From The Ground Up
A guide to creating and running gardens for nature based art with children in a school or community setting - With David Begley
Live Online Sessions 4-6pm BST on Tuesday 17th September, 24th September, & 1st October 2024
In this series of talks, artist, writer, and filmmaker David Begley will share his experiences growing and nurturing gardens with children in schools, on a home school project, and in a community allotment. The talks will include a screening of David’s film The Keepers, created to highlight the importance of art and gardening for children and using the garden as a source for art workshops.
David will demonstrate art activities for children and share his lesson plans. This series will be of interest to artists, parents, facilitators, teachers, and community groups. David will discuss practical aspects such as working with schools, equipment and material lists, child appraisal, risk assessments and safety, insurance, working with weather, and how challenges create opportunities to learn.
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Session One - Tuesday 17th September
A screening of The Keepers & discussion of the benefits of gardening for children.
How art and gardening project The Monk’s Garden was created
Lessons on soil, growing, the importance of water, wildlife habitats, composting, an archaeological excavation, creativity, and more
Practical garden lessons
Charcoal making and drawing
Teaching tools such as The Circle Exercise (mark making lesson)
Visual Thinking used to foster creativity and confidence
Charcoal and cramp ball drawings, and more
Q&A
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Session Two - Tuesday 24th September
Demonstrations on oak gall ink, berry ink, as well as iron water making & painting for children.
Sharing images created by children, lesson plans. How children can develop confidence through articulating interpretations of their artworks.
Identifying weeds, fruit, vegetables, and herbs with children. Using plants as a source for activities combining school curriculum subjects.
Exercises with soil - explaining soil for children, soil erosion mountains, drawing with soil, and clay pigment ink.
Q&A
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Session Three - Tuesday 1st October
David will discuss further garden based lessons and activities as well as practical aspects of creating school gardens
Setting up
Lessons on insects, Dock leaf pencil drawing, Creating a mock archeological excavation and using this for drawing.
Nest building, Weaving wattle. Bestiary painting
Integrating the school curriculum into your garden
Working with children with additional needs
Community & parent support
Watering, Harvest rota during school holidays, & more.
Q&A
FAQs
The live sessions will go from 4-6pm with a 15 minute tea break at 5pm.
Written lesson plans will be provided.
Live session recordings will be available to watch for three months.
If you cannot attend live, you can send in your questions beforehand for David to answer during the sessions.
About David
David Begley is an award winning Irish artist, film maker, writer, and arts educator. He has exhibited his animations, drawings, paintings, monotype prints and films, nationally and internationally since 1996.
In 2020 David was commissioned by Wexford County Council to create The Monk’s Garden, a visual art, heritage, and gardening project with St Edan’s National school, Ferns. This project gave the children the opportunity to grow and harvest food, dig an archaeological excavation, explore medieval ink making, and by using the garden as a source for visual art workshops, create an exhibition of paintings and drawings. Inspired by this work, David made his short documentary The Keepers highlighting the importance of art and gardening for children. The film has been screened at film festivals in Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland, UK, and US.
Immersed in ink making, David created a short film and series of paintings titled Small finds exhibited at St David’s Cathedral Refectory, Wales, and Wexford County Council in 2023. He continues to create school gardens, working through art, animation, heritage, and gardening at a home school project and a community allotment.
David facilitates regular workshops for adults at Chester Beatty, Dublin, Irish National Heritage Park, Wexford, mentors professional visual artists, and he was invited to contribute to Making Charcoal for artists by Kate Boucher, published by The Crowood Press (July 2024).