For three days, once the installation of ‘A Child’s Eye View’ was closed to the public, a creative team was formed with a small group of children, aged 6-9 years, and two artists.

“We aimed to interact with this rich environment allowing it to inspire and support sustained creative play. As adults we wished to use this opportunity to create an atmosphere and relationships which allowed for open-ended play. We asked that the children made their own decisions about their new kingdom: what were they called as a group? What should they do there? Where should they eat their lunch? As facilitating artists we always put the ball back in their court, that they might possess this creative experience as their own. Inspired by the ones they saw the group made dens, they felt that the front garden was missing a tree so made one, they created traps, designed treasure hunts and rang the bells to re-group.

We kept the boundaries of the environment secure and safe but the boundaries within it open to allow their creative and decision making processes to be their own. To explain the existence of such a place and start the children on their way we described Sasha, the character from performances. This was his place and he’d asked that the children look after it while he was away.

Many questions and interesting findings arose out of this way of working.

When is someone being creative? I questioned my perception of many things the children did. As an adult my instant feeling was that shaking a structure to dislodge sweets was destroying the structure someone had built. If the rules and order of everyday life are taken out of an experience the adults must learn to contain instinctual reactions – ‘don’t do that you’ll break it’ and the environment must be durable enough to cope.

The project explored creative and social boundaries within an environment that had a life of its own. The sensory and imaginative possibilities were endless, sometimes overwhelming. The main question became how to be open enough to allow free reigning creativity but not so open that the group lost structure and chaos ensued.

On the third day a task was set, it had a starting point, a goal and was intrinsically related to the context of Sasha and the created world. In the morning the group discovered a letter from Sasha. He asked for their help, he needed a boat to sail away from Ulverston in search of a Bird. The children generated a long list of equipment and objects the boat would need and spent the whole day designing and making them.
Within this structured task the children seemed to be set free creatively and fuelled with the motivation of a known goal. They lost themselves in the imaginative fantasy of Sasha’s journey and what he might want to take with him. They put their creative energy and invested meaning into the boat.

Bees Knees and Beetle Wings was a rewarding experience for all. Both adults and children negotiated social and creative relationships in a complex and new context. Creative skills were shared, friendships made and imaginations set off.”

Rebecca Gee, Assisting artist on Bees, Knees & Beetle Wings