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Insider Solutions
Case Studies 2004 - The Postcard Project
The Postcard Project | ||||||||||
A research and photography project involving young people in the creation of postcards promoting healthy living distributed to every 16 year old in Fife.
This project was a collaboration between Fife Council Arts Development & Community Education, Fife Primary Care NHS Trust (Health Promotions) and Dunfermline and West Fife LHCC (Local Health Care Co-operative). The Artist was Kenny Bean. Go To
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"Made you really think about each individual issue in more detail. We looked at each issue from all angles and took into consideration how it would be viewed and perceived by others." The health promotion officer, the young people's health development officer, arts co-ordinator and community education officer met in Fife and discussions led to the development of the postcard project. Health Promotions had already run a magazine campaign for young people dealing with health issues and had allocated money to do a similar project. The idea for the postcards came from a school leavers pack supported by Fife Council Community Services where postcards were used to provide information on getting young people into further education, training and work. The topics were researched by young people and clip-art had been used for the design of the cards. The arts coordinator saw that there was potential for increasing the visual impact of postcards by bringing in an artist to work with young people to create stronger images. The project could then also develop young peoples creativity and introduce them to new skills. The community education worker who manages The Point in Cowdenbeath (a training, information and resource centre for young people and youth workers) was interested in integrating more arts activity into their work exploring issues with young people. These were different for each organisation: Arts Development aimed to run four workshops integrating arts activity into the postcard project, through a fun project that engaged young peoples imaginations and released their creativity. Community Education's objective was to get the girls group to look at issues of health and well-being. Their objective for the young men's group was to explore how that information could be disseminated more widely. Health Promotion's/D & WF LHCCs objective was to inform young people about a range of health and well being issues in a way that would engage the teenage target audience and involve young people in creating the information.
The team realised that it would cost the same to have an artist working with the young people to create the images as it would to use a graphic designer to design the postcards. By working with an artist added value could be brought to the project; the young people would learn new skills through creating the images.
"Found everyday really exciting and couldn't wait for the next." D & WF LHCCs committed £3000 for the development and print of a series of postcards addressing healthy living issues for young people.
Photo-Lab Workshop Projects Fee £1100 This included 4 days of workshops, preparation, scanning and setting up a temporary darkroom, all materials and meeting time. In Kind Staff time: The arts coordinator and the Community Education Worker contributed their time in kind. Community Education also provided youth workers for the actual delivery of the project. Lap -top for project use. D & WF LHCCs are responsible for distribution of the postcards through schools. Planning and running the project Planning for the project began in September 2002. It was planned jointly by the community education officer and the arts coordinator. Community Education then ran the research aspect of the project between October 2002 - January 2003 at The Point, Cowdenbeath. The photography workshops took place in February and March 2003 at Cowdenbeath Leisure Centre co-ordinated by Arts Development in collaboration with Community Education. The photographer/artist devised the structure and content of these workshops and provided all materials. Print and production of the postcards was organised by Arts Development. Distribution of the postcards is the responsibility of D & WF LHCCs. The final key to the success of the project was getting the right artist involved. The arts coordinator was able to identify the needs of the project and match them with an artist. The limitations of the budget meant they would do the visual work over 4 days. They needed someone who would be able to establish a rapport with the group quickly, who was very experienced in what they do and could maximise the young peoples potential within this timescale. It was important for the young peoples confidence and for the success of the postcards that a quality product was produced and genuinely created by the young people. The small scale of the project did not merit advertising and recruiting an artist. The arts coordinator had worked previously with Photo-Lab Workshop Projects run by the artist Kenny Bean. She felt he would be ideal, found out if he was available and brought him in to work on the project. "Kenny showed us some amazing techniques/graphics that could be done using a computer." What was the structure/timing?
1. Research A group of eight girls aged between 11 to 15 worked with a youth worker at The Point. They discussed and researched issues around health and well-being. They chose a range of issues to make a postcard about, as follows:
For each issue they identified information and contact numbers to go on the back of the postcard. The text was checked by a health worker who filled in any gaps in the information. Due to staffing problems, it became difficult to sustain the group and the girls lost interest. At this point "Young Benarty for Change" (a youth forum group) was asked if they would get involved. They are a group of young men. They looked over the text, made a few adjustments from a male perspective, and agreed to take on the photography part of the project. "Boxed cameras were really cool, couldn't believe they took real pictures" 2. Photography workshops The photographer/artist devised the structure and content of the workshops and provided all materials. The group consisted of six young men aged between 14 - 17, and a youth worker who knew the young men and was enthusiastic about the arts. It ran for two weekends in a row. On the Friday afternoons the artist set up a temporary darkroom in Cowdenbeath Leisure Centre. Over the first weekend they discussed the issues, ideas for topics and subjects, photography and image making. They then created images using different types of photography. They used manual cameras to take photographs, printed from their negatives, made pinhole cameras and made photograms. (The photographer processed the films for them as the timescale was short). The second weekend consisted of more image making, further discussion of the issues, looking at the images created and selecting which ones to use for the postcard. These were then scanned into the computer by the artist (again because time was short) and then the group used Photoshop Elements to explore how they could manipulate the images and how best to say what they wanted to visually, with no words. On the last day there were only two participants however this was probably fortuitous as there was only one laptop to work on. "Good fun" 3. Printing and distributing postcards Arts Development organised the printing of the postcards and folder and the formatting of text and image for delivery to the printers. D & WF LHCCs distributed the postcards to all S4 pupils in schools in Fife. Informing the public The public dimension of producing the postcards for such wide distribution was a key aspect of the project. It provided a clear focus and challenge for the young people to engage with the issues and with creating the work. How did the youth worker and artist work together?
The youth worker felt that the artist was experienced and professional and was able to tune in to the needs of the project quickly. She felt that the outcomes were very creative and of good quality, and that the process had been clear and understandable. "Totally impressed by our final results" There were a small number of meetings between community education, arts development and health staff. There was one preliminary meeting with the artist. All other organisational communications were by telephone and e-mail. Evaluation was made through informal feedback from all involved. "Can we do more?" What was the impact/what's next? The young people and the youth workers experience of the photography workshops has been very positive and they are keen to build on this experience. The young men hope to continue working with photography to create an exhibition about the effects of drugs. They would like to work with the artist again and hope to find the money to do so. This illustrates how this project had helped develop the confidence and scope of Community Education's vision for integrating the arts more in their programme of work. Arts Development hope to build on the experience with community education and the NHS. They would like to develop more links and opportunities for Youth Workers and young people to access training and equipment for digital imaging. In that way skills can be developed 'in house' so that it activity is more easily sustained. Community education now own the software, Photoshop Elements bought for the project and can continue to use it with their young people.
Transport is a key issue for working with groups of young people, especially in more rural areas. They had to hire a mini-bus and driver for the project. If there are existing professional facilities available it is worth transporting your participants to the facilities rather than trying to set up new facilities. It is important that the young people have ownership of the project and are set a challenge. Otherwise there is a danger they may think that they are just cheaper than a designer. When bringing an artist in to work with a group for a short time the success of the project is transformed by the involvement of an enthusiastic youth worker who already has a good relationship with the participants. |
Added Value
Budgeted Costs
The project ran in three stages:
The artist emphasised the importance of the youth worker in making a project like this work well. He explained how on a 4 day project he depended on the support of the youth worker and their existing relationship with the participants. The youth worker's relationship with participants was very good and she was able to 'translate' and help motivate discussions with the young men as she knew them well and knew how far to push things. Her enthusiasm for the work helped the project to run successfully too. 
The benefits from a collaboration when there is clarity of roles, aims and expectations.