CCA Culture Kids

CCA Culture Kids – A Play Laboratory, is an innovative art programme for primary school children, made possible by The Big Lottery Fund’s Culture for All programme. Working with artist Andrea Francke, the project uses utopian ideals of Do-It-Yourself and self-sufficiency as a starting point for a celebration of children’s play.

Lead artist Andrea Francke works with collaborators including Lamis Bayar, Bonnie Fortune, Nozomi Nakabayashi and Studio Hato on a programme which includes construction, urban ecology, printing and pickling

The first session focuses on architecture and construction for children. Andrea works with Lamis Bayar to introduce the Gridbeam system of construction. Again, this is an idea from the 70s of a modular construction system that can be used to build functional small structures and furniture. We work in partnership with Derry’s Fab Lab (community resource with laser cutter, 3D printer and CNC router) to create the modules to ensure that children can continue to access the Gridbeam units for future, independent building projects. The kids learn principles of design and construction and then built their own small structures or pieces of furniture over the course of the two days.

For the next session, we focus on Urban Ecology, and are joined by artist Bonnie Fortune (mythological quarter). Participants must pay careful attention to the urban spaces around them and explore the city anew, investigating animals and plants species, habitats and trails that surround us, often unnoticed, in the city. So they act as amateur naturalists, collecting and documenting urban flora and fauna. The group is also joined by local Community Horticulturalist Gareth Austin for a special session on foraging for edible plants on and around the city walls.

The third and final session is concerned with publishing and pickling. For this session, Francke is joined by collaborative architect Nozomi Nakabayashi and Jackson Lam and Ken from Kirton Studio Hato, an international design practice which focuses on exhibition design, participatory design workshops and educational experiences. In this session, the young people involved explore aspects of design and publishing and pickling, creating a range of pickled goods and designing and printing labels and signs.

Sara Greavu
Curator (Public Programmes)