Hello English language learners and friends of Blue Noun English Language School in Scotland! Today our English language school for creative minds wants to share with you an opportunity for professional development. We have an international work experience opportunity to offer 4 international art students.
Are you an art/design student?
Develop professional English & Art skills with this unique and free training opportunity for international creative students.
“We know you can’t travel at the moment and your professional development is taking a big hit. That’s why we’ve created this opportunity.”
Ruth Pringle, Blue Noun English Language School
In case you haven’t yet heard, there’s a Great Big Art Exhibition happening in windows across the nation (UK).
Yes, we’re in Lockdown and galleries are closed – but that’s exactly the reason to make art and turn local communities into exhibitions.
The Great Big Art Exhibition is a national event which anyone, with any level of experience can have fun with – hopefully with kids getting involved too.
As our region Strathearn has an absolutely astonishing number of professional and highly-skilled artists (it’s a beautiful place to live, studio spaces are affordable and we have easy connection to four of Scotland’s largest cities), we’re hoping that some excellent artists will also take part; turning our streets and community into a glorious, temporary art gallery.
“The doors to our collections and galleries might be shut but our imaginations are forever open. Making, showing and experiencing art has created so much joy, connection and solace for many thousands of people,”
Sally Shaw, director of Firstsite (Colchester-based arts organisation behind the initiative).
The first theme of Animals was selected by sculptor Antony Gormley,
“I expect people may actually invent animals that perhaps haven’t evolved in the natural course of Darwinian evolution, but need to evolve in order to express what is happening inside people,”
“Dragons, some fantastical animals with multiple legs – as many pseudopodia as are necessary to express an inner vitality. I’m asking people to evoke their spirit animal.”
Antony Gormley
There are loads of great artists and themes coming up (I’m especially excited about David Shrigley‘s, ‘Put a Thing In an Odd Place’). At this stage, we don’t know how many people will take part in our community, but the more support and activity we can drum up, the better (and you can help!).
Great Big Art Exhibition Poster, by David Shrigley, 2021
We’ll be making art for our windows! (Although we might work up to the big ones!)
Blue Noun English Language School reading area window
The specifics of this training opportunity with Blue Noun English language School in Scotland.
Blue Noun English language School are self-appointed admin for the Strathearn Facebook group for The Great Big Art Exhibition: hopefully rustling up a great deal of community interest and participation, enabling some great fun art-making in the short term – perhaps even leading to long-term collaborations or similar events.
As we are an English language school specialising in coaching creatives in professional English, we would like to invite international art students to join in this project.
I’ve worked on the continent as an English teacher within Art Schools and I know that professional development work placements are like hen’s teeth – especially in these times. I also know the English language needs of professional creatives, and want to contribute to arts education (see the about us section of our site for more about me).
“I just see it as a chance to create an international work experience opportunity for art students whose career and professional development have taken a hit during these COVID times. “
Ruth, Blue Noun English language School, 2021
This opportunity would suit Art students, Media students Design students and even Architecture students.
Included in this international work experience opportunity…
We are offering a weekly group Zoom chat discussing the development of this project (with both participating students and invited professionals and local participants) (bring your creative ideas!), a weekly one-on-one coached English Zoom lesson, themed around the organisation of the project, including assigning practical admin tasks such as directly replying to artist contributors, writing press releases, designing a flyer.
It’s a real-time lesson in public art, exhibition coordination and a great introduction to British (and Scottish!) culture, designed to develop participants professional English language skills. We are offering a good chunk of quality training for absolutely free: we know it’s a tough time to be a student as many of the usual opportunities just don’t exist right now – we sincerely want to help.
How to apply to our international work experience opportunity.
Write a letter of introduction, including the following information:
Your studies
What you hope to learn by participating in our project
What your interest/experience in community art is.
If you have had professional experience exhibiting your own work, please include detail of this.
Include up to 6 images of your work (or links) if relevant.
This project is live and has started: there’s no application deadline but it is only running until April 11th, 2021, so don’t delay in getting your information to us. We can start training people almost immediately.
Email with any questions, look forward to hearing from you soon!
Live language learning!
Ruth
Blue Noun English Language Challenge
We hope you’ve enjoyed our dip into the built environment of Strathearn, Perthshire.
We cover a broad range of topics in our language school blogs – some a lighthearted look at Scotland, others an in-depth look at art and culture. There’s something for everyone.
If you’ve liked this blog, you might want to read our English tips blog:
5 ways to use BBC Radio to learn English here.
Your Blue Noun English Language Challenge is:
‘Put a Thing In an Odd Place’ – as instructed by David Shrigley
Go on! Dare you! And tell us about it in the comments. Write as much as you like, and if you would like us to check & correct your English, write CP (correct please) at the end.
Live language learning!
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