Over the past few months, Caroline from the TDC Youth Team has been working with Sarah from the Youth Engagement Team at Brighton Museums to run an archaeology and art project for young people in Whitehawk.
The project was based on the new exhibition in the Elaine Evans Archaeology Gallery at the Museum which displays prehistoric objects that early Brighton and Sussex people would have used. The link to Whitehawk was that several objects and a skeleton had been found on Whitehawk Hill.
Consisting of a number of sessions for a group of young people from the area, participants created their own pottery and photography pieces inspired by the Whitehawk archaeological finds. Caroline says “We explored young people’s feelings about where they lived in Whitehawk and took photographs around the area – a lot of walking was done and some great pictures were taken.
“We also visited the exhibition which inspired the group for the ceramics part of the project in which young people created pieces in clay exploring textures and modern day living. For this we worked with a local ceramics student called Xanthe who knew a lot about local clay and even brought in some samples of local Whitehawk Clay that she had dug up.”
It was fantastic to hear back from the participants telling us what they had got out of the project. Abi said “I really enjoyed taking photos around Whitehawk. I learnt new things, like different camera angles, and I would like to get my own camera now” and Mohit said “I liked the clay; I could make anything I wanted”. Another participant told us “I feel like it brought out creativity I didn’t know I had”.
A selection of the photographs and ceramics created will be on display at Brighton Museum and will also form a part of B.fest the local youth arts festival. The exhibition is called Chalk, Clay and Cameras and we were thrilled to host a small Private View for participants and their families on Friday 10th May where they were able to celebrate the pieces being displayed along with an afternoon tea party of fizzy pop and cupcakes.
Please head along to the museum to see the exhibition yourselves before Thursday 12th Sept, you’ll find it upstairs, just by the entrance to the Museum Lab.
