| |
Date Posted: 2003-09-22 15:51:12
Author: Rebecca
Hi everyone,
Wow! I'm not really sure how to begin - there are so many ideas, thoughts and questions in my mind at the moment after the first workshop for Hearsay. The workshop and visit to Baxter was extremely motivating, interesting and emotional. Karen Hadfield, myself, Siv and John were involved in the first workshop - I think we all went into the workshops with many mix feelings. I personally had a mixture of feelings, both nervousness and excitement. Nervousness in the unknown - not knowing the level of depression of detainees, if they would have the motivation to engage with us and in the project, or if anyone would come along to the workshops! Also excitement - being involved in a project which could possibly provide some hope, stimulation, positiveness to the detainees we come in contact with. Over the last few weeks I have been speaking with many people who regularly visit some of the detainees (as friends) and have been going into Baxter to conduct workshops. Through speaking with these people and receiving emails, I have been able to gain a little bit more of an insight into the current climate within Baxter and some of the do/don'ts when working with the detainees. Thank you to those people for your feedback and for assisting us in our preparations for the first workshop.
The first Hearsay workshop was really exploratory using basic materials (I won't go into this side of things too much as I'm sure Siv and John will provide you with more information from the community artists perspective). We planned to have 4 workshop sessions over the two day period - a morning and an afternoon session (each on the Saturday and Sunday). Unfortunately, only 3 sessions eventuated (as the morning session on the Sunday did not have any participants). A few factors contributed to not having any participants for this session- some of the detainees had visitors, other detainees were still in bed having a sleep in. As disappointing as this was, the weekend did end on a high with a productive afternoon session on the Sunday, involving a nice size group of the single men. One of the things I noticed in particularly during the workshops was the change in vibe. There was a lot of trepidation at the beginning of each workshop, most of this pretty much disappeared on the second day, I think many of the detainees (and us) felt a little more at ease.
I'm sure John and Siv will be logging on soon to give you their impression of the first workshop. In the meantime if you have any questions (or feedback) please jump online and ask away!
Other messages for this discussion:
|
