'Imagine the Rumpus' Workshop 2 PLANNING

Activity and Workshop Planner

Aim/ Key learnings: This workshop aims to allow 5-10 year olds to develop ideas and build on them together in a fun, play based setting. The ideas will be recorded as drawings, models, recordings. The emphasis will be on developing a narrative this week.

Age group: 5-10yrs

Method: Family group workshop

Ratio Participant/Facilitator: 4 artists to 5 family groups of 5

Duration: 90 mins

Materials required: Coloured paper, Felt pens, Scissors, Glue, Sticky tape, Pipe cleaners, Paddle pop sticks, Paper cups, Plasticine, Raw brown card.

Preparation required: Meet with Marianna (writer) to plan Narrative development Print out reference for Elephant and water rat sculpture story starter. Organise materials and space with Rena

Aim of workshop: To collect and document the ideas that show potential to be used in The Great and Grand Rumpus installation at the Edge.

Facilitators: Sue , Marianna, Mari, Tim

Is a feedback form required? No

Marketing and communications tools: We need a team of advisers, story tellers, artists to join in our play based workshop to help us come up with the ideas for The Great and Grand Rumpus Installation

Venue Requirements: Breakout play space, Tables and chairs, open blinds for people to see in.

Is a media release form required? No

Activity Details

10.30 min

• Welcome and name tags - come up with a team name • We collect names and email addresses of the families participating

10.35 min

• What are we are doing today? ‘We have run out of ideas and we need your help to come up with some more.’

10.40

• Group story game led by Marianna • The starting point of the sculpture outside the library was chosen to start a story game where kids contributed what happens next in the story.

11.00

• Drawing challenge (these are interchangeable) • Draw something from the story and create your own story • Draw who or what you would invite to a party • Draw your perfect place for a party.

11.15

• Continue the drawing into crafting a model • Introduce the idea of building a world with the blue blocks that extends play beyond the craft. • How can the craft interact with the space created by the blocks?

11.30

• Sue starts to document the ideas that have come about. • Other artists ask the participants to reflect on what they have made and inform the documentation.

11.45

• Break out play is winding up • Final group reflections • Any group activity that might create a party

11.55

• Clean up

12.00

• Finish

'Imagine the Rumpus' Workshop 2 REFLECTIONS

Title and facilitator/s: Sue Loveday, Mari Hirata, Marianna Shek, Tim Mullooly

Attendants and ages: Morning session - 9 (incl adults). Afternoon session - 5 (incl adults)

Aim of Workshop: Come up with various stories involving Kuril the water rat trying to get a golden pear from the top of the bodhi tree

Inspiring quotes from young people:

First workshop ‘The elephant sucked up all the water and spit it out from its nose. Max’s $2 got stuck up the elephant’s nostril but we got the world back.’

Second workshop Not a quote but some positive feedback: One parent skipped their next activity because their child was having so much fun (dancing)

Stand out ideas or outcomes:

1st workshop: • Shark herder riding the shark. • There is an emergency button on the sharks back. Press it and it ‘controls the world’

2nd workshop:

• Planets and universes • Where did the world come from? • Star making bull frog: the bull frog sucked up the water from the Brisbane river, floated up to space, then sprayed it all over space as stars • The water rat loved cheese and ate the moon (which was made from cheese)

Things to consider next workshop: • Go back to the hat game, to generate more broad ideas • Then in week 4, return to the ‘Then what happened’ game using another story scenario for deeper levels of story development from the hat game. • When discussing the narrative development we will need to Consider appropriation of the name ‘Kuril’. Is it possible to feature a water rat with a different name?

Specific outcomes required in the next workshop: Ideas for the upside down world

Are there completed media release forms?: No

Are there completed feedback forms?: No

What was challenging and how was this handled?

• In the ‘Then what happened’ group storybuilding game, it’s easier for introverted children to miss the chance to present their ideas if they are shouted down by the more gregarious kids. This is different than the ‘choose from the hat’ game, where we could take a more orderly approach.

• However, when we went around individually to work with the kids, we made sure to listen to their stories and assured them they could vary the story as much as they like from the group work. Sue also went around recording all of their stories so that the introverted kids felt that their contributions were properly acknowledged.

To run this exact workshop again, how would I do it differently? • We were pretty happy with the way the workshop ran.