School's Out For Art!

Out of Schools Exhibition, Saturday 30^th June, 10 – 4p.m, Holden Gallery, Manchester school of Art.

Words and Photographs by Caroline Coleman.

Outside, the streets of Manchester are grey and mundane, inside the Holden gallery however is a beautifully intricate labyrinth of colour and creativity. As parents and children amble along the art clad hallways into the various aesthetic pleasures that meet their eyes as they move from studio to gallery, every nook and cranny is bursting with inspiration. The 'Out of Schools' exhibition is a collaboration of schools, artists and the Manchester Children's Book Festival, working together to provide the perfect fusion of art and literature.

Upon arrival the viewer is drawn into the main gallery where the work of Malcolm Garrett adorns the walls. A former MMU student, Garrett has very kindly donated his work to the Holden Gallery. The now famous graphic designer displays a range of work depicting his obsession with contemporary visions dating from the 60’s onwards. From Thunderbirds memorabilia (which is a hit just as much with the parents, as with kids), to a marvellous array of band artwork that Garrett produced himself for the likes of Duran Duran, Culture Club and the Buzzcocks.  My favourite piece, and Garrett’s sole inspiration for becoming an artist, takes premise over one large wall of the gallery, a set of original Andy Warhol pictures of the one and only Marilyn Monroe. Rumour has it that Garrett saw the work of Andy Warhol and realised that art wasn’t just for posh kids, but that it was accessible to all. When he became successful enough, he purchased the whole Marilyn collection! Can’t argue with that.

Just around the corner are a hub of workshops and windy corridors filled with a never-ending drawing roll, reminiscent of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road typewriting roll. Children are inspired to draw as they listen to the sounds of Duran Duran, music from Garrett’s adolescence. Alongside this roll is a large-scale comic strip where people can write or draw whatever they desire. 

The workshops are not just for the under 12’s. Even as a 24 year old I want to join in the festivities, which include badge making, book making and bookbinding. The show stealer however, takes over the room in a somewhat different fashion (no pun intended!). This is a piece of artwork created by Jade Alana Ashton, a first year 3D design student at MMU, is a perfect illustration of how literature can influence art. The work entitled: Havisham, is inspired by Poet Laureate and Festival Creative Director, Carol Ann Duffy’s poem of the same title. The piece consists of a wedding dress recreated to imitate Lady Havisham’s dress from Dickens’s Great Expectations. Delicately attached to this by pieces of thread is a quilt work with the poem written on it.

Continuing the walk around, if you fancy getting messy this room is not for the clean hearted, but it is the most popular amongst children and parents, which could be seen from the room being filled with that air of excitement. Inspired by the works of the great artist Jackson Pollock, members of the public are urged to recreate pieces of their own, in light of his work. The walls are lined with paper, paints are ready with brushes raised and sponges waiting to be thrown. Jackson Pollock, eat your heart out!

The exhibition has not just provided fun and festivities; it is also an opportunity to raise awareness of issues affecting art in schools. The Crafts Council and the 'Out of Schools' exhibition has joined forces to raise the profile of ceramics in education, by displaying the ceramic work achieved by children from local schools and making videos to drive the message home about the importance of ceramics and education. After seeing the work of various children, it’s hard to argue with what the Crafts Council are fighting for. If you are interested in participating in the Craft Council movement ‘Firing Up’, visit their website here. 

The exhibition also provides an insight into the future of Garrett and Pollock’s art world. A vast array of work from schools in and around the Manchester area are displayed in the hallways, and a whole studio is dedicated to their work. Unbeknown to the public, the work of 6-year-old is displayed next to college students’ final pieces, at times proving it hard to decipher between them, as all the pieces are of an extremely high standard. From the Year 6 artwork of Dawson Primary School that has a selection of magical spell books created by the children with all sorts of embellishments, to the water colour paintings depicting the trip of a Constable’s Train Ride story by Moss Hey School, each institution and student brought something new and vibrant to the exhibition, inspiring all. This, after all, is what it’s about; inspiring future generations to explore their creative sides, whether through the written word or drawn image, every message is important.

Caroline Coleman is in her third year, soon to be a graduate, studying English Literature with Sociology at MMU. Her passions are writing, eating and cooking and she hopes to one day write for a food magazine. Visit her blog here. 

Curtis Keeps Calamity Under Control

Curtis Jobling – Raa Raa the Noisy Lion and Friends 30th June 2012, 11am-12pm, MMU Geoffrey Manton building

Words and photographs by Sophie Bannister

The Family Fun Day begins in my very own Friday morning lecture theatre, but today, unlike those oh-so-difficult early mornings, it is a magical sight. Paw prints adorn the stairs and smiling papier-mâché animals creep in the corners of the room. Raa Raa has pride of place; his pictures watch over the young audience from the podium at the front. This is such an enticing environment – perfect for the little eyes that begin to enter the room.

The parents, too, seem excited for the upcoming workshop, with those who have already seen Curtis Jobling, creator of hit cartoons Bob the Builder, Raa Raa the Noisy Lion and Frankenstein’s Cat, singing his praises. ‘He’s marvellous,’ gushes one mum to another. The room’s expectations seem suddenly heightened. Yet a question hangs on every parent’s lips; can Curtis manage to engage the squealing toddlers that make up a large portion of the audience? It seems a very difficult challenge to undertake.

Finally, as the noise in the room reaches its utmost crescendo, Curtis Jobling is introduced to the audience.

He begins by talking about animation and his role in it. More for the benefit of the parents and older children, his insights are littered with entertaining jokes and examples, opening up wide the world of animation for us. However, as our audience today is made up of some very small people, Curtis does not dwell on the technical side of his vocation. Instead, he whips out a story book and begins to read. The restless children are immediately captivated as they watch the story unfold on the screen; Dinosaurs After Dark and My Daddy are real winners with the little ones.

‘Who wants to see some cartoons?’ cries Curtis to a resounding cheer from the audience. Stories and cartoons are definitely a winning combination for this audience. We are treated to short clips of Curious Cow, a series of interstitials that Curtis created for children’s television channel, Nickelodeon. These are predominantly aimed at children slightly older than his toddler fans but nonetheless, they raise laughter from the viewers.

Raa Raa the Noisy Lion, the star of the show, is next up, and a small girl who cried all the way through Curious Cow abruptly stops. Raa Raa is a favourite with Curtis’ youngest critics. The only noise from them is their prompted roars as the title sequence kicks off. The episode finds children and adults alike joining in, banging, clapping and singing. An ensuing round of applause shows how much the audience enjoyed Curtis’ handy work.

We’re all told to grab our pens and paper next, as Curtis begins to demonstrate how he draws his best-loved characters. Bob the Builder, Raa Raa and animals of all shapes and sizes are practised by everyone, though nobody seems to be able to draw quite like Curtis.

The session ends with laughter and praise from all. Curtis managed to handle his young audience very well, and by incorporating many of his varied works, kept people of all ages engaged and entertained. He definitely managed to bring out the inner child in us adults!

My attempt at drawing Bob the Builder

Sophie Bannister has just completed her first year studying English Literature at Manchester Metropolitan University. She hopes to complete a Master’s degree after her time at MMU. MCBF has given her the boost she needed to start her own blog and showcase her work. Read her blog here.

Mother Tongue Other Tongue Winners Celebration

Winning Ceremony of the 2012 Mother Tongue Other Tongue Competition, Saturday 30th June, 3pm, Geoffrey Manton Building, Lecture Theatre 2.

While our MTOT workshops were being delivered across a number of schools around Greater Manchester, children from Years 7-13 had begun to jot down the roots of their prize winning poems, either in their Mother Tongue or their Other Tongue. With over 550 entries, our judges read, translated, chuckled and scraped chins off the floor as their minds were blown away from the incredible content written from these fearless young poets. 

In order to celebrate this talent and creativity, we want to invite you all; students, parents, family, friends, neighbours, acquaintances, anyone and everyone, to come join us for music, dance and poetry to help celebrate the wonderful work that the pupils have created, a lot of which will be on display.

However, stay calm. To keep you from gnawing those nails in suspense to see who won, we have listed them for you here, below. 

Mother Tongue Winners:

1st Prize (Years 7-9) Elisaveta Zaharia, Levenshulme High School

1st Prize (Years 10-13) Jan Frederick Poblete, St Bede's School, Bradford

2nd Prize (Years 7-9) Sakinah Ndiaye, Bolton Muslim Girls' School

2nd Prize (Years 10-13) Catherine Zheng, Withington Girls' School

Other Tongue Winners: 

1st Prize (Years 7-9) JJ Tonge, Cheadle Hulme High School

1st Prize (Years 10-13) Isobel Buckingham, Altrincham Grammar School for Girls

2nd Prize (Years 7-9) Emily Davenport, Holy Family RC and CE College, Heywood

2nd Prize (Years 10-13) Weronika Sobol, St Gabriel's R.C. High School, Bury

There was a large number of entries which we just couldn't overlook, and have given them a special commendation for capturing the spirit of the competition. 

• Tasneem Aiar, William Hulme's Grammar School
• Sawsan Ghawnazi, Manchester Academy
• Anina Nica, Levenshulme High School
• Bradley Simpson, Cronton Sixth Form College
• Amy Chiu, Altrincham Grammar School for Girls
• Sam Such & Rhys Smalley, Irlam & Cadished College
• Antonia Peilober-Richardson, Loreto Grammar School

The winning entries will be published on posters, which will be sent out to schools shortly. 

Congratulations to the winners and to all the children who entered.

Illustrating & Creating

Emma Reynolds Illustrates, Saturday 30th June, Geoffrey Manton Building

Grab a friend, family member, Festival volunteer or a fellow book fanatic for a fun afternoon of character creation! Come and play 'Picture Consequences' with two or more people (or just have a draw if you fancy!) and create a unique selection of original characters. 

Each person starts by drawing the head, then folds the drawing over and passes it along to the next person to draw the body, and again for the legs, and lastly the feet. The best part is unfolding it at the end and looking at the hilarious results and combinations that have been made. It's a great way to loosen you up, have some fun, and inspire you with your own characters, creativity and stories.

Emma is a freelance illustrator from Manchester, with a passion for narrative story telling, creating characters and producing original and whimsical illustrations. She will be on hand throughout the Family Fun Day running the workshop, and will also be live tweeting and blogging about the event from dawn till dusk. Emma is also going to be writing blog posts on various other events throughout the festival, including the Waterstone's Deansgate Children's Party, so keep an eye out for her posts here on the official MCBF Blog.

You can follow Emma on her personal blog at Emma Illustruation, on twitter @emmaillustrate and on Facebook. If you want more, you can visit her website too, here.

Update From The Directors

With less than two weeks to go until the 2012 Manchester Children's Book Festival begins, there's still time to take part.  

See here for details of all events.  Check the website for returns, or call Quay Tickets on 0843 208 0500 if you were previously unable to book on for your favourite author event.  There have been some returned tickets, particularly for events running during the school day.  These were previously marked as SOLD OUT on the website but, try again, you might be lucky this time.  

After our two-day conference for teachers 'Survive and Subvert' on Thursday and Friday 29th June, and the official launch event, the programme of public events starts on Saturday 30th June with our free to enter Family Fun Day.  Places are still available for this.  See here for details and to download the full schedule.

For a Family Fun Day event flyer see here .  If you're based in a school please print these off and make sure your pupils have copies - it's free and open to everyone.  There are also some ticketed author events (see here for details).  Schools can make group bookings for this by emailing mcbfschools@mmu.ac.uk.  

If you want to mark the end of the school year with a bang, or a twirl round the dance floor - it's not too late to book your places at the Festival Gala Dinner. Join Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy and Coronation Street creator, Tony Warren at the luxury Midland Hotel for an evening of excellent food and dancing.  Proceeds from this event will be ringfenced for future book festival projects in local inner-city schools.  For details of this event see here

Even if you can't make any of our events this time, though, you don't need to wait until 2014 to be involved.  Our Reading and Writing Relay will run from Mon 2nd - Friday 6th July and, wherever you are, you can join in.  See here to find out just how easy it is to take part.

You can also read all about the Festival via our News and Events link to the Festival blog pages and get regular updates via Facebook and Twitter.  See www.mcbf.org.uk for links to all of these.    

We're looking forward to seeing many of you over the next few weeks, 

All best wishes

James Draper Director (Public Events)

Kaye Tew Director (Education)

Poetry For The People

4th, 7th & 8th July, Manchester


MCBF has three poetry events set to wrap up the final few days of the festival. Although you're probably already aware of them, here's for those of you who aren't. 

Wednesday, 4th July, 6:30 - 7:45pm - Royal Northern College of Music
Ian McMillan, presenter of BBC Radio 3's 'The Verb' and Luke Carver Goss, composer/performer, meet up again to present a lively and unusual night of poems, music and improv.
Click here for booking information

Saturday, 7th July, 5 - 6:30pm - Zion Arts Centre
Michael Rosen, a popular favourite of kids and childish adults, puts on a family poetry show at a local arts centre. He's non-stop, hilarious and will probably end up telling you about his centrally heated knickers. 
Click here for booking information

Sunday, 8th July, 3pm - Royal Exchange Theatre
Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and the ever-energetic musician John Sampson get together for a musical poetry show for our official closing event. Definitely a magical, musical wonderland waiting to be entered. On top of this fantastic ending to our festival, you will have a chance to meet John and his amazing Middle Eastern and age-forgotten instruments, as well as Carol Ann signing copies of her books. Come willing and come prepared. 
Click here for booking information

Fantastilicious Family Fun Day

Saturday 30th June, 10am - 4pm, MMU Manchester Campus'

In little over a fortnight MCBF will celebrate the opening of this year's festival with a friendly, free, family, fun day. The joyful caffufle happens around MMU's Geoffrey Manton Building, All Saint's Campus and the Holden Gallery from 10am until 4pm. Six hours should give you more than enough time to visit us, flex those creative muscles, listen to stories or run around enjoying yourself (adults too!). 

Let me take a deep breath and I'll tell you what we have on. 

There will be: interactive and creative workshops of arts and crafts for kids, teens and adults, puppetry, storytelling, illustrations, exhibitions, competitions, cuddly characters and zombie invasions. There's a space for all to practice the delicate art of paint-throwing, which should give each artist a chance to make their name in the world of abstract art. Our Man Met Munchers are concocting some exciting munchies that will also be given away throughout the day. 

However you choose to spend your time, remember this. If the zombies start closing in, you can hide behind one of the cuddlies (zombie kryptonite), or hide in our multi-lingual storytelling tent, open for you to find refuge and comfort with some happy tales. 

If none of the above appeals to you (a crazy thought, I know), do not fret. From 11am we have ticketed author events that include creator of Bob the Builder, Ra Ra the Noisy Lion and Frankenstein's Cat, Curtis Jobling, children's poet, Jackie Kay, author of the Emily Windsnap series, Liz Kessler and the wild and wacky world creator, Steve Cole. 

Everybody who is anybody will be there so make sure you are too!