This image Many young people that come through Art Block end up in the creative professions
they were celebratory, symbolic, treasures. ‘It made these young people think differently about technology. ‘I have a geeky love for analogue film – you
only get three minutes on a roll, so you have to think very carefully about what you want to shoot. Tey really took to using it. Tey made a film that documents the experience.’ Also on the panel was Sarah Onile, who
is a long-time beneficiary of SLG’s outreach activities. She started with their Saturday school (the Shop of Possibilities), then joined Art Block around aged 15. She signed up to their older youth programme (Art Assassins, ages 16-21). And now, though she has a job as a prison nurse, she also finds time to work at Art Block as a community and learning assistant. She says: ‘Trough my work at SLG I’ve (seen the benefits of) engaging with young children to express their creativity in a positive way. Something like Art Block offers skills and experience they can carry far beyond the gallery walls.’ As we explored the Art Block, I chatted
with Leighann Morris, communities and learning programme manager. She had previously worked as a teacher at a local secondary school. Some of the same young people she had encountered there turned up to Art Block, and in this open, informal, child- centred space, their behaviour is transformed, she says. Many come through Art Block to end up in the creative professions, some even as gallery assistants here. A favourite Art Block anecdote for me was
that, when a pot of funding materialised and the youngsters were given a choice of either
Under the stewardship of director Margot Heller, the SLG has given first UK shows to many of the most exciting names in international and UK contemporary art
having a permanent flat-screen TV, which they could keep, or a swimming pool for just 24 hours (due to health and safety it had to be
temporary), they went for the swimming pool. I call that thinking like an artist. It will live in their memories for ever. Whereas TV… they can get that at home. It’s clear that, as Heller said at the event:
‘Te presence of (this space) has made a visible and significant difference.’ But she knows this is just a drop in the ocean – or in what is currently a desert of arts provision at all levels of state education. ‘What this project has demonstrated is that there is huge scope for social change through art. But it does need investment. Without core funding from government the whole thing collapses.’
PHOTO: SOUTH LONDON GALLERY
PHOTO: CHARLOTTE HENRY
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