South Ayrshire Council News

Councillor Margaret Toner officially opened the exhibition.

A ‘Creative Nurseries’ exhibition will take place in the foyer of South Ayrshire Council’s Headquarters at the County Buildings in Ayr, between 13 September 2007 and 20 September 2007, during normal office hours.

The exhibition is a celebration of a Council project that is being run in partnership with ‘Fablevision’ and will give the people of South Ayrshire an opportunity to learn about a cultural planning project that took place between January and June 2007.

The project concentrated on pre 5 aged children and their parents or guardians, with a ‘hands on’ creative approach to increase cultural participation and introduce positive cultural lifestyle routines to children and their carers. The nurseries involved in the project were: Maidens; Gardenrose, Cairn, Cherry Tree, Breahead, Wallacetown, Annbank, Tarbolton and Coylton.

The Council worked in partnership with ‘Fablevision’ one of the leading artist led cultural planning organisations in Scotland. ‘Fablevision’ take a holistic approach to sustainable cultural and community development that embraces a broad definition of culture as a way of life. The organisation identifies and builds on community assets, values and traditions. It then develops those assets through creative activities to engage, involve and empower local people and involve artists in partnership working.

Councillor Margaret Toner, Depute Leader of the Council and Portfolio Carrier for Community Services opened the exhibition and said: “The exhibition is wonderful and shows the skills that young children have already attended that make them able to create great pieces of artwork.

“This project is one of thirteen Cultural Pathfinder projects initiated by the Scottish Executive that have been specially designed to explore cultural approaches to artwork. Artists used music, drama, visual art and creative play to explore the world in which the children and get them to use their imagination about places they could and possibly would visit in the future.”

Artists were placed in the nurseries and provided creative activities to interact with the children, parents, guardians, teachers and nursery staff and tried to instil an interest in creative expression and the development of relevant and associated skills.

Kate Robertson, one of the artists involved in the project said: “I really enjoyed working on such an innovative and exciting project, seeing the participation, imagination and confidence of the children grow over the course of the project was an absolute joy. We were constantly surprised by the children’s reactions, suggestions and creativity. The artwork sessions were a pleasure to deliver and a great learning experience for both the pupils and myself, I really feel that everyone involved has benefited greatly from this project.”