Viewfinder

View-finder is an online arts project by young people for young people.

Photoworks has teamed up with the Brighton Photo Biennial and Lighthouse on a project that aims to equip young people with the skills, experience and resources necessary to design an online creative space where they can investigate contemporary digital arts practice, photography and film, and set up opportunities for their friends and families to take part too.

Led by artist Marianne Holm Hansen, a group of year 10 students from Brighton’s Aldrige Community Academy (formerly Falmer High School) looked at artworks, met artists, visited exhibitions and talked to curators in order to inspire and inform their designs for online art projects and offline events for their peers. The activities included making with drawing, photography and digital animation as well as critical activities.

Featured right from the beginning, the creation and construction of the View-finder website – beginning with students’ blogs and documentation of their visits and artwork, and concluding with the creation of a platform that enables other young people to participate. All this content has been generated by the group in close consultations with various artists and other creatives.

In April and May 2010, the students visited the Decode exhibition at the V&A in London, met with artist group Blast Theory in Portslade, spoke to Marc Garrett of Furtherfield during his visit to Lighthouse, and took part in Flickers: Off the Path by Rachel Henson, at the Brighton Festival 2010. Inspired by Henson, the students developed their own digital flick books, using animation software and Flip cameras in a series of workshops.

During the Brighton Photo Biennial in 2010, the group ran two public workshops in Brighton inviting their peers to make and upload artwork expressing their views of Brighton. The brief followed on from Martin’s Parr’s approach to the Brighton Photo Biennial in 2010 – asking artists to respond to the city. The first event with an invited group at the new central library, the second as a drop in event in the city centre on a Saturday afternoon.

In 2011, Viewfinder will enter into a new stage of development. In the meantime visit the website to see what’s happened and take part yourself and add your own comments.

Visit the Viewfinder website here

View-finder has been developed in partnership with Photoworks, Brighton Photo Biennial and Lighthouse, Brighton and Hove City Council and Aldrige Community Academy (formerly Falmer High School), and is funded by Engage’s Enquire programme and Brighton and Hove City Council.

 Alongside the project work, the partners have been undertaking advocacy and capacity development work at strategic level – enabled by the local authority partners and resulting in a number of key events including:

An advocacy event presenting the project to the Brighton and Hove Arts Commission.

Positive moves towards setting up the View-finder website as the online element through which the city’s arts strategy for children and young people is delivered.

One of the partners becoming part of a working party for the delivery of the youth arts strategy exploring specific issues involving young people at all levels.

The partners delivered a twilight CPD event for 15 teachers where we presented View-finder, explored the successes and challenges and invited teachers to get their students to make and upload work to the website.

View-finder has been jointly funded by Brighton & Hove City Council, and Enquire.

Enquire is an exciting national programme of projects that engage children and young people with galleries, the contemporary visual arts and artists. The projects are organised collaboratively by gallery educators, artists and teachers.

View-finder is funded through phase 4 of the Enquire programme and is one of eleven project clusters nationwide. Phase 4 aims to explore how partnership working between local authorities, cultural organisations and artists can address the objectives of Children’s Services.

The Enquire programme is funded jointly by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Children, Schools and Families as part of the Strategic Commissioning Programme for Museum and Gallery Education, and the Foyle Foundation. The Enquire programme is managed by Engage and has been developed in association with Arts Council England.

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