Welcome to Four Square Fine Arts’ education programme, supporting people of all ages engage with the visual arts and explore their creativity.
Schools
Our projects with schools give pupils and teachers the opportunity to explore together. Often working with new processes or media, we place improvisation and experimentation at the heart of what we do; encouraging fresh perspectives on those limiting notions of good and bad, success and failure.
Engaging young people with the context and wider relevance of art and design beyond the classroom is a key part to shaping enquiry and developing personal creativity. Our forthcoming How Do You Do? project aims to build dynamic interactive networks between schools and creative professionals in the surrounding community.
Find out more about How Do You Do?
Below are some sample projects with Primary age groups.
Work with older students can be seen in other sections.
CREATING CONFIDENCE
Our practical, playful and inspiring one day workshop that requires no art experience or training! Full of simple exercises that can be shared back in the classroom, Creating Confidence is designed to support and develop a teacher’s confidence in their own creativity.
Find out more about the workshop and read what teachers who have done the workshop said
School visit to local art gallery
One day workshop- Ashdown House School
New materials and Processes.Gold & silver leaf
London Gallery Visit - Ellen Bell solo Show, Hoxton
Medicine Wheel: Whole school project: inspired by the work of Lewes based international land artist Chris Drury
Gallery talk by curator Sonia Crivello
Landscape collage project
Mosaic project
Driftwood Arch
Collected driftwood
Hop gallery visit - with photo's from artist's studio
Work Experience
Since 2008 we have been providing innovative work experience for Year 10/11 students at local secondary schools in Sussex. A placement with Four Square Fine Arts is a unique opportunity for a young adult to work alongside Sonia Crivello, a gallerist, representing national and international artists and Marco Crivello a professional artist.
We currently offer two placements a year. Click on the polaroid below to find out more about what you can expect to be doing. If you are interested in a placement email us telling us a bit about yourself and your areas of art interest.
More about work experience
A placement with us mixes practical time in the studio, where you can explore and discuss your interests, along with an introduction to some new processes and approaches, along with being involved in the day to day running of an arts business. Some of the areas you’ll get an introduction to will be curating, catalogue design, preparing for exhibitions and art fairs
aspects of marketing including social media and websites and the development of our education programme. There will also be time spent out and about, interviewing artists, visiting galleries, hanging exhibitions and generally exploring art and it’s relevance in different contexts and environments.
How Do You Do?
Opening Doors – Creating Connections
Have you ever wanted to know what it would be like to do a certain job?
Starting in 2012 the How Do You Do? project will be opening doors to studios and workplaces. From painters to potters, jewellers to guitar makers, we’ll be providing opportunities to connect young people to creative professionals in their community.
So far over 50 professionals have offered to open their doors. Here are just a few of them …
- Support the project
- Join our mailing list – we’ll keep you up to date with this project and others we’re doing.
Projects
YOUNG ARTISTS UNITED
In 2010 to support the transition of Lewes football club to community ownership, 40 artists, photographers, sculptors and illustrators came together to raise money through sales of their work in Artists United at the Foundry Gallery. It was a demonstration of the creative diversity in the town and an ideal opportunity to develop connections between young people and the creatives within their community, whom they might not otherwise meet. The resulting project – Young Artists United - gave students the opportunity to choose an artist from the show, make a studio visit and then create a response to the meeting and the artist’s work.
The slideshow below shows responses including printmaking, film, photography, drawing and sculpture, displayed as part of the Artists United exhibition, which was attended by over 800 visitors in four days.
The Young Artists United Project involved professional artists Tom Hammick, Jo Lamb, Denée Holloway, Tom Homewood and Peter Messer.
The Young Artists were Jack Bodimeade, Megan Norris, Eli Tarran-Richards, Billy Tourle and Toma Stevenson.
“The questions that Megan asked were rather perceptive, and made me think about a lot of my work in an entirely different way. The questioning was different from a buyer, or a gallery in that it was very direct and made me think…in a sense we talked as artists, and also as collaborators..” Jo Lamb, Artist
How Do You Do?
Growing out of Young Artists Untied and starting in 2012, How Do You Do?
will connect young people with creative professionals in their community.
Find out more about the project.
UPCOMING PROJECTS
- Nature as Mind; Mind as Nature
Life-long Learning
If you finished school with the conviction that you were ’no good at art’, Picasso’s quote may seem an optimistic sentiment, though hardly relevant to you. But perhaps it¹s insight is not that we can all be ‘artists’ but that we all have an innate potential for open ended play; to make, to experiment, to risk, to say ‘what if ?’. A way of relating to the world that was once central to early childhood learning, that for so many of us is eclipsed as we become adults.
We believe whatever your age or occupation, practical encounters with making art can help not only understand why others make art but more importantly reconnect us with an innate potential to create ourselves. It's something we've seen seen so clearly in our workshops, that we've made it a central aim of this project; to create opportunities that encourage a shift from audience consumers to audience participants.
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Microscope activity - Nature Matters
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Eberhard Ross - Solo London Show 2010
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Eberhard Ross, Solo Exhibition, London 2010
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Art London, 2010
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Ellen Bell, Solo Exhibition, London 2011
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Ellen Bell Artist Talk, Solo Exhibition, London 2011
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Watching Four Square Films at London Art Fair, 2010
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Making Your Work Workshop, Lewes, East Sussex, 2010
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Art London, 2009
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MA Book Arts students Masterclass with Ellen Bell at Solo Exhibition, 2011
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Studying Ellen Bell's "Love", 2009
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Making Your Work Workshop, Lewes, 2010
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Marco Crivello Solo Exhibition, Air Gallery, London, 2010
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Mixed Exhibition at Cork Street, London 2009
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Marco Crivello, Artist Talk, Solo Exhibition, 2010
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London Art Fair, 2010
What researchers are saying ...
- 1. Learning through arts and culture improves attainment in all subjects.
- 2. Participation in structured arts activities increases cognitive abilities.
- 3. Students from low-income families who take part in arts activities at school are three times more likely to get a degree.
- 4. The employability of students who study arts subjects is higher and they are more likely to stay in employment.
- 5. Students who engage in the arts at school are twice as likely to volunteerand are 20% more likely to vote as young adults.
Film
In 2008 we began making films about the artists we represent, which we hope will give audiences of all ages a richer understanding of contemporary art practice; why artists do what they do and the reasons behind the materials and processes they choose.
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Extracting Words - Writing Intimacy, Ellen Bell
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Drawing Speicher - The Space Between, Eberhard Ross
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Threshold, Marco Crivello
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Extracted Words 'Love,' Writing intimacy, Ellen Bell
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Filming in Eberhard Ross studio, Essen, Germany
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Marco Crivello in studio, Threshold
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Eberhard Ross drawing in oils, The Space Between
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Cutting text, Writing Intimacy, Ellen Bell
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Seawater moving, Threshold, Marco Crivello
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Eberhard Ross drawing in oils, The Space Between
Threshold, focuses on Marco Crivello in the studio. For over twenty years, contemporary landscape artist Marco Crivello’s work has been grounded in an exploration of improvisation. Threshold takes us into the artist’s studio, with revealing footage of his improvised working methods and his creative dialogue.
Organic Geometries, features German artist Eberhard Ross. Ross painstakingly covers canvases and sheets of paper with networks of lines and pattern that develop organically in a repetitive and meditative process which he calls “organic geometry”. In the apparent randomness of the lines he is searching for a quality or a non-symmetrical order as one finds in nature in the veins of plants and outlines of trees, the mass flocking of birds in the sky. In this film, Ross talks from the heart about his work, his passion for music and his wish to convey something about the wonder and order of everything in nature through his painting.
Trailers
“Simply but elegantly shot and edited, these informative films confirm that modern art can be about something that matters, an authentic form of self-expression about our place in the world. Taken together as a mini-series, it¹s an approach with great educational potential.”
Mark Halliley Director BBC1¹s Modern Masters - Matisse
Artist mentoring scheme
Whether you¹re still at college and need some extra help with preparing your portfolio, finishing a degree and perplexed about setting out as a professional artist, or looking to explore your creativity later in life, you may feel you need some professional support to help you take the next step.
Mentoring, over even one session, can be an ideal way to help clarify your needs and aims into a practical framework that will take you forwards, and if there is something specific we can¹t help with, we¹ll do our best to point you in the direction of someone who can.
Your insightful observations of my work, your passionate interest in what I am doing and your helpful suggestions have revived my enthusiasm! You have managed to articulate a clear and exciting path for me to explore
Beverley Purdue – Fine Art degree student
What can we offer?
Art business basics – Outside of your precious studio time, being a self employed artist means grappling with small business basics like, SOR, commission rates, invoicing, accounting, VAT, transportation, insurance etc. We can talk through any questions you have, clarify some of the basics, and of course, if we don’t know the answer, we’ll do our best to point you in the direction of someone who does!
Your goals – Where do you see yourself in 12 months? And importantly what will be the steps to getting there? We can work with you to set out a realistic program – including reviewing your websites, marketing and general PR strategy.
Portfolio review – Critical and constructive feedback is vital in helping develop your practise. We can arrange a studio visit or alternatively you’re welcome to bring work to our office.
Selling your work – We’ve seen that one of the hardest things for most artists is pricing their work; With over 10 years experience exhibiting regional, national and international artists, we can help you look at the market for your work and set realistic prices.
Finding a gallery – Good trustworthy representation is crucial for your career. But what’s the best approach? As a gallery we’re regularly contacted by hopeful artists, so are ideally placed to show you ways to improve your chances of being considered.
Presenting your work – Poor presentation can undermine good work, which in turn can influence both sales and whether a gallery might decide to show your work. With our experience ranging from gallery shows to prestigious art fairs, we can advise ways to make the most of your presentation.
If you would like to discuss whether mentoring might help you, send us an email or alternatively call the office.
Community Aims
Our educational programme aims to support all members of the community in an enriched understanding of the diversity of creative endeavours taking place within their community. Our goal is to facilitate conversations and meetings between young people and creative professionals, enabling them to form a clearer understanding of the rapidly evolving nature of the world of work, the range of day to day skills required, as well as the non linear pathways taken by many who work in the creative sector. We believe these encounters and the projects relating to them will enable young people to approach qualifications, career choices and the future with clearer understanding and greater confidence.
We aim to develop a programme with particular emphasis on hands on practical engagement, as the ideal way to encourage new audiences across all age groups for the different creative practises in the visual arts.
Contact us
Four Square Fine Arts Education is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company
5a Station St, Lewes BN7 2DA
Tel: 01273 474 005
(CIC no 07649896)