My name is Adele McIntosh, I am an Early Years Officer at Denny PS ELC and I have worked here for almost three years. At Denny I have been fortunate enough to be able to take my passion for art forward as one of my leadership projects.

I have a keen interest and passion for art. During my spare time I like to paint, although I feel it is important to share that I am not the best artist myself. I also enjoy visiting art galleries when on holiday.

In early 2020 I introduced “Artist of the Moment”. Artist of the Moment is a provocation and invitation to learn more about art as well as specific artists and their work. By exposing children to these opportunities I believe they have developed their curiosity, creativity and enquiry skills, and I am hopeful they will begin to develop a love of art, just like myself.  Artist of the Moment has been successful here at Denny which proves you do not have to be a great artist yourself to embrace this.

I first introduced Artist of the Moment in early 2020 in the months before we went into lockdown. We explored Steven Brown, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Picasso. The children responded extremely well to these artists and demonstrated high levels of engagement. When we went into lockdown it did not stop us; as while sending out ideas to parents over the next two months we sent out artists and images that the children could engage with from home.

2021 has been very exciting as this academic year we have been back to “almost normal” and this has given us a great opportunity to fully embed Artist of the Moment into our practice as a whole ELC team. I recently used quality improvement methodology to embed this further into our practice. The PDSA model has enabled myself and my colleagues to remain consistent in this approach. Due to the success of Artist of the Moment, we have now adopted this approach. After writing this blog I am hoping I can help other educators to scale and spread this in their own settings.

I have made a plan for the year of the different artists we will explore however, I am always responsive and flexible depending on children’s changing interests.  For example our children showed an interest in sewing activities which led me to adapt my plan and provide the provocation of a fashion designer. While creating my plans I take into account important events written in our long term planner such as Guy Fawkes and Burns celebrations. I also consider the seasons and months of the year that fit in better with a specific artist’s style of work and artists who use interesting methods to keep providing new, fun and engaging experiences.

I have worked hard to make Artist of the Moment visible in our environment. In the creative area I display a selection of images of our Artist of the Moments work as well as a picture of the artist with some information about them such as; their name, where they live and the style of art we are looking at. One set of images are hung up above the creative table as a permanent fixture for the month and another set is able to be used on the table or the floor so children can look at them more closely. Fortunately my colleagues are very supportive and when they are in the creative area they facilitate discussions and take the learning deeper if children show a keen interest in this.

In October 2021, we embarked again on our Artist of the Moment journey by exploring the work of Steven Brown. The children were drawn to these pictures due to the colours and created their own versions. This naturally led to a lot of investigation into colour mixing. In November 2021, we explored the work of Jackson Pollock and linked this into the festival of Guy Fawkes, where we were exploring bonfires and fireworks. The children used marbling techniques to create beautiful Jackson Pollock inspired paintings. In January 2022, we learned about Andy Scott the Scottish artist who made the Kelpies and other wonderful sculptures around Scotland. While learning about his style of art we introduced junk modelling to the children where they designed and created their own masterpieces. In February 2022, we looked at the fashion design creations of Vivienne Westwood. Children had the opportunity to repurpose old clothes and materials to create their own designs. They cut, glued, painted and sewed the materials and I must say they looked fantastic. They also then showed off their work on the catwalk. In March 2022, we investigated Yayoi Kusama’s polka dot sculptures. During this month we introduced the medium of clay to the children which has been extremely popular with children asking for it on the days it has not yet been available. As a result of this we are going to be looking at embedding this as part of our core provision when we move to our new ELC. Children have enjoyed exploring the texture of clay and have been experimenting with adding water. The children’s confidence has grown and some of the sculptures have been amazing! Once dry children have completed the process by painting them and taking them home to their families. The feedback from families has been very positive.

In the coming months I plan to provide opportunities for children to explore Pointillism by Georges Seurat and Portraits by looking at Calum Stevenson a local artist who recently won Portrait Artist of the Year. There are also many more artists and techniques that I look forward to introducing to the children in the next academic year.

If you think this sounds interesting and feel you would like to implement Artist of the Moment in your own setting then I would be more than happy to offer support and share my resources to help get you started.  You can contact me on my glow email address:  gw13rentonadele@glow.sch.uk

It is definitely easier to implement than you may think and the children have significantly benefitted from the experience, it supports planning for the creative area and links to all Experiences and Outcomes linked to Art in the Curriculum. I have also started a dedicated twitter page @ArtistMomentELC to keep you up to date with our journey at Denny and so you can share your journey with us too.

Please have a look at the video link to see many more images and videos of our Artist of the Moment journey over the past 6 months: https://youtu.be/Yx2X1uVWtxM