Creativity on the canal: BloQs supports Hinterlands project
We recently welcomed students from Edmonton’s Raynham Primary School to BloQs as part of the Canal & River Trust’s Hinterlands Project: a creative project aimed at transforming pockets of waterside in Enfield, Edmonton and Tottenham into well-loved, creative and vibrant community spaces. The visit was facilitated collaboratively by BloQs member and artist Paula Barnard-Groves, along with Trust Creative Producer Clare Moloney, and artist / educator Julia Elmore.
“We want to encourage children and young people to embrace creativity, to perceive the canal as a space where they can experience the arts either as a spectator, maker or participant, and to feel they can be creative anywhere,” says Clare.
The children from Raynham’s 3 Jamaica Class, visited BloQs to understand how the machines and techniques makers use can help them to create their own collaborative sculpture – how can their ideas move from inception to production?
Before coming, they created their own drawings, then voted for the work of one lucky young artist to be brought to life on our CNC router. Their excitement was palpable as they witnessed the router in motion and the drawing appear, in wood for one group and metal for the next. The delight on their faces when the finished works were unveiled is something we will long treasure!
Clare says “we are so pleased with how the trip to the canal and visit to Building BloQs went. I think the kids are really inspired and fired up!”
The full events of the day were captured on film, so do give it a few minutes of your time!
BloQs will be supporting the project in creating the final sculpture(s) over the summer, after which the work will be displayed beside the canal at a launch event for the children of Three Jamaica and their families.
“We hope the children left BloQs with a deeper understanding of the power of their own creativity and how easy it can be to make the images and ideas inside their minds tangible, tactile things,” says BloQs co-founder Vinny Nanray. “We’re looking forward to hosting you again!”
