FESTIVAL PROGRAMME
Be sure to download the festival programme with background to the event
Every day:
10.00 - 12.00 : Rocket Kids Club
2.00 - 5.00 : Art Connects Show
7.00 - 12.00 : After Dark
What an epic festival we had. Each day packed full of interviews and activities all live streamed from our STEAM Co. love streaming studio in a camper van!
DAY 3: sunday - GLEN’S DAY
(A DAY DEDICATED TO GRANDADS AND ALL CREATIVE CARERS)
Below are the full length videos for the whole festival or if you’d prefer, below that are each individual section of the weekend broken down into shorter little videos for you to enjoy!
10:00 HELLO FROM YORKSHIRE SCULPTURE PARK!
Our #AimHigh20 festival went monumental thanks to the generosity of creative carers at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The request made only a few days prior, we were granted permission to park the STEAM Co. campervan on the grounds of UK’s biggest outdoor gallery, with full access to their Archway Lodge. Proper showers taken, legs stretched, and the giddiness of standing down the road from Sir Ken Robinson’s alma mater, in the illustrious company of works by artists like Damien Hurst, Sunday kicked off on a high!
10:30 EVERY SCHOOL SHOULD BE AN ART SCHOOL
What better direction for a glorious day to take than to Beecroft Garden Primary with art specialist Dilys Finlay. The school reception area is an open-plan gallery and library filled with works by children. The children are encouraged to talk about art and culture and to understand how the arts can be used to explore the world around them. Nick points out how the ethos of Bretton Hall College ties neatly with the work Dilys does.
11:00 Aiming higher than high - Rubik’s robot style
David Gilday is remarkable. A computer chip designer by trade, he devotes a healthy chunk of time to building LEGO robots that solve Rubik’s cubes of various complexity. We are hoping to make David a big part of our #Rocketkidsclub and to fill this world with people who build impressively sophisticated things. Stay on the lookout for our big contest in which we will give away a £500 robot! For now, feast your brain on David’s mind-boggling robot designs and record-breaking Rubik’s cubes.
11:30 Storytime with Grandad Wheels
From the robotic creations of a wizard, we move to the mischiefs of a legend in a wheelchair and his grandson Charlie. Snuggle up in your favourite sofa as Grandad Wheels reads from his latest book, Grandad in the Grotto.
12:00 THE PAPER BOY ROCKS UP!
The news having spread we were in town, creative carer and dear friend to STEAM Co., Bryn Llewellyn, jumped on his bike and rocked up to the Archway Lodge with goodies in a bag; The Observer, 8 cans of lager, instant coffee, and bananas. The campervan awning secured, the outdoor green screen set up, our impromptu guest is predictably put on the spot. Listen to the ensuing conversation in which Nick and Bryn discuss engaging the brain, the playfulness of math, the essential nature of art, and the legacy of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park from an educational perspective.
15:00 The Other Youth, an experimental film
Designer Tamsin Nathan popped onto STEAM Co. airwaves decked in fresh RUN DMC threads to talk about To the T, and their two-year labour of love. A group of 10 artists from across London with a shared interest in raising awareness about youth violence, the culmination of their collaboration is an intelligent, cross media film titled The Other Youth (T.O.Y.). Funded by Brent 2020 and featuring dance, a futurist mirror costume, spoken word and music, T.O.Y. explores a young black male’s emotional response to key moments in his life, all at the hands of the adults around him. The dark aesthetic and abstract approach give a unique language to communicate about youth violence. Enjoy the conversation, banter, and this exclusive trailer!
15:30 Daring to change the world
If anyone has a heart of gold and the welfare of people front and centre of her mind, it is this superstar Yorkshire community activist, Kathryn Badon. A shining example of how beautiful the world can be, her and Nick reminisce about their weekend at the Eden Project community camp and the opportunities that arose. Rambling groups, garden clubs, rubbish picking groups, some simple, some radical, but all things that help change the community… Be inspired to be daring, to do things, and walk the talk. Kathryn is Chair of Swarthmore Education Centre, which seeks to inspire lives through friendly learning within a commitment to equality of opportunity. She was also a member of the Commoner’s Choir.
19:00 fiREPIT CHAT WITH CHRIS SULLIVAN
Dusk fallen upon Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Sunday night is a sizzler. Live from our campervan, the only thing missing is a real fire. We make up for it with a hot presentation by our man with the black book - dad, impresario, and filmmaker, Chris Sullivan. First to kindle the fire is street art, starting with a short film Chris made about Banksy’s school friend and Street Art guru, Steve Lazarides. The conversation heated, Chris presents creative visual activist and challenger of the status quo, Joe Corre. This son of Vivian Westwood and Malcolm McLaren delivers on the spirit of rebellion and how art is an agent of change. After all, what are we if we cannot be creative? To close the chat, Chris stokes the flames up a notch with a priceless portrait of the original walking art, Phillip Sallon, self-proclaimed Man from the Land that Fashion Forgot. A must watch firepit for all hardworking dreamers.
20:40 SANTA DOES ZOOM
After some madness in our campervan green studio, Father Christmas zooms in to reassure the world Xmas is not cancelled this year, and to gift the promise that this whole corona nonsense shall be sorted by the Easter Bunny very shortly.
20:50 A place to love and learn
Enjoy the sight and sounds of headteacher Chris Tolson’s The Academy at St James, a place where children are nurtured to persevere, collaborate, and use their imagination to fulfil their dreams. Aspire, Achieve, Believe! A musical tribute to great leaders and the power of collaboration …
21:00 The power of song
The roof of STEAM Co.’s campervan was blown off, not by the winds and rains battering the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, but by the electrifying presence of Anthony Daulphin. He kicked off his short set with Bob Marley’s ‘One Love’. Turn the volume up, let nothing stop you as you move to his powerful voice. Anthony is the founder of Standing Ovation, a project working with schools to raise the self-esteem and confidence of children through the creative arts and pastoral support. In 2017, Standing Ovation won Outstanding Contribution to Local Community at the Education Awards in association with Birmingham City University.
21:30 THROWBACK TO #ARTCAMP20
Poet Casey Bailey was scheduled to appear live at the #AimHigh20 festival. Plans changed when family called, and he dropped everything to give his young son fatherly love. We absolutely adore him for that. So, we went back in time to this summer, when just after lockdown, STEAM Co. hit the road to set up camp at The School of Art and Wellbeing in Honiton, where Casey read his poetry by the crackling fire. Unforgettable vibes …
21:40 ROCKET LAUNCH!
Finally, it was time to beam back to Parklands Primary’s playing field where our Thunderbirds-style cardboard box Tracey Island sat with a massive cardboard rocket fired up and ready to launch live on our internet television channel. All of this with government funding to help show the power of art and creativity to inspire kids and connect communities. NASA eat your heart out; this was beyond epic!
22:00 THE GIFT OF MUSIC
Rachel Orr is an associate consultant for Focus Education, teacher, tutor, and author of ‘100 Ideas for Primary Teachers: Differentiation’, a book published by Bloomsbury Education and in which the key messages are: ‘one size does not fit all’ and ‘not a worksheet in site’. Additionally, Rachel is a leading soprano with Northern Opera and an established concert performer in the North East. Her oratorio performances have included Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Haydn’s Creation, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Faure’s Requiem and works by Schubert and Maunder. As you can imagine, we were over the moon knowing Rachel was glued to her screen throughout #AimHigh20 festival, and even more so when she came on to sing. Something beautiful transpired. We are enormously proud of our green studio set up, but there are some things technology just cannot capture. Check out what happened, and the ensuing result and proposition! Oh, and the shoes, oh the shoes!
22:30 The Commoners Choir SING-ALONG AND Fundraiser
STEAM Co. was delighted to be joined by legendary Boff Whalley, who leads the Commoners Choir. We want to lead a mass community singing of 'Come in from the Cold' a song he wrote a while back about feeding hungry children, inspired by how Parklands Primary provides food parcels and a hot Christmas meal for 800 people off the Seacroft Estate every eve of Christmas Eve, but of course not this year. We will all sing this with the Commoners Choir, recording a high-quality version on our phones locally and send them in. We will create a mass edit of them and put it online to see if we cannot get a Christmas No 1. We’ll enter it in the Official Charts, and you’ll be able to buy it for 99p.
All proceeds go to the Trussell Trust. Details here!