We were delighted to be invited by the Creative Industries Federation to a talk at St Martin's campus of University of the Arts, London featuring both their Chancellor Grayson Perry and Sir Nigel Harrington who we'd seen in the film 'A Window to the World' made by St Marylebone School.
There's no room here to do justice to Grayson Perry's work as an artist and social commentator.
REAL ROLE MODELS?
We've been particularly struck by his work around gender, particularly in his book 'The Descent of Man' where he talks about the desperate need for male role models for young boys. This also underpins a lot of the thinking behind our work with Inspirators and engaging over 50's in STEAM Co. Days.
Grayson Perry also spoke about the role of art to connect communities, particularly post Brexit, saying he'd dearly love to see right wing politicians embrace art more and visit galleries.
I LOVE ART
At the end of the evening he took questions and we asked him to feedback on a stash of I LOVE ART logos that 1,000 children in Sunderland had created for our @people4art campaign recently and which we'd given out to neighbour in the audience around us. He had a little chuckled and stuffed them in his pig shaped handbag.
We'd dearly love to work with him on our Inspirator programme as he has a wealth of insight in this area for connecting both children and adults through art.
Who are you? DISCUSS
Take a look at the trailer below for his 'Who are you series' in which he creates portrait for a divserse range of individuals that tell their story through paintings, sculpture, a hijab and a (broken) vase.
See the full series here on the Channel 4 website.
Book launch
The evening was also used to launch 'The Creative Stance' a new book in which Grayson Perry and other top artists, designers and performers explore creative success and the role of art and design schools.