About Art Hoppers
Art Hoppers is proud to be working in partnership with schools and settings on their Artsmark Award journey. By supporting Artsmark settings, we’re helping put the arts at the heart of education, inspiring young people to create, experience and participate in high-quality arts and culture.
Find out more about Artsmark at www.artsmark.org.uk
- We trust in children’s creativity
- Presentation and context are hugely important to us – We exhibit to inspire with gallery quality standards
- We aim to share and promote the inherent creativity of children and to help them see and fully appreciate these talents for themselves
- Art raises the bar on communication, exploration, and thinking in new and exciting ways
- We contextualise the school curriculum through art
- Art for us is about generating ideas
Ah! Philosophy
We trust in children’s ideas. We value the unique qualities of their art and love the energy that they bring to the creative process. Children – particularly early years and primary aged children – have a freedom and openness to art which enables them to surprise, charm, inspire and ultimately connect adults to their world in ways which are often insightful and memorable. We’re keen to share and promote the inherent creativity of children and to help them see and fully appreciate these talents for themselves.
Our aim is to explore the potential of ideas with children, to take them through the complete process of art making, from finding inspiration to taking pride in the final exhibits. Presentation and context are hugely important to us. We apply childrens’ art to a professional quality platform, be that a space or a product with the aim of presenting their artistic skill at it’s absolute best, giving it the integrity it deserves.
Art for us is about ideas. In understanding a work of art, we become art detectives aiming to unravel the message the artist wants to convey. Equally, in making art we have challenges to solve and stories to build. Art raises the bar on communication, exploration, and thinking in new and exciting ways … Enjoying the adventure, recognising what’s being achieved and valuing the fun of it all is a big part of the journey too.
Sharing Adventures in Art!
Who is Art Hoppers?
See Ah! Team.
What do you do?
What is your unique selling point?
How does it work?
Do you work together with school teachers?
What age group do you work with?
Have you worked with SEN children?
What are the projects about?
What art techniques do you use?
What do you get out of it?
Claire Ward-Thornton
Claire is a London based illustrator and print designer with BA (Hons) Fine Art, Uni of Plymouth, Exeter. Previous experience in the arts is broad having been an independent artist (in partnership) on the live art scene plus experience of work in theatre, TV/film and large scale outdoor events. Claire is an experienced scenic painter and has worked to commission on various murals and in assisting others. Claire managed an arts and mental health charity for a period of six years bringing music and theatre to hospitals and day centres. Her design label ‘CWT’ presents fabrics and a collection of handmade products for retail.
Inés Szamrey
Inés Szamrey is an Argentinian artist who graduated from Figueroa Alcorta School of Arts, Cordoba, Argentina with a Bachelor degree in Fine Arts and Arts Education and received a Gold Medal for her performance in the programme. Inés has worked as an Arts Facilitator for a number of organisations in Argentina and the UK and together with Claire, founded Art Hoppers in 2012. Her work as an artist is intricately connected to the production of art in the early years and is based on inverse learning from the work of the Child to the educator. Inés returned to Argentina in 2016 and plans to establish her branch of Art Hoppers there (watch this space!).
Slideshow >>>
Here’s a presentation (dated July 2015) which summarises some of our early work and hi-lights the benefits of what we do in schools.
Click on the image…