Art Kits and Collage Kits have been piloted by tutors in their adult literacy group(s).

Pilot 1  - Carried out by a literacy/art tutor in a Senior Traveller Training Centre.

Initially I planned to carry out the project with my adult literacy learners but this proved impossible because:

• I work with my learners by withdrawing them from their classes and the art project needed too much time. The learners would miss too much of their other classes.
  
• I work in a small room, which is shared with other groups. The room has to be left clean and tidy after use and as this project is quite messy it would take time to clean up afterwards.
  
• There is no storage or place to keep the art materials in this room.
  
• It was proving difficult to organise the project with my literacy learners so I decided to carry it out in my art class.
  
• Five Traveller women and one Social Studies student who was on work placement in the centre carried out the project on 3rd May 2005.
  
• The learners were told about the project a week before it was carried out and asked if they were willing to give it a go. There was some reluctance but the majority were in favour.
  
• The session began with an exercise on equality using potatoes. There was very little direction given when the art materials were produced and the learners found this difficult, as they like to be told what way to do things.
  
• The abstract nature of the exercise caused confusion and the participants asked for instructions and requested glue and sellotape. Some of the learners commented that it seemed a bit childish.
  
• There was not enough foam / polystyrene in the pack for the artwork.
  
• Two learners chose to work together and they really enjoyed the session. Once the artwork began there was no discussion about equality or literacy but instead they explored the materials, cutting, sharing, chatting and offering each other pieces of the materials.
  
• The learners were quite inventive with the materials and ended up with unique pieces, which were very different to each other. Some included the potato, which was used for the opening exercise.
  
• Two learners said that they would love to do the exercise again. They liked the variety of materials and the bright colours.
  
• Two said that they enjoyed doing i_ but did not see the point of making something that was not a real or useful thing.
  
• One learner said that the whole thing was stupid. When asked to name her piece she named it 'Stupid'.
  
• The student in our session loved the exercise and seemed imaginative and unafraid to explore and test the materials.
  
• The learners did not want others to see their work as they felt that it looked a bit silly. There was nowhere to keep the finished pieces as they were bulky, and I had to take them apart the next day.
  
• The art kit is not really useful for the FET AC drawing module that I teach my learners.
  
• As I delivered the session I was also a learner exploring the possibilities of the exercise.
  
• 1 would like to have a training session myself and expiore the exercise with others before offering it to learners again. Based on my experience I would be able to decide what learners it might suit and tailor the exercise to meet their needs.