Our long term goal is to be ever more participatory, to build confidence and creativity in the attendees, and to encourage responsibility and respect in their own work and for the group. We are always conscious to keep things consistent for the children, who lead chaotic and insecure lives already, so we maintain the format and schedule that the workshops have always had.
However with new facilitators, whom speak Spanish as a second language and are still very much learning the nuances of the Guayaquilian accent, the temptation to run wild, especially with poster paint, was all too much for some of the kids!
Hindsight's a wonderful thing; we know now that group work and collaboration will take a long time to nurture, with gentle progression we need to banish the frictions in the group, the judgement of themsleves and others, we need to ban the word 'feo' (ugly)! Also individual art work is something quite dear to a lot of these kids, who don't have much to call their own, and survival strategies mean they are posessive of what they do have/make. With all of this in mind we have readdressed our 'collaborative' approach, and are now prepared to gently introduce group and shared work little by little. The groups need trust in each other and themselves, and more pride in their work before we can successfully work in larger groups.
For week two we felt we had to run a 'Rules workshop', to reinstill some long forgotten rules of Club de arte and encourage respect and pride in our work, before we went any further with the Piratas project.
The groups (4 in total) vary so greatly, in age, number, energy, consistency... we need to approach each one differently, and plan for their needs. It will, of course, take time to get to know the groups and individuals within them. Immediately, however, we need to tackle the group sizes, we want to work in a person-centred way, providing enough 121 attention to each child, and this is just impossible with only 2 facilitators for 25 or 30 kids.
Hindsight's a wonderful thing; we know now that group work and collaboration will take a long time to nurture, with gentle progression we need to banish the frictions in the group, the judgement of themsleves and others, we need to ban the word 'feo' (ugly)! Also individual art work is something quite dear to a lot of these kids, who don't have much to call their own, and survival strategies mean they are posessive of what they do have/make. With all of this in mind we have readdressed our 'collaborative' approach, and are now prepared to gently introduce group and shared work little by little. The groups need trust in each other and themselves, and more pride in their work before we can successfully work in larger groups.
For week two we felt we had to run a 'Rules workshop', to reinstill some long forgotten rules of Club de arte and encourage respect and pride in our work, before we went any further with the Piratas project.
Nueva Prosperina hang their 'Reglas de Piratas' scrolls with the mural
The groups (4 in total) vary so greatly, in age, number, energy, consistency... we need to approach each one differently, and plan for their needs. It will, of course, take time to get to know the groups and individuals within them. Immediately, however, we need to tackle the group sizes, we want to work in a person-centred way, providing enough 121 attention to each child, and this is just impossible with only 2 facilitators for 25 or 30 kids.
