For our current project, An experiment in Virtual Reality (VR) we'll be working with communities in three North East towns - Gateshead, Peterlee and Killingworth - to explore the creative potential of the new medium of VR.  Our work is made possible with funding from Arts Council England and supported by Samsung.

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In Gateshead,we're excited to be working with Bede Primary School, who are one of the prestigious Samsung Digital Classrooms and therefore ridiculously good with technology already!  We'll be exploring the potential of VR as a creative medium, coming up with ideas for its application and of course, making some VR artwork together!  The work we do with students at Bede will be shown at the end of the project along with our final works... 

 

Samsung say, "In 2014 Samsung Digital Classrooms were opened at primary schools in some of the UK’s most underprivileged inner-city areas, including Gateshead, to introduce digital learning in the classroom. In addition to providing crucial devices and training, we are working closely with teachers and creative partners to build a community of support that we hope will inspire ideas to further boost engagement, creativity and collaboration using technology.  This digital learning environment facilitates collaborative and interactive learning in schools and enables students to interact and discover in a way that was not possible before.  Together, we aim to develop and deliver new and exciting educational content that makes learning more fun.

 

We believe that John and Karen’s project is an exciting one that meets these aims and we are delighted to support them with ‘An experiment in virtual environment’.  Their plans to make new artwork that explores how different places make us feel is very interesting and we’ll look forward to seeing their final work".

 

Bede Primary School say, "We want to help our young people find the confidence, skills, resilience  and imagination for the unknown requirements of the years and jobs ahead of them and to embed within them an understanding and love for the world around them. We want them to become critical thinkers, problem solvers and independent people. What better way to help bring that about than through the project Karen and John are offering. It is great for us to be able to have proper artists to work alongside and inspire the children to see what they might be able to become involved in too. We can’t wait to get started".  ​Beverley McCallion, Deputy Headteacher, Bede Primary School, Gateshead