Summer Family Fun at Aberdeen Maritime Museum

Photographs by Grant Anderson

http://www.grantanderson.me/

This Summer I had the pleasure of running Aberdeen Maritime Museum's Family Fun workshops. For this I was asked to design four unique arts activities, aimed towards primary school children, to run over the course of four weeks during the school holidays.

Although I have assisted with art workshops in the past, this was the first time I've been the lead artist. It was very exciting (and slightly terrifying!) to have complete creative control over the planning and execution of such an event.

Working with children is always a lot of fun and this was certainly a lovely way to spend the Summer. It's so great to see kids let their imaginations run wild and also to see how proud they are of their creations.

Each activity was inspired by different exhibits displayed at the museum at the time. This was to encourage children to engage with the exhibits in a new way. Here's a short description of each of the activities;

Folded Fancies Inspired by Japanese paper crafts; have a go at designing a folded paper fan, test your origami skills or create a colourful flying carp fish.

Wish You Were Here Explore the museum's wonderful collection of objects; diving suits, a narwhal's tusk and even a treasure chest are all waiting to be discovered. Choose your favourite object and then design and print a postcard to tell someone special about your exciting museum adventures.

The Champions Cup With summer sporting contests and our exhibition News Balls Please in mind, we invite you to collage a decorative trophy to take away.

Tea Merchant's Challenge Come and see our latest acquisition; the original shipbuilder's model of the famous tea trade ship Thermopylae.
Take on the tea merchant's challenge and construct a ship from basic materials. Set sail to discover just how much tea your model can carry!

There was a lot of good feedback from the sessions which is amazing to hear! It was a great experience, hopefully I will take part in similar projects in the future!

Hello New Year

Here we go again.

I seem to blog only when feeling most reflective, which seems to be mainly at the beginning of each year..

All in all 2014 was a good one. This year I;

• Began working freelance and made great contacts in the Aberdeen art scene.
• Met some fantastic new friends.
• Set up a Book Club.
• Took a part-time jewellery design course.
• Ran Race For Life 10k in June, The Fare Challenge Bibby Offshore 5k in August, River Ness 10k in September and Wildhearts Santa Run 5k in December.
• Spent a relaxing week in Tenerife.
• Passed my mother-trucking driving test!

I've been very pleased with the way 2014 played out and would be happy to see more of the same in 2015. However I do have two main goals.

Number 1 is to firm up my career plans. 2014 was quite exploratory in terms of career and although it has been awesome by the end of this year I'd like to have a more defined path.

Number 2 is more running! This year I plan on signing up more my first half marathon. Obviously this will take more determination and training than what I've done previously and that's exactly why I want to do it. Perhaps with a bit of luck I'll be ready for a marathon in 2016!

I'll finish off my sharing some photos from the past year.