beginning at Start

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This week was the beginning of my placement with Start in Salford. Ben, the head of the charity organisation, took mine and the other students working on placement here’s skills and art disciplines into consideration and placed us in different classes in the centre. As I have worked a lot this year with digital print making I am very competent with using Illustrator and Photoshop, so I have been put in a photography workshop and can help with any needs they have with computers and digital manipulation etc. I also love drawing and painting, so am happy to have been put with the Core Project, a workshop that works with people with long and enduring mental health issues, in the Visual arts group.

In the induction session Ben showed us round the entire centre, which is in a converted church and is a very welcoming and friendly place. I met the staff I’ll be working with for the next six weeks, they seem lovely.

My first day was interesting. In the visual arts class I acted almost as another member! It was a very quiet class of about six members, so there was little to do apart from help people set up their work spaces, and really just give them encouragement, which helps build up confidence and self esteem. Most people in the class are doing their entry level qualification in visual arts, so at the moment are getting work done for their portfolios. It is a twenty week project that began in January, so everyone is well into their work, already working on their preferred methods of working, and looking at artists that can relate to their own work.

In the afternoon was the photography class. It was a much smaller class, so I worked one to one with a bloke on Photoshop, helping him to manipulate his photography from a previous class. This helped me to hone my teaching skills, I enjoyed helping him to produce work he was proud of!