designed to offer local people an opportunity to get involved in the cultural regeneration of their area.
Developed with the University for the Creative Arts and accredited through the Open College network, the course has gone from strength to strength with 2010 being its sixth year.
Seventeen participants took part in this years course. During the course, Cultural Ambassadors gained practical skills through artist led workshops, visited galleries in London and explored new ways of looking at, discussing and making art. These new experiences have informed their creativity and forged strong bonds among the group, which we hope will continue. The course culminated in an exhibition entitled Forward which showed the talent and variety in the individuals’ work, and aimed to illustrate the journey the Ambassadors have taken. The exhibition was held at Droit House, visitor centre for Turner Contemporary, during July 2010.
During the six years that Cultural Ambassadors has been running we have had many participants go on to enter the Access course and continue onto the part time Fine Art BA degree at UCA, three of which have been instrumental in supporting this years ambassadors.
Another Cultural Ambassador has gone on to work for Turner Contemporary and is now an employee of Groundworks Walkie Talkie scheme. Two participants from last years’ course had their work included at Tate Moderns tenth birthday event called “No Soul for Sale”
Participant comments
“I’ve always wanted to explore art further, this has opened my eyes to the whole raft of possibilities” Perry Gregory, -Cultural Ambassador 2010
“I enjoyed the course immensely. My future plans are to attempt to progress to the access course at Canterbury. Something which I would have never considered educationally before” -Cultural Ambassador 2009
‘I LOVED the course, it has completely changed my life. I would never show my art to anyone before, in such a short period my confidence has grown so much.’- Cultural Ambassadors 2008
____________________________________________________________________
By bringing older and younger people together to explore their own experiences of being a teenager, Time of Our Lives aimed to encourage personal connections and genuine reflection between people from different generations. An exhibition celebrating the achievements of everyone involved in this intergenerational project was held 3-28 March 2010 at Droit House, Margate. The exhibition featured art works created by participants, including their 'interactive teenage bedroom' created with the University of Kent. The exhibition was opened by Susan Langford Director of Magic Me at a private view held Tuesday 16 March. The evening was a great success. Susan was highly complimentary of the project and the resulting exhibition. She commented "This was my first visit to Margate. I will be back if it's all this good!" Further comments from the exhibition's visitors: "I'm really impressed at the creative teamwork and what it's achieved." "Really interesting and wide range of work, a very personal project." "I hope this project goes some way to re-establish interaction between older and young people who currently feel alienated." "Great stuff! Thoughtful and creative." "Great project! Professional exhibition! Wow!" "We need more things like this!" "It was really interesting and for me something new." Time of Our Lives is funded by the Transformation fund from the Government's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.Time of Our Lives
What is it like to be a teenager today? Is it different to teenage experiences in the past? Through the project Time of Our Lives, Turner Contemporary worked with BBC Radio Kent, the University of Kent's School of Engineering and Digital Arts, Kent County Council's Youth Arts Service and local young and older people to explore these questions.
Today in the UK, suspicion of young people seems to have reached a peak, with a survey of 2000 adults by Barnardo's exposing that 49% regard children as increasingly dangerous and 54% believing that young people are "beginning to behave like animals". These views sit uncomfortably with the fact that teenagers are more likely to do voluntary work than people from any other generation, with two thirds of those aged 10-15 raising money for charity.
The project has enabled local people aged 13 to 25 and 60 and over to work together to create artwork, gather and write stories, develop new skills and meet new people. They worked with a journalist from BBC Radio Kent to learn how to interview people and use sound recordings, and also spent time with final year students studying Multimedia Technology and Design at the University of Kent who created a digital teenage archive.
