Sticky Fingers Arts - Intern Blog

Intern Blog

Sticky Fingers Arts offers unpaid internships and placement schemes for second and third level students and graduates looking for meaningful work experience in the early years, arts, arts education and arts administration sectors. These opportunities are tailored to suit each individual, and we strive to support interns' external commitments where possible.

As part of the placement scheme, each intern writes a short blog on their experiences of working in Sticky Fingers. These blogs cover some of the things that interns work on during their time here and give a quick overview of what Sticky Fingers is all about.

If you would like to discuss placement opportunities with the company please contact us at francis @stickyfingersarts.co.uk .

Intern Blog: Jackie Maguire (March 2011)

Sticky Fingers Early Years Arts Internship, January 24^th - March 30th, 2011

My name is Jackie Maguire and I undertook a placement with Sticky Fingers during January, February and March 2011 as part of a Post Graduate Diploma in Community Arts Education with the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), Dublin.

During that time I shadowed Sticky Fingers' Music Coordinator Claire McKenna and visiting visual artist Sally Maidment who was working on the Perspectives public art project. The main aim of the placement was to allow me to shadow an early years music and visual artist so that I would have the skills to deliver an early years arts pilot programme to Traveller children and mothers in North County Dublin.

The placement with Sticky Fingers allowed me to work alongside both artists in a number of early years settings and primary schools in Newry and the surrounding area. I got to know many of the children in the primary schools as we revisited several of the schools from the music programme during the Perspectives project. Likewise, I became acquainted with the M1 motorway, as there was a lot of commuting to and from Dublin!

Through observing both artists I learnt a great deal about delivering music and visual arts sessions and collaborating with children, which directly informed my practice when rolling out the pilot to Traveller children aged 0-5 years and their mothers. The initial phase of my placement with Sticky Fingers was significant, as through the shadowing phase I became aware of the importance of a child centred approach, allowing room for creative expression, choosing appropriate arts/music materials and identifying a theme and allowing children to explore this. I also received great encouragement and support from Sally Maidment in terms of planning the visual arts sessions for the arts pilot with the Traveller children, which I am extremely grateful for. Likewise, Claire McKenna supported me greatly and encouraged me to pursue further music training and I have since enrolled on the Colourstrings Music Kindergarten Teacher Training course with the Szilvay Foundation in Kent.

By shadowing both Sticky Fingers artists, I gained the confidence to go on and successfully deliver a six week visual arts and music pilot in partnership with North Fingal Traveller organisation and Fingal County Council (FCC) Arts Office. Resulting from the six week pilot I am currently in negotiation with FCC regarding the possibility of extending the early years arts pilot and delivering further early years arts sessions during the summer months of 2011.

I want to sincerely thank all the staff in Sticky Fingers and in particular those who worked behind the scene and facilitated my placement namely; Elaine Cronin and Clare Shiels. Thanks to you both for making me feel so welcome and allowing me to have such a varied placement experience with your organisation. Sincere thanks also to Claire and Sally for allowing me to shadow you both in your music and the visual arts sessions, I learnt a great deal and will be forever grateful.

Jackie Maguire

Intern Blog: Elaine Quinn (February 2011)

Sticky Fingers Early Years Arts Internship, November 5th - February 28th, 2011

I joined the Sticky Fingers Internship Programme in 2010 with the intention of gaining work experience with a well established and reputable community arts group. Following graduation from University and several years working in marketing and event management I had decided it was time to finally take the plunge and explore the possibility of becoming an art teacher - working within the world of art is something I had always wanted to do.

The Sticky Fingers team were more than welcoming from the very beginning and it was a pleasure to be able to work within such a dedicated, professional and fun environment. As I was studying full-time and also working part-time it was a struggle to juggle my timetable but the team were accommodating and helpful in every way. I gained experience in developing, managing and delivering an arts programme and was able to attend an early years art training course. I also had the pleasure of helping Sally Maidment deliver the Perspectives public art project which involved assisting an artist in residence and working with children in several local primary schools.

I have no doubt that these experiences added an extra depth to my University applications with the result that I was lucky enough to have several excellent offers to choose from. September 2011 will see me embark on a Fine Art Degree at the University of Ulster following which I intend to complete a PGCE in secondary art teaching.

My time with Sticky Fingers has served to confirm that I am on the right career path - finally! I loved every minute of my internship and I look forward to working with Sticky Fingers again soon!

Elaine Quinn

Intern Blog: Roisin Clarke (February 2011)

Sticky Fingers Early Years Arts Internship, February 14th - 18th 2011

My name is Roisin Clarke and I am in year 13 in St Paul's High School in Bessbrook studying double health and social care and biology. I would like to be a counselling psychologist for children and young adults and because of this I wanted to gain work experience with an organisation that works with young children. I also wanted to work in a place where working in partnership is always considered. That is when I found Sticky Fingers. This company specializes in making quality professional arts projects for children through the use of theatre, music, dance and visual arts.

On my first day I was welcomed and became acquainted with what the company does and what they had planned for me during the week. I was then given the chance to go with Claire, the music co- coordinator, to a children's play session in Altnaveigh House. It was then that I witnessed working in partnership, as Home Start (a charity working to support families) who run the session and Sticky Fingers were working together to help the children learn to interact and speak through music, as all children are able to sing. The children I was introduced to were children whose parents would only have been able to speak the language that they have grown up learning. This group helps the young children to learn English and have fun doing so. I then started on the project plan assigned to me. The project plan was: if I had a full time job here with Sticky Fingers what project would I arrange for children? My first step was to think of ways that I could join both counselling and art together in order to help children. I came up with many ideas and submitted them to Elaine who had presented this task.

On my second day I was in the office typing up my project plan, which was about allowing children between the ages of three and four to paint what had occurred lately and how they felt about it. I also did research on similar projects to mine and found out there was a lot more work to be done on my project. It opened my eyes to the difficulty of creating a project. In the afternoon I then used Excel to organize all of the funding awards received between 2008 and 2010 and arranged them so that only those won in Newry and Mourne and Newry and Armagh were present within document.

On my third day I continued to work on my project plan and researched some of the organisations that could help fund my project. I also worked in the store, sorting the used paper for recycling, organising the new equipment and materials and moving some of them to where they belonged.

On my fourth day I went with the visual artist Sally Maidment to a Perspectives workshop in St Colman's Abbey Primary School. Perspectives is an art project which helps children see their world and helps them think of ways to improve it. We helped the children there create a park that featured their own designs and ideas. The children loved working with clay so they started making sculptures of what they thought you would find in the park. Most of the children there loved boats and so they created lovely sculptures of boats. Later on I delivered some post to the post office for Clare and then created a list of what equipment I would need for my project and what the costs would be. Sally asked me to print out the pictures of shops that the children from the Bunscoil, Cloghoge Primary School and St Colman's Abbey Primary School had created. I then had to cut around the shops so that the designs of the shops will be noticed when they are on the walls around the office. On my last day of work experience with Sticky Fingers I finished my project plan.

I enjoyed my time with Sticky Fingers. I have learnt a lot about working in partnership and working in a team. Gaining work experience here has helped me gain a better perspective of how hard working with children can be. I think that having work experience with Sticky Fingers will help me get into the university that I want to go to. At the moment I am still thinking of a number of universities and the ones that I am thinking of attending are: Dundalk Institute of Technology - The course I am interested in is Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Early Childhood Studies; and, University of Ulster - The course I am interested in is Psychology. I would also like to study counselling within this university as well.

Roisin Clarke

Intern Blog: Gabriela Tuohy (February 2011)

Sticky Fingers Early Years Arts Internship, February 7th - 11th 2011

My name is Gabriela Tuohy, I am in sixth form in Our Lady's Grammar School, Newry. I am currently studying, art, religion, French and English literature. I am hoping to pursue art and design through to art college or university. I am interested in both art teaching and fashion/costume design. I heard about work placement in Sticky Fingers through some friends. They recommended it to me and it sounded like something I would enjoy. Therefore, when work experience week was organized by my school, I decided to try out for this company.

On my first day of work experience, I got familiar with what the company does. I researched their past projects and workshops and built up ideas for a new project idea for Sticky Fingers. I also went along with Claire, the music co-ordinator, to a nursery music playgroup that works in conjunction with Homestart - a charity that helps families. It was a small group that was there that day, but it was interesting to see the children interact with sounds. Mimicking the rhythm of the beats, they all seemed to enjoy themselves - which is no surprise as we soon brought out soft toys that they could play with, as part of the music session. It was a very relaxing workshop and I really did enjoy it. It was quite inspiring, seeing how the creative activities made them happy.

On the second day I worked in the office, typing up all the contacts and their details that I could find from a notebook. Using excel I organised all the names and details in an orderly fashion, so that Sticky Fingers would be able to use it when they needed to. In the afternoon, I did more research for a possible project brief, and I noted down ideas until I decided on the one I wanted to pursue. I had been inspired by come of the past projects, and so I started my planning for my idea. I soon found out there was a lot of planning to do before a project could be funded. So I had to think about my project even more thoroughly, making sure I had thought about all the details. It was an eye-opener, as it gave me the chance to see how projects have to be dealt with by other people before it is approved. I appreciated this task, as it taught me that planning is important for a lot of jobs out there.

The third day, I participated in two Perspectives Workshops in Cloughoge Primary School, with the visual artist commissioned by Sticky Fingers; Sally Maidment. First we visited the primary 1's, to help them interact with others through the medium of art. Perspectives is a community art project, so we were trying to help them see the world around them and how they can improve it. Then we went to a primary 5 class, these ones were much louder! We asked each of them to come up with an idea for a new shop in Newry. The aim was to conjure up new ideas for shops that are not commonly found around Newry. So, the children came up with some very interesting drawings and they really had a good time. I then took photographs of all of their work, so that Sticky fingers could use them for their website. The next day I started my plan for my project and in the afternoon I made some phone calls to primary schools around the area, to ask for contact details for Sticky Fingers' contact database.

On my last day I typed up some more data onto the computer, to be used by the company. Later on, I organized the storage cupboard and then I finished off my project plan.

I really value the experience I got at Sticky Fingers. I really enjoyed my time there and the work I did. I think that the tasks and the workshops I took part in really helped me to see the arts in the real world.

Gabriela Tuohy

2010 Archive

Intern Blog: Joseph Comer (October 2010)

Sticky Fingers Early Years Arts Internship, October 20th - October 26th 2010

My name is Joe Comer, I am a sixth year student in the Abbey Grammar School in Newry and I am studying, art, religion, psychology and sociology. I have some friends who previously completed some work experience at Sticky Fingers and they introduced me to the company. I completed five days work experience in total, as an activity set by school.

On the first day of my work placement I participated in the Sticky Fingers mini FESTIVAL by assisting with a gardening workshop. Apart from the freezing weather it was really good, the children came along and planted some blubs and did some clay and gluing work.

On the second day I started the paper work for planning an event I had never realised how much planning actually goes into a workshop. So I came up with my own event and started planning. In the afternoon I went to a music workshop with Claire. At first I didn't really understand what was going to happen but as the large group of children poured in I really liked the idea of learning by method of music, and found it a very interesting notion.

On the third day I was based in the office. I finished my research for my event and then started filling in the application form. I found providing the actual proof of planning much more difficult that the actual planning as I had multiple ideas floating around for an event.

On the fourth day, I again was office based. I started the day by showing my organisational skills by cleaning out the store room! And then later in the day I helped Elaine with some research.

On the final day of my work experience I started the day by completing all the required documentation for school for my work placement and also made copies of everything I had done. I also did some research on different art organisations in the UK, specifically looking at their websites and how they're laid out this information was to help Sticky Fingers in creating their new website.

I really, really enjoyed my time spent with Sticky Fingers. I have been able to see how all art events need a vast amount of planning and organising. I learnt a lot about how art as a career may not always be the assumed idea of just painting and drawing for an income. There's so much more for artists to do - becoming involved with art events, like set or costume design for plays and dramatic workshops, designing posters, fliers, and other means of advertising.

Joseph Comer

Intern Blog: Corina Chiran (August 2010)

Sticky Fingers Early Years Arts Internship, 2nd - 9th August 2010

I am a Romanian drama tutor for children.

I took part in the internship programme with Sticky Fingers for six days in August during the 2010 Summer Camp in Slieve Gullion Forest in Co. Armagh. For five days I worked with the three to five year old age group and I spent one day with the older group of six to nine years. This was my first experience of working with Irish children but we had a great time together, despite my poor English - and the rain! Coming from Romania, where the summer temperatures reach forty degrees Celsius, I was surprised by the enthusiasm I saw even on wet and windy days during the camp.

During my time in the camp I had the chance to lead some of my own drama workshops. We also painted a lot, we worked with clay, we drew, we imagined lots of stories, we explored the forest and we enjoyed the green landscape together. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to confirm to myself that I can work with non-Romanian children also. I can share their emotions, their ideas and their knowledge. I believe that the children also felt this intense quality of feeling during our summer camp and I really hope to have a chance to repeat the experience soon.

I am now ready to continue in this work in Ireland by coordinating creative workshops with young children in the community with different age groups. Workshops would include drama, clay, art, painting, group activities and dance or creative movement. As I do not have an international childcare qualification, I intend to take further training courses once I am established in Ireland. I interact very well with children, I understand their needs, and I try to always maintain a positive atmosphere during the lesson and to stimulate the children to cooperate as a team, respecting every one's nature. I believe in short but intense workshops in which the children (especially the little ones) experiment with three to four different activities (music / improvisational games / clay / drawing / decorating). I am permanently open to the opinion of other tutors and I maintain a good relation with parents and keep them informed of their child's progress through verbal and written feedback. I constantly document my work through photos of the children's work and with concrete written conclusions regarding my activities.

As well having worked part-time in creches in Bucharest for almost two years I also have the experience of creating and directing a piece of theatre for audiences aged from nought to three year olds in Romania. I trust that my workshops abroad in Ireland will help me to understand a different culture, a different spirit, in order to prepare a new theatre piece soon.

Corina Chiran

Intern Blog: Jennifer Shannon (August 2010)

Sticky Fingers Early Years Arts Internship, July 19th - August 13th 2010

My name is Jennifer Shannon. I am a textiles graduate of Huddersfield University, West Yorkshire England. I am currently on a year out and plan on gaining some work experience before pursuing a PGCE course next year. I came across Sticky Fingers through a close friend and contacted the organisation for an interview for their Summer Internship Programme. As a part-time intern I gained a lot of valuable experience that I could only have achieved by being able to get involved. I found it essentially important that I experienced first hand the background work involved within an arts organisation.

On my first day, I researched all the local restaurants and amenities in and around the Newry area. This was to help future customers and interns experience the best of the city when on a visit. On my second and third day I had to organise a number of team meetings for the other summer interns. This involved arranging times and dates when each intern was available and informing them of the meeting agenda and other up and coming events. On the fourth day I helped to complete a stock take of the store room equipment and materials. The next day I typed up all of the stock take information using Microsoft Excel.

The following two weeks were taken up with full-time summer camp workshops. The participants ranged in ages from three to eight and were divided into two age groups. During the workshops a lot of interesting activities evolved, all within the beautiful surroundings of Slieve Gullion forest park. The workshops were designed to work with nature, allowing the children to interact and learn about natures simple but interesting qualities.

I found my experience with Sticky Fingers Early Years Arts extremely rewarding as I enjoyed the chance to work and communicate with children of all ages. I saw how hands on experience is a valuable essential in everyday learning, not only for the children I worked with, but for me as an intern.

Jennifer Shannon

Intern Blog: Trisha McNally (August 2010)

Sticky Fingers Early Years Arts Internship, 11th - 13th August 2010

A former graduate with a BDes in Fashion and Textiles design from the University of Ulster, I currently freelance as an illustrator in Belfast, I frequently illustrate, undertaking mostly fashion and editorial work and have exhibited nationally and internationally. In addition to this I also volunteer and work as a workshop facilitator on a number of visual arts outreach programmes with festivals, schools and community groups in a range of settings in Belfast.

I wanted to partake in the Sticky Fingers Early Years Arts Summer Programme internship as I felt the diversity and nature of the projects and workshops offered by Sticky Fingers in visual arts, music, theatre and environmental art would offer me a valuable opportunity to consolidate and further develop my skills as an artist interested in working with and encouraging children to be creative through the medium of arts. I felt the internship would provide an excellent opportunity for me to learn more about the practical aspects of developing and delivering arts projects and be a unique opportunity to share my love of art with children in the beautiful natural settings of the Slieve Gullion Forest.

Before the internship began I had an initial meeting with the Sticky Fingers team and the other interns to discuss the summer camp and collate ideas for possible workshop activities for the five to nine year old group, the group I would be placed with. With creativity in nature at the forefront we focused on the importance of using the natural resources of the forest and encouraging the children to be inspired by its environment. Combining the creative thinking from our varied backgrounds and disciplines we discussed and brainstormed various ideas, which were then used as a basis to form a provisional schedule for the summer programme.

As part of my internship I spent three days in the Summer Camp. My first day was an induction where I assisted the other volunteer facilitators. The children started the day with a story making game where each child contributed a word to form a story and continue it on. This awoke and enlivened the imaginations first thing in the morning. Characters and scenes from the story inspired a drawing and painting session later. A hands on approach was taken in the next activity where we used natural clay to make various creatures inspired form the story and the forest setting. These mini sculptures were embellished with twigs and leaves and then hung onto the trees. In the afternoon, having scavenged for twigs and branches on a nature walk up to the forest, the children then worked in teams and we built teepees decorated with leaves and twine. The group also began work on a larger dream catcher.

On the second day the interns were given an opportunity to be responsible for leading the workshops and organising the activities. Being given this responsibility provided an insight into managing a group and keeping the children interested and stimulated. This was also a valuable experience in working with other interns to combine creative ideas and practical skill. Working as a team we organised and prepared the activities for the day. In the morning each child made an individual scroll and wrote/ painted a secret. A nature song was composed on a nature walk up to the base and the scroll wishes hung from the 'wishing tippers'. As some children finished off teepees from the earlier day others were given the choice to paint a picture based on their spirit animal and then make it in clay.

On the third day the children painted clay pots in the morning, when these had dried later we planted seeds, the children were than able to take these home and observe their growth. I was given an opportunity to lead a workshop again that day. I decided to make nature weaves. The children painted patterns and shapes from nature on a scroll of paper, strips of this were then used to weave patterns on hand made branch looms that the children had help collect braches for the previous day. We then went for a longer nature walk and dissembled the work done during the week and cleaned up the camp. In the afternoon children gathered leaves and made crowns. Before home time, we gave the children a chance to evaluate their week in the forest and each child made a postcard for home saying what they had enjoyed most from the camp.

For me the internship was a rewarding opportunity professionally, creatively and personally to be involved with. As an active community artist, I believe the experience gained from this internship has helped stimulate inspiration for new ideas and other creative collaborations. I am more aware now of the importance and value of using natural resources in art projects and thinking of more creative ways to awaken children's imagination through exploring, play and story telling in natural settings. I see the benefits and enjoyment to be had from undertaking art activities in the open air and being conscious of environmental ecological issues when creating art projects. I hope to incorporate these values into my own artwork and be conscious of these issues in the future when proposing workshops.

Trisha McNally

Intern Blog: Derek Mc Cluskey (August 2010)

Sticky Fingers Early Years Arts Internship, 2nd - 13th August 2010

My name is Derek Mc Cluskey, I am an honours degree graduate in fine art specialising in video, interactive installations and interactive performance. My work takes the form of social experimentation scrutinising the idiosyncrasies of the public and their everyday exchanges that shape our environment, often recording it from a voyeuristic perspective. Throughout the past year or so I have completed two video performances that have been exhibited in empty shop fronts around the town of Drogheda. My latest interactive performance entitled 'True Hoops for the Celtic Tigers', questioned our apathy, compliance or resistance when asked to engage in our daily exchanges. It proved to be a great success as a conceptual work of art but also as something entertaining that people got involved in.

I feel it is vital to bring art out of the gallery, creating a new space for art within my community, which is why the goals and objectives of Sticky Fingers made such an impression on me. I relished the chance to experience their approach and reasons for making community art. In addition to my experience as practising visual artist I have two years experience teaching children arts and crafts with Richard Moore's school of art, facilitating classes once a week during my second and third year at college. The children ranged in age from between four and twelve years. Each week we took into account the individual needs and interests of every child also assessing how they operate as a group.

During the eight days of my internship with Sticky Fingers Early Years Arts I learned to facilitate art workshops for children aged between four and nine. Prior to the summer camp both the Sticky Fingers co-ordinators and the interns drafted a day to day plan for the two weeks. The plan consisted of possible activities in response to certain themes revolving around the forest and nature in general.

On the first day we got to know each other by creating a story in which all the children took turns in forming. This acted as a means to uncover the personalities and attitudes of each child, which is essential in understanding what course of action to take when proposing tasks and seeing what task would work best within the group. In response to the story we made clay creatures to leave lurking in the forest.

On the third day one of the other interns facilitated a creative therapy workshop. The children were asked what they feared and what they would like to be as forest heroes battling their fears. Having visited a structure resembling a fort in the heart of the forest on Tuesday I encouraged the children to make their own forts based on the structure using clay and wood chippings. Within each fort the children were then encouraged to place a tiny clay figurine of their hero self inside their mini forts. The group then moved back into the forest to place their hero forts in their chosen territory to warn off, as one of the children described, 'their fears that just keep on hanging around'. Reacting to this comment I executed an interactive workshop where the kids collaboratively attempted to create a book made up of pages that coincided with large cut outs of their fears hanging from the branches. This was my first attempt at merging visual art conceptual reasoning with arts and craft sensibilities catering to the voices of the children over my own. It forced me to simplify the idea in order for it to work which currently proves to be a recurring issue and one I often have to address within my own art practice.

The following week we followed on from themes revolving around dream catchers. We began again with a story that incorporated native American Indians, dream catchers, lava, rockets and so forth. With sticks, thread, leaves and clay we constructed multifunctional tepees that tripled up in meaning as wishing tepee dream catchers. One of my fellow interns Trisha conjured up the idea of hanging wishes drawn or written onto paper like scrolls from the centre of each tepee, which turned out to be a raging success. In addition we encouraged the children to make clay sculptures of animals or forms they felt represented them that also posses the ability to turn into another animal or form when something good or bad happened. The Sticky Fingers staff members and interns maintained a level of role-play in tandem with the making of each task to further enhance the creative atmosphere. Each clay model was left to occupy the forest along with their wishing tepee dream catcher homes. We ended the week with simple tasks such as painting and weaving indoors. Trisha had been preparing dream catcher magic wands and the children were then asked to paint an image which was cut into strips and woven through the wands.

During the internship a member of the Sticky Fingers staff spoke with me about the possibility of expanding the summer camp process to create a year round art programme revolving around Slieve Gullion Forest. Having invested so much into the summer camp, I feel I could further contribute to such a project and I would also love the opportunity to provide this process with my own creative input. In the future, I would relish the opportunity to work with such a creatively diverse group of people who gave me every opportunity to gain new teaching skills and who provided me with a truly memorable work placement experience.

Derek Mc Cluskey

Intern Blog: Francis Murphy (June 2010)

Sticky Fingers Early Years Arts Internship, 14th -18th June 2010

My name is Francis Murphy and I am a GCSE student at the Abbey Christian Brothers' Grammar School, Newry. I decided to take it upon myself to get work experience in Sticky Fingers because, with the current economic climate, it is becoming increasingly difficult to secure a job without having the experience behind you. I've been interested in Sticky Fingers ever since its launch in 2002 with the introduction of Sticky Fingers interaction with primary schools. I come from a family enriched in the arts and I hope to pursue a career in art and design or architecture.

During my internship at Sticky Fingers, I carried out many tasks throughout the week which reflected the work of Sticky Fingers. My first task was to source and prepare research on an artist, Benoit Sicat. Later that day I had to varnish yellow stars with glitter on them, made by children from The Dominican Playgroup in Orana House in Newry, as they had to be installed outdoors in the Sticky Fingers, William Street Park. I was introduced to Sticky Fingers exciting new project, Creating Space which is a brilliant example of how vibrant and attractive shared public space can be developed through the use of creative arts.

On my second day I got an insight into what Sticky Fingers does besides art and design. I had to design a play park in a location of my own choice that was child friendly, used natural resources, was not traditional but served its purpose. I decided to put my play park in Slieve Gullion Forest Park, a venue of Sticky Fingers' annual festival. Along with the initial design I had to develop the idea and provide realistic costs for materials and equipment. I also went to the bank to lodge cash for immediate lodgement. In the afternoon, I attended a course taught by Sticky Fingers Artistic Director, Grainne Powell, which was part of the Certificate in Developing Creativity in the Early Years, accredited by Stranmillis University College, a college of Queens University Belfast. She taught those present the importance and her experience of play regimes, the different types and how they can be implemented in today's society. One of the tasks for the course was to design a play park which suited the type of play regimes we had talked about in the lesson which were creativity, problem solving and exploration. I designed this with a professional architect and arts professional who were also attending the course.

On Wednesday, I carried out pricing for the Artistic Director, to forward onto the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. It consisted of a detailed breakdown of materials and equipment from two suppliers. In the afternoon I had to create a school-based project which could be changed and altered by different schools in the area every month. With this I had to provide a detailed calendar display for each school explaining the idea they would create and a letter to the school explaining the project concept and inviting them to participate. I then had to pick one of the twelve ideas and elaborate on it. I picked October which mainly focused on the idea of what the Sticky Fingers Festival means to children and also a Halloween theme to create their own Halloween monster/figure.

On Thursday 17th June, I researched and collated information from other international arts festivals to see if there was something the Sticky Fingers Arts Festival could add to their fantastic line-up for 2010. In the afternoon I attended, along with the Artistic Director and Public Art Programme Manager, a launch of the South Armagh Childcare Consortium. There we listened to members of Sure Start South Armagh talk about this exciting launch of dedicated childcare in the South Armagh area. We also met with Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, Michelle Gildernew, MP MLA, to officially launch the Creating Space Project.

On my final day, myself, the Artistic Director, Public Art Programme Manager and a professional gardener from the Newry and Mourne District Council Grounds Maintenance Department met in Mullaghbawn community park to do a planting and drawing workshop with pupils from Mullaghbawn creche and primary six pupils from the local primary school. There, I photographed the workshop and assisted with the planting. In the afternoon I took pictures of the many awards Sticky Fingers has won over the years. I also photographed the yellow stars that I had varnished and installed in the William Street Garden earlier in the week. I enjoyed my time at Sticky Fingers very well, the staff were co-operative and friendly and I would recommend it as a great place to work.

Francis Murphy