Awesome Aboriginal Arts Award project at Iffley Academy

Throughout the Autumn term of 2016 we worked with a Key Stage 4 class at Iffley Academy in Oxford on a print-making project inspired by Aboriginal Art in the Pitt Rivers Museum.  Iffley Academy is a community Special Academy for children and young people up to the age of 18 with special educational needs. Each of the participating students created an Arts Award Explore portfolio as part of the project. Arts Award Explore is a nationally recognised Entry Level 1 Qualification. 

We began the term by meeting each other on skype. The class prepared a series of questions for me (I am the secondary education officer at the Museum) about the Pitt Rivers Museum and what I do here. It was a great chance to ‘e-meet’ each other and talk about what we were going to do in the project before I visited the school for the first time.

After that I visited the school, when I took along a selection of Aboriginal objects from our handling collection.  These included two boomerangs with painted designs, woven baskets and large reproductions of some of the beautiful Aboriginal paintings in the collection. We learnt about how to handle delicate objects carefully, and thought about what these things were made out of and what they were used for. For example how skilled Aboriginal basket weavers are and how they make baskets out of natural materials. We then discovered a bit about Aboriginal culture and painting. We discovered how ancient Aboriginal culture is, and how many artworks depict scenes and figures from the Dreaming. The Dreaming is the word outsiders use to describe the way Aborigines look at the world. It is based upon timeless stories featuring mythological creatures and ancestors, whose actions resulted in the creation of the landscape, animals and the Aboriginal people.

Next each student did a drawing and took a photograph of their favourite object.

Dilly bag made of pandanus fibre, 

painted with red ochre 

© Pitt Rivers Museum 

Woven basket made of pandanus fibre

© Pitt Rivers Museum 

Curved boomerang with painted decoration of a 

kangaroo © Pitt Rivers Museum  

Replica boomerang with painted decoration of a geko
© Pitt Rivers Museum 

Then came the students’ trip to the museum. It was fantastic to welcome the group here. They came with so many questions and put their drawing skills to full use. We took a close look at the Aboriginal paintings and also visited the Conversation studio and the Education team office.

Students visiting the colourful Pitt Rivers Education Office © Pitt Rivers Museum

Looking at painting by the artist Yirawala,
from the Gunwingg community in Northem
Arnhem Land. The painting is on bark and
is of the Rainbow Snake, done in the
'X-ray style' of painting © Pitt Rivers Museum

Painting on canvas by the artist 
Judy Napangardi Watson, 1994.43.1 
© Pitt Rivers Museum

Drawing in the Museum © Pitt Rivers Museum

Drawing in the Museum © Pitt Rivers Museum

After the visit each student created their own poster about the Museum, presenting all their research so far. Then they chose one of their drawings to turn into a printed design. After that the textile artist Ellen Love came into school for an amazing collagraph printing workshop. The students transferred their designs onto a printing board, then used a special safe cutting knife to mark their design into the board.  

They then built up textures by cutting aware more cardboard, or adding small pieces of masking tape. Ellen showed us how to add ink to the board (using gloves!) and then make sure excess ink was removed using a special piece of muslin cloth called ‘scrim’. Finally it was time to use Ellen’s printing press! Each student made three prints from their board.

Inking the board © Pitt Rivers Museum

Scrubbing with the 'scrim' to remove excess ink
© Pitt Rivers Museum 

Board ready for printing © Pitt Rivers Museum

Placing the board on the collagraph printing press
© Pitt Rivers Museum

Placing the board on the collagraph printing press
© Pitt Rivers Museum

Revealing the print © Pitt Rivers Museum

Revealing the print © Pitt Rivers Museum

After our workshop with Ellen, students carried on working on two of their prints to add more colour and texture.

Once all the artwork was complete it was time to make a presentation about what we’d learnt and what we’d made. The students used the excellent ‘Explain Everything’ app to create a presentation about their learning and artwork. Some of the students chose also to present to Ellen and me in person.

Student presenting their project work to their teacher as part of
achieving their Arts Award Explore qualification
© Pitt Rivers Museum

A huge well done to all eleven students for completing their Arts Award portfolios, creating some truly beautiful work, and for learning about lots of different aspects of Aboriginal art and culture.  

- 

Katherine Rose

Education Officer (Secondary and FE)

Pitt Rivers Museum