the lab
A long term Creative Partnerships project with Ridgewood Community High School in Burnley exploring how an artist led investigation could help pupils and staff settle into their new building.
The school had been based at its old site for a long time. While the new campus offered fantastic facilities, many felt it also created a lot of rules that restricted how it could be used.
We started by leading a series of creative explorations of the space with pupils in Y9 that explored and exposed feelings about the new space, and the loss of the old school. Through this process, we identified a need for staff to feel able to lead pupils to customise the space, stamp their mark and make it theirs, while staying within the terms of what was allowed by the school's lease agreement.
We set up a creative space within the school for staff called 'The Lab'. The Lab provided a space for staff to put their heads together and share ideas about how the school could be used. We facilitated a number of workshops that developed techniques brought from our creative practice to adapt them for use in the school.
The project has left a lasting impact in the school which now relies little on notice boards and uses its corridors and ceilings as its display spaces.