Graphics from the Centre of Welfare Reform

Check this out - it's fascinating

http://www.centreforwelfarereform.org/library/graphics-diagrams/

Tax avoided v Benefit Fraud - interesting

Tax V Benefit Fraud Graph Excellent

Posted on February 12, 2013 by JJ

Hans and Eva Rausing Photograph Alan Davidson WireImage

Rowson Pass the Buck Blame the Poor Welfare Reform

£16 Billion of benefits people are entitled to go unclaimed every year

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Arts Awards update

I would add for my part we started to discuss the outline for their accreditation on the Arts Awards, the criteria for the Bronze level being the following below. 

BRONZE

Explore the arts as a participant

·         Participate in a chosen art form

·         Ideas about how to develop in a chosen art form

·         Action – develop in your chosen art form

Explore the arts as audience

·         Attend an Arts Event

·         Review the Arts Event

·         Share your review with other people

Arts Heroes and Heroines

·         Research about a artist or art practitioner you admire

Arts Apprenticeship

·         Assist a professional arts leader with a workshop – undertaking a short task

OR

·         Share your art skill with other people through an activity

Once I have collated the information from all participants about what they would like to do for their arts award I will share with you all – so that we can build in time, capacity etc to make sure they all meet the required outcomes. Please note Kirsty and Karina have stated they would like to do the next level up – Silver arts award – myself and Claire will sit down with them next week to discuss this and see if/how we can make this happen for them (they have both previously successfully completed their bronze level).

What do you think to this?

Iain Duncan Smith is furious at this billboard campaign from the 'Church Action on Poverty' charity which suggests that many more people are being forced to use food banks as a direct result of his benefit cuts. 

Watch. Enjoy.

http://thechive.com/2013/09/18/british-woman-dances-like-nobodys-watching-video/

I've put this up for two reasons.  One, it really makes me happy, and two, it challenges our perception.  



Happy Friday x

The first foray

So today was, once again, a very enjoyable session despite both Lucy and I having interesting starts to the day, as always, when the gang troop in, one's personal traumas dissipate away like fading cigarette smoke.

What I love about being at YDC is that the room is constantly transforming from someone's living room to a theatre storage space with a slow dripping trail of unknown individuals who either find the walls/carpet extremely interesting, or just have an inability to say 'excuse me'.  

Either way, they provide momentary entertainment.

Lucy's foray into animation went down a storm.  The group are very relaxed with each other now, and were all extremely interested in Lucy's presentation without having to spend any time catching up on chit chat.

The beautiful simplicity of the style of animation allowed everyone to throw themselves into trying things out without any concerns whatsoever.  I would like to think this is because I had brought some halva with me (bear with me here, there is a tenuous link) which I tried to persuade everyone to try, unsuccessfully, thus filling the spot of 'things that will challenge me today'.  Consequently, the animation looked like a walk in the park.

It was an absolute delight to see everyone in the group enjoying creating a small scene to animate, and wonderful to see the results.  Almost instantaneous gratification. Perfect for that first foray.

Katy joined Edgar today, and they giggled like naughty children whilst setting up Edgar's film. 

This was very complimentary to the group's feel, and I think has allowed the group to feel more relaxed with Edgar, especially. To the extent that, when the conversation turned to 'what I looked like as a child', and photo's came out, everyone was genuinely interested in Edgar's very cute photo.  

The relaxed atmosphere continued through our light lunch and onto the finish with a wonderful finale of watching the animations which had been filmed, which were an absolute delight.  The group were, rightly so, very proud of themselves.

We have also sent out the three flip cameras we had, with Steph and Liam, Kirsty and Karina, and Amy.  Their brief; to film and comment on things they love and loathe about their street.

And to finish, we are having the most enjoyable of times, with everyone becoming more vocal about wanting to spend a longer period of time on the project.  I am wondering whether we need to look at the timetable for after Easter, and see whether we can have less sessions, but longer, or some other combination?  

Here are the unedited animations made today...

Stop-Frame Animation skillz!

We had a brilliant session today!
The aim was to learn a few basic stop-frame animation techniques and make some little films.
The first task was to come up with a simple scene to animate so the whole group got stuck in and started drawing and cutting out sketches for their ideas.
Karina was first up and made a lovely little film depicting a Dandelion clock being blown away.
Kirsty made a roller-coaster complete with a jolly alien whizzing down the tracks. Amy drew a fab volcano erupting with lava, smoke and a tomato fire-ball! Stephen made a brilliant sea-scape with a sailboat, sunrise and fish-stealing seagulls, and finally Brandon animated a drum kit which coloured itself in as it played. Steph and Liam started on a gorgeous jungle background too but we ran out of time before they had chance to animate it.

It was great to be focussed and working on things but to also have a really relaxed and fun time hanging out and chatting together. Claire provided a fantastic array of snacks and it was nice to hear Kirsty say "Space 2 always look after us, we love being here"

By the time we reached the end of the session there was a great vibe and hilarious chat as always. We started talking a little bit about relationships and perception in regards to gender which was really interesting. We also spoke about how we change as we get older and some people had childhood pictures of themselves on their phones which we passed around...including Edgar who will now be known at 'the little cookie stealer' due to his baby photo where he looks impossibly cute but slightly mischievous.

Edgar, Claire and I were thinking that it'd be good to build a session around bringing in some old photos and talking about how we've changed. It needs more thought but the young people did seem really keen to share stories about the past and also had a lot to say about body image etc. Definitely something to come back to...

Here's a little film from Edgar that captures a snippet of today's activities: