Published 07.05.2014
by Kids’ Own
by Kids’ Own
A children�s arts organisation and publishing house.
A children�s arts organisation and publishing house.
Kids’ Own is currently working with Go Dungarvan and Waterford children on a Smarter Travel book project, exploring how we travel from place and place and how we might do it differently. Here, artist Sharon Kelly fills us in on what’s been happening and what the project means to her personally:
Soaking up the sights and sounds of journeys
The Smarter Travel project has been really interesting for lots of reasons. One of them has been that I have gotten to visit Dungarvan and it’s such a beautiful place! As an artist I am interested in how we find meaning in our experiences, more recently focusing on the act of running which I like to do in the outdoors. So thematically I was very excited to get on board. We have worked with the children to hear what they have to say about how they get around and to encourage them to think about what they see, hear and feel. For example, in response to questions about what they saw on a walking journey, one child said: “I saw the biggest puddle. It’s not white but a different kind of white.”
The voice of the child at the heart of the process
In terms of the process for the project, we have allowed the voice of the child to inspire us: In one instance we worked on a large group map / drawing made of intersecting and over-lapping lines which each child had added to. When I asked what all these lines were doing, a child offered this wonderful description: “The lines are resting on each other.” This prompted us to think about journeys that other people have made over similar terrain and so we suggested the children might ask their parents and grandparents about their own journeys to school. This was a way of involving several generations and for the children to experience a sense of continuity – like a path – with others.
Experiencing the elements
Another theme in the project has been the importance of being outside and experiencing the elements. Making journeys by car may remove us from the elements, but walking, cycling and running allows us to use our own bodies to get places! We can take in what we see, hear, feel and think and in this way the act of walking or cycling becomes special to us – more than just the act of getting somewhere as fast as possible.
Kids’ Own is working with children from Le Cheile Community Childcare Service, Little School of Montessori, Scoil Garbhain, and St Mary’s National School on Smarter Travel and a brand new book resulting from these explorations will be published in the autumn.