As mentioned in previous issues of Rising Stars, Melland High School students have had the privilege of accessing the amazing Factory International Schools Programme this academic year. Experienced artists have delivered weekly interdisciplinary workshops in school with a number of students. The workshops are linked to commissions at Aviva Studios, which are designed to improve young people’s wellbeing and both social and emotional learning. The programme is designed to build aspiration, ambition and wellbeing with young people, creating opportunities to visit the studios to watch the shows and experience exhibitions. Shows have included ‘Free your Mind’ by Danny Boyle, Kalabanté Productions: ‘Afrique en Cirque’ and Robert Wilson’s ‘Jungle Book’, to name just a few.
Over the course of the year, Melland students have been preparing with four partner schools to ‘Takeover’ Aviva Studios with a curated selection of artists and artwork co-created with a leadership collective of 20 young people. In June, the ‘Takeover’ became a reality.
Inspired by Robert Wilson and CocoRosie’s interpretation of ‘Jungle Book’ students designed and built huge masks and puppets of a tiger, elephant, snake and an eagle in collaboration with amazing puppet artist Caroline Daly. The designs were then used in a dance and movement workshop with ‘The Night People’. Filmmakers used the latest technology motion capture to create a video of the performance to be showcased at Aviva Studios.
Four other schools collaborated in the ‘Takeover’ which included Bruce Asbestos’ playful sculptures, mindful music with Manchester Camerata, ‘Doodle’ with Pete Obsolete and printing with Ibukun Baldwin. There were also performances from all the collaborating schools and headline performances from STUDIO88.
Students attending the ‘Takeover’ day could access all activities and show their work from the year. Melland were also able to invite some sixth form students as special guests.
The event was a huge success and Melland students’ showcase was very well received with fantastic feedback. The highlight was the headline acts Madi$on, Millz and LayFullStop from STUDIO88. Performances that had all the students up dancing and having a fantastic time. This moved into a rap cypher where students from all schools were able to join in with a rap freestyle. Three representatives from Melland hopped on stage with no prompts and wowed the crowd with their amazing rapping skills. The Factory International Schools Programme has been an amazing experience and has not only built on confidence and creativity but also friendships, experiences and lifetime memories. The ‘Takeover’ itself was so inclusive and created such a creative and safe environment for students. A huge thank you to everyone involved.
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