Colvestone School, Hackney

One of the underpinning principles of the DOG Sculpture Installation was the desire of the artist to provide something of value to her community. As a consequence she has set up and run sculpture workshops for primary school children in the boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Hackney. The idea behind these was not to bring the children into the DOG Sculpture as "workers" or "contributors" but to bring them in as artistic partners.


For this to work Takayama provided the structure of a sculpture making workshop but did not define the form. In this manner the children, with their teacher, could decide on their own artistic ambitions within the remit of their existing educational programme. The idea was for the children to create their own sculpture which they could see in the context of Takayama's public art work and perhaps consider their own artistic future in the process.

Each school involved in the workshops took their own approach, tailored the sculpture construction to relate to existing classroom deliveries. This is the advantage to the schools and the teachers of the approach Akane Takayama has taken; she hasn't sought to impose an "art agenda" on the schools but provide an "art opportunity" which the schools can fit within their own educational management schedule and adapt the workshop content to support that schedule.


The skills and imagination are plain for all to see. As you look through these models consider the detail and imagination these children have employed.