Education and Outreach | Whitestone Arts

EDUCATION AND OUTREACH

During the summer term 2018 we developed the education and outreach aspect of Stormy House with support from the Brontë Parsonage Museum and Bradford Theatre in the Mill. Using cutting-edge video design, we will embed the unlimited, timeless power of childhood play and imagination into the physical fabric of the piece.

I just wanted to send a quick message to thank you for involving our Year 4 class with this fabulous project. The children were enthralled with the work this week and all said that it was the best thing they had ever done, as they were going out of school.

Helen Thompson, Headteacher, Haworth Primary School

‘Building Stormy House’ at Theatre in the Mill, Bradford

Whitestone Arts ran calligraphy workshops with two Year 4 classes from Copthorne Primary School, led by Stacey Johnstone, visiting artist Misuzu Kosaka and facilitator Natsuko Toyoshima. With many of the children speaking English as a second language, this was their first encounter with Japanese culture and their first experience of coming to their local theatre. The children recognised the link between kanji, Urdu and Punjabi and many took the opportunity to write the words that they were taught in their mother tongue as well as Japanese. It was a sharing of cultures and uniting of the class through a common cultural purpose that none of them had experienced before. Teachers commented that pupils who find the classroom environment challenging were seen to engage and thrive in this new setting.

The workshop day continued with a company exploration of Tiltbrush, and finally a public panel discussion on our work and the themes of the project. The banners are saved to become part of our set.

Workshop programme at Haworth Primary School

We set up a workshop programme with the Brontë Parsonage Museum at Haworth Primary School and delivered six sessions to their Year 4 class, looking at imaginary worlds, performance and Japanese culture. Pupils were introduced to the museum, cellar and graveyard and were given an illustrated talk by Learning Officer Sue Newby. In subsequent sessions led by Stacey Johnstone they worked with Misuzu Kosaka, Ima Tenko, Riko Murakami, Judith Adams and Aaron White, writing kanji and devising group ghost stories that they acted out in shadow play, creating imagery that was filmed for future use in our installation.