BLUEBERRYACADEMY
CREATIVITYINYORK
“There’s a lot of bad news at the moment, a lot of apathy. Angels in art can be an antidote to that.” Greg McGee, charity director
CREATIVITY APPEARS WHEN ANGELS ARE NEAR
Draw with Denmark started during the Covid pandemic in 2021 and moved from a Danish charity event to a UNESCO Global campaign focused around creative and positive messages of hope Draw with Denmark has involved children and young people in 45 countries and in citiesfromallcontinentsacrosstheworld, and has released a very special magic along with thousands of drawings. The programme has caught the imagination and featured on BBC News and BBC Look North. There have been exhibitions, involving drawings by children in York schools, at the National Gallery in Copenhagen, and at the UNESCO Creative Cities’ Annual Conference in Braga,PortugalandinCali,attheUNESCO Conference in Paris, and in Wuhan, in ChinaandinYork.
From 2025 the focus for ‘Draw with Demark’ will be ‘Angels of Hope’ and REACH (York's Cultural Education Partnership) now invites children and young people in York to take part in this global drawing campaign! Children and young people are being asked to create drawings of Angels that will send messages of hope around the world. There are 20 drawing challenges and children can take part by creating a drawing, collage, painting, or animation (eg GIF)analogicallyordigitally
Blueberry Academy created a collaborativeworkofart-‘AngelWings’and chronicled it with professional camerasandediting.
Blueberry’s participants shared a whole range of aspirations - family, friends, places, memories, pets, plans. It was humbling to witness the creativity in response to a question we should all think about - who lifts US up when we’re lookingforinspiration?
WORKING WITH THE WORKING WITH THE
YOUNG ARTISTS OF YOUNG ARTISTS OF BLUEBERRY ACADEMY BLUEBERRY ACADEMY
There was a lot to build on, so with an empathetic start from a video from Amnesty International, and an introduction from guest speaker Clare Willis of Refugee Action York, we prepared for communal, complementary compositions with the arrival of York's civic party, the Lord Mayor of York and the Lord Mayor’s consort.
The Citizenship and Wellbeing's sessions built on the great work already established We talked about what it is to have hope, what it is to have a lack of hope, and how both can help us empathise with the refugee experience and other people are currently in difficulties
DISCUSSING ASPIRATIONS AND OPTIMISM
After a Q&A session from the civic party, we consolidated our artwork, using Posca Brand markers, ink and printed type, and a large collaboration, with everyone's art included in coloured feathers, all cocreated with the civic party
The sessions, using traditional skills and digital photography, unpacked ideas such as safety, injustice, belongings, and, crucially, who or what is that gives YOU strength to carry on?
Art may not fix everything but it ensures the light of empathy continues to glow.
A N G E L S O F B L U E B E R R Y
ANGELS OF CREATIVITY
BLUEBERRY ACADEMY, THE CIVIC PARTY, AND REFUGEE ACTION YORK
‘What raises YOU up?’
As part of their Citizenship and Wellbeing outreach we focused on this question: 'what raises YOU up?' By working on a communal set of angel wings in collaboration with the Lord Mayor York we learned a lot about ourselves and what we're reaching for, not only for ourselves but as a community and as a city “The tensions are the same, and so is the misinformation,” says Christine Nolan from Refugee Action York, “Research also shows that the larger the numbers of migrants involved, the harder it is for members of the public to maintain compassion, especially in a small city like York ”
Says Refugee Action York’s Clare Willis after working with learner at Blueberry Academy, “I really enjoyed my session at the Academy; it’s so good to see the students expressing their positivity and optimism through artwork, and their interest and curiosity is very welcome in today’s somewhat dark world I was given a warm welcome from the learners Their creativity inspired by the work Refugee Action York does and other refugee stories was sensitive and respectful I enjoyed getting creative too ”Focusing on York's 'City of Sanctuary' status, the Lord Mayor of York Margaret Wells focused on the welcome we can offer to refugees as something worth aspiring to "At a time when we need more tolerance and understanding, in York we are lucky to have places like Blueberry Academy and charities like Refugee Action York, leading the way, giving us hope and making our City an even better and more friendlier place, not just for those seeking sanctuary but for us all " As far as imagining angels goes, a welcome for a tired traveller is ALWAYS a good one
It was a great project and we are hugely grateful to both the Blueberry Academy staff and the learners: so far we have had Manga illustrations, photography, and communal designs of feathers and wings. All art will be exhibited digitally internationally. There is a short film forthcoming, awaiting approval.
Let’s stay arty, let’s stay aspirational!
