Last week I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit a school in Waltham Forest to join in with a model making workshop. It was part of a series of workshops that had been taking place to help spice up the hoardings (boards marking the perimeter of the Olympic Park) that are going up along Hackney Wick.
Me in the pink top with pupils and Zoe from the ODA External Relations team:
The workshop was based around making models of the Olympic Stadium and Aquatics Centre in a workshop with 'Signs of Life' - a Tower Hamlets social enterprise organisation.
It was a real contrast to my art lessons when I was at school (only a few years ago!), the facilities were modern, fantastically equipped and at the real cutting edge of technology.
When we arrived, Theo the workshop leader had been talking about the history of the Games and had shown the class images of the London 2012 Olympic Stadium and Aquatics Centre designs. The students had produced their own designs and we joined in as they were in the early stages of building their own mini stadia with clay, pipe cleaners, wires, paint and cardboard.
The class were really welcoming, curious and uber-enthusiastic and we chatted about their models and tried to help with the building. The workshop was an absolute hoot and it wasn’t long before I was covered in paint and glue! It was great to see them working so well in groups and the models and designs were fantastic. The kids really excelled themselves – who would have thought that the solution to engineering Zaha Hadid’s sculptural roof would be to make it removable?
The students seemed really into sport – mainly football and swimming and they were all beginning to get more excited about the world coming to London in 2012 and this excitement really showed in the finished products which were great.
The Signs of Life team did a great job organising the session and my experience at the school really brought home to me how all successful regeneration projects – however large or small – are done in conjunction with the local communities. Local input and ownership are essential ingredients for the long term success of a project like this one.
Investment, jobs, a transformed landscape and evidence of a lasting legacy for east London is what this project is all about and the workshop gave me a taste of how those who will benefit from the legacy of the Games are getting excited, positive and engaged.
