Schools
Mark Riley BA(Hons) is an experienced arts practitioner, delivering arts activities in schools, playschemes, other out of school projects, and has experience of long and short residencies. The activities are child-led and often open-ended, encouraging the children’s creativity and exploration, reflecting a Reggio approach. More recent work has focussed upon creative thinking and thinking through making, where creative activities are used to explore ideas and move them forward.
Schools
- Creative curriculum ideas
- Citizenship & Community links
- Development & environmental education
- Staff development
Playschemes & Out of School
- Workshops
- Staff training
- Community links
Activities have included: Papermaking, puppets, printmaking, murals, glass painting, constructions (willow + tissue paper, scarecrows, scrap materials…), tree dressing, lanterns…
Residencies & Long Term Projects April- July 2010 The Secret Garden. A Creative Partnerships Project at 2009/2010 Mud, Sticks & Things. A Creative Partnerships Project at Bordesley Green East Childrens Centre, exploring creativity in the outdoor space, working with fellow artist Sally Harper. 2008-2010 Dudley Early Years Service. This included exploring child initiated learning in Reception classes, (in St Edmunds & St Johns Primary School, and Ham Dingle Primary), and supporting 3 schools and a Day Nursery who had sent staff on a study visit to Reggio Emilia (St Marks Primary, Woodside Primary, Wollescote Primary, and Daisy Chain Nursery). 2006-2009 Artist in Residence Shenley Fields Childrens Centre. My role was to explore child initiated learning, develop the studio space, project working, and documentation. Sept 2005- April 2006 This extended residency project was a pilot for Worcestershire Arts in Education. The aims of the project included; -Exploring the impact of a long term residency on a class, with the artist working with the same children each week. -exploring a true collaboration with the teachers and the children, -to explore how visual arts can support other subject areas in the curriculum and -how it can stimulate creative thinking. -how creative activity might support those children with extra needs, delivered in an extended school context For this to happen we adopted an open-ended approach to the work, with a loose framework of activity, but with a flexibility to allow us to follow our and the children’s noses… For a copy of the project review contact us!!! 2003-2005 Artist in Residence Quinton Education Action Zone. Supporting 9 schools in the Education Action Zone, including a Secondary and
Any projects with the 
logo took place as part of the Quinzone Education Action Zone,
Wood Carvings, Wollescote Primary School, 2009
The school had recently cut down trees in their grounds and wanted to put some of the logs to creative use. Year 4 & 6 created designs based on the theme of nature and then carved them into three logs, which were sited at the beginning of the path to their Forest School area.
Sculpture Trail, Timberley Primary School, 2009
This project created a sculpture trail by year 5, sited around the outdoor space. The subject of the sculptures were the responses of the pupils to their space, which included an allotment, pond and nature area. The pupils worked in groups, first mapping the area and then focussed on their ideas using creative activities- the groups documented and reflected at each stage. Finally the groups designed their sculpture and chose the materials to construct them. Six sculptures were created. The project became part of the Tide Bill Scott Challenge. The article can be found at www.tidec.org/Tidetalk/articles/Arts_&_sustainability.html
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Murals,
These murals were based on paintings by artists who appear in the students curriculum work, and were painted in a busy corridor area which was in need of a facelift. Small groups from Year 8-11 came during art classes and built up the murals. They had new experiences of painting on a large scale and using paint in different styles to match the images.
The Museum of Past Centuries, Albert Bradbeer J & I. November 2003.
What are the stories behind the Very Last Leaf, Dinosaur Bones, the model of
A Year 4 class turned curators and developed exhibits of things that they thought were important enough to preserve before they disappeared, or kept as a warning for the future. The artefacts were made from clay and scrap materials, and were placed in ‘rooms’ in a museum created from two old cupboards.
Willow
Woodhouse school had a new internal security fence that had all the charm of
Tiles Project, Four Dwellings Juniors. Nov 2003
As an alternative to an interior mural we developed a project to create tiles that were hung in vertical drops a few inches from the wall. I worked with all classes in Years 3-6, where each pupil produced 3 drawings based upon the theme of the home or school environment. Each pupil chose one drawing and took it through three activities- clay, abstract relief and fabric collage- to see how each medium would alter the image. Both the clay tile and the abstract relief tile were painted, but only with a limited palette based on one colour, with each year group having its own colour.
Willow
The dome was completed with willow artist
About Us- Hall decorations, Worlds End Junior School. March 2004
This project was based on the ideas from Years 3 & 5 all about what they enjoyed about school. The ideas were turned into 2 fabric banners, 2 huge sculptures made from withey and tissue paper, abstract boards 25 inches square and the school emblem made from modroc.
Friendship Bench, Welsh House Farm J & I, July 2004
An old bench in the KS1 playground was transformed into a place to go if children need help or company.
Baskerville
These slabs were created as a sensory path in a new garden in this school for students with learning disabilities. All sorts of materials, from coloured pegs, to stones to marbles and cds were sunk in concrete. Eighty individual slabs were made, grouped into 1 metre squares.
Walled Garden Murals. World’s
Murals based on the theme of a walled garden. Each piece was set on wood blocks for an added three dimensional effect.
Classroom and outside activities to help Year 3 creatively think about habitats, both in the environment and their own.
Four
Year 2 and Year 5 collaborated on these modroc models hanging in the dinner hall. One side of the hall shows what Max has in his healthy box, and the other the sugary sweets in the Slobmonster’s (pictured).
Exploring moving figures using mini-sculpture, drawing and collage with a Year 3 group.
The entire classroom was transformed into a light environment. Materials that let light through and changing shadows allowed the children to explore light images.
Yorkmead Arts Murals, Dec 2005
The idea for brightening up this part of the playground was to focus on what the children thought about the arts. Open-ended activities were used to help the children decide what 'the arts’ are and develop their ideas into murals. As with all my other mural work the children completed all of the painting, and used wood blocks to add an extra dimension to the boards.
Vision Mapping Project March 2006
This was part of a larger project in Worcestershire, with four artists creating parish maps with a school. Unlike the other artists, my role was to use creative activity in Himbleton First School to enable the the pupils to sort, prioritise and think through the vast amount of information they had gathered, including local oral history, earth walks, and photos, and to help them identify strong visual images that might carry forward to their final map.
Pitts Wood May 2006
Pitts wood is a local piece of land surrounded by houses and up until recently forgotten. Birmingham City Ranger Service have recently restarted a management programme and opportunity for the development of Forest Schools on the site. I worked for three days with the Ranger and local schools in the woods. The first day was spent with two Yr2 classes making hanging banners that contained the children’s responses to the site, then a day spent with some Reception children who use the site regularly. They decorated their favourite areas and painted markers for them. Finally, we spent a day working with children from
I joined this school for art week, taking recycled materials as our theme. I worked with the Foundation stage on using scrap materials to make marks and create hanging decorations. With other classes we developed and idea for a small copse of trees in the school grounds. We decided that this area had a magical effect, based on the story "The Tin Forest", and that any scrap materials placed in it were transformed into something new. We created hanging banners, chairs, and strange new creatures to live there.
This project explored a Year 2 class’s experiences of where they live in Aston,
This project worked with Reception, Yr1, Yr2 and parent volunteers to explore the theme of hiding places and produce some willow fencing and seating area. Each class spent time thinking through how they used their playground edges as hiding places, using lots of different materials, before working on the fences and the willow dome. The fences helped formalise the paths that the children had already made in and out of the bushes, guiding them through. The dome is to provide some shaded quiet space for the summer, with beech benches.
School Identity, South
I worked with Gifted & Talented students in six secondary schools in the South East Birmingham G & T network, to find out what they thought the identity of their school was. Each school had exactly the same type and size canvas as a starting point, but could take it wherever they wanted to, using any materials they wanted. Work in each school began with a session on thinking through ideas and developing a final design.
Outdoor Environment,
This project aimed to produce design ideas for the outdoor space with the nursery and Reception children. We introduced open ended processes to explore light and colour through layers, using different materials, such as foil, cellophane, bubblewrap and fabric. We collected items from the outdoor space to use as a stimulus, and tried different techniques like sticking, painting and printmaking.
Creative Outdoor Environment,
Working with Reception and Year 1, we looked at creative play in the outside area, using natural and recycled materials. We explored the space, made environments and dens and had fun exploring materials in an outdoor classroom.
‘Fireworks’,
This project explored the theme of fireworks, using different activities to think through colours, sound , movement, and cultural celebrations to produce 12 perspex panels!
This was created with willow artist Lee Southal!
Perspex Murals,
These murals were inspired by the Reception Class’s thoughts about the places that they lived and played. Some creative sessions using different materials helped them think through their ideas before the final murals were made and displayed in the playground.
‘outdoors’,
This project looked at creatively using the outdoor space, including the
