Day 1 -Tagtool Build Workshop

Images from todays Tagtool Build workshop taking place this week Monday 18th & Thursday 21 October 2010 jointly supported by Hannah Maclure Centre and the Nine Trades Project.

Billy takes a well earned break...

Friends from the library's Life Group dropped by...

Jackie Luvs Burgerman

Jackie 'I- can't-draw' McFie one of the Youth Project workers at Grey Lodge has discovered Jon Burgerman, a Nottingham based artist who's inspired her to draw. With a set of five fabric pens (£2.50 each) and a cotton bag (£1) she now has a one-off bag made by herself.

"Maybe you can ask that guy Jon Burgerman for some freebies? I never knew anything about Jon Burgerman before and now I have produced a bag influenced by his style! "

"He's influenced me to be confident to do art, because its achievable. Its not frightening, I see it and I think 'I could do that' ,or 'I could do something similar like that'."

"His style is just really appealing. I think its the mis-shapes and the way not everything has to be square and tidy. Its messy and its just the ideal style for our young people to get into. You can say here you go, make a mess and now look what you have at the end of it - it looks fantastic!"

The bag-pens & Burgerman combination also inspired Grey Lodge youth worker Kerri Sutherland,

" Not only the Tagtool was popular but the T-shirt design and bags. After the Nine Trades workshop I went and made a whole load of bags with my youth group." Kerri

"We have now got four fabric pens that were £2.50 each! We also really liked working with the Posca pens."

Nine Trades was able to provide both fabric pens and Posca pens for the workshop.

"Nine Trades providing the pens, that was really helpful. Grey Lodge is surviving on next to nothing, we just had a big full page article in the local newspaper about the cuts we have experienced. This is an area of deprivation, high unemployment and few opportunities. The Hilltown recently had one of its community centres reduced to rubble due to cuts. The cuts have been brutal in the past year and its going to get worse. Grey Lodge has been going for 122 years its basically been surviving on the commitment of staff and volunteers as well as finding funding. It's very worrying we don't know what's going to happen. At the moment we are waiting on a decision from Children in Need ... if we don't get it something will have to go. The services we provide here at Grey Lodge are crucial for the local community and for some of the surrounding areas too. Through the work we do we can bring young people together, working together, through this work we can address issues such as territorial barriers. Working on a common theme of arts and community, producing a piece of work, something they can work towards over the course of the year." Jackie

Link to Jon Burgermans website

The Tagtool laptop computer based at the Central Library is sporting some of Jon's stickers.

We asked Jackie - What use will the Tagtool be to your work in the future?

"At the moment it would help engage with young people. Especially with those who are not confident with their literacy and not confident within themselves that they are any good at anything. The fact they can pick up that little pen and do a scribble and we get art at the end of it, is great. It will help the fun element in this learning approach. Mixing with other people, team building, loads of things it can cover and address." Jackie

What use will the Tagtool be to your work in the future?

"At the moment it would help engage with young people. Especially with those who are not confident with their literacy and not confident with themselves that they are any good at anything. The fact is they can pick up that little pen and do a scribble and we get art at the end of it. It will help the fun element of learning, helping them to mix with other people, team building, there are loads of things it can address."

"I'm very grateful to whoever funded the whole Nine Trades and happy that we have had the opportunity to get involved with it. We cannot thank whoever has done that enough. We would very much like to be involved with the Tagtool support committee. I know we have had an initial meeting but I would still like to be involved with keeping the whole Tagtool thing going and what's coming out of it because I think that can provide a lot of new and exciting opportunites as well. You can definitely put our names forward."

Jackie McFie & Kerri Sutherland Youth Project Workers

Grey Lodge Community Centre

Grey Lodge Designers

A few images from todays workshop with young people from the Grey Lodge AAAA project. We spent two days drawing inspired by the work of UK designer Jon Burgerman. The result were designs on T-shirts, bags and shoes as well as some nifty drawing-annimation using the Tagtool.

Library staff also got bitten by the creative-bug ...

There's evidence of it in the Science and Business office.

Jackie and Kerri youth workers from Grey Lodge stop to model their bags....before returning to HQ.

Those must have matching bag and shoes....

Work-in-progress at McManus

Tagtool at McManus

A few weeks ago I met with Kerri Mcgowan the Creative Learning Officer at McManus, (who incidentally was involved with the development of the Nine Trades project over the past few years). I briefly told Kerri about my priorities at the library and introduced her to the Tagtool concept. In true Dundee style she made me very welcome at McManus.

I explained that I'm working with Sandra and Verity from the library with six teenagers on the Grey Lodge AAAA project. We want to experiment with the Tagtool and projecting their drawings to music. The original idea was to work in the Steps Theatre but it wasn't a suitable space. The plan is to produce some work to present in June at an event at Tanadice. Kerri was hugely supportive and is kindly making available the study room for us to work for two days in April and May.

Quick thanks to Colin and Derek from Inclusive Solutions who've kindly have lent me their projector to experiment with next week. I plan to try out overlapping images and drawings with the Tagtool.