The Drive: A societal pillar.
Hung on the walls inside of the Dovecot and Princess Drive Community Association (i.e., The Drive) in Knotty Ash, Liverpool, art pieces on A4 paper are placed in a grid formation to my left. Images of two foxes embrace each other. On closer inspection the drawings radiate quality, each colourful illustration is irreplicable, punctuated with individuality. Over a short but intensive programme the members here had learnt to apply skills in an artistic field. This colourful expression a testament to the classes that resulted in their deliverance. A destruction of the barriers to entry for artistic interest enabled visitors of the Drive to direct attention and focus to a project some had never thought of even trying, let alone creating.
The world-renowned Tate Art Organisation claims “Arts education is in crisis” (Tate, n.d), citing the lack of emphasis placed on artistic subjects in school curriculums. If budget-slashing continues in this arena and the extreme emphasis on Baccalaureate subjects remains, is an artistic brain drain inevitable? Temmerman (2005) understands the role the creative arts has in maintaining a dynamic outlook on age-old issues and their contemporary counterparts, as does The Drive. Classes in the centre range in their scope and demographic members; tile mosaic art, tree decoration lessons, and reading groups are just a select few of the sessions they support and host. The Drive acknowledges the symbiosis between social wellbeing and environmental protection –imprinted and outlined on a desk is the centre’s next work of art in the making, a lady bird next to the word ‘bugs’, two entities linked by their belonging to biodiversity and ecological discourse. Assortments of tiles resembling a work of Gaudi overlap and cover the worktop surface, loose tiles reminders of fragments discarded in an artistic moment of choice offer an insight into the particularity and care that is assigned to each task the members complete. It is clear the end result will be one of beauty
To the community members that participate in these artistic based lessons the sessions provide a basis for societal interaction,escaping loneliness and its related mental health impacts. As the bastion of these community values, it is crucial that The Drive remains in a trajectory that supports these individuals in the artistic endeavours they wish to partake in. At the rear of the centre a row of compost bins allows members of the community to interact with ecologically-progressive implementations. The introduction of these compost bins embodies the emphasis The Drive places on overlapping the environmental and social spheres, ensuring that eco-system services are derived from even the most urban of locales.
The presence of sustainability is apparent in every fibre of The Drive’s activity. The centre was awarded the Level 4 –Thriving, Neighbour hood Award from the Royal Horticultural Society in 2022, an emblem of its success in ecological protection, a journey that has involved community members and a precise direction of sustainable development. It has long been assumed that linkage between environmental education and the arts can interrelate and depend on each other–a rise in one aiding progress in the other. Unfortunately, the haven of artistic foundations The Drive represents are increasingly anomalous in the fabric of changing cultural tides–for 2023 students taking “art and design subjects are down 3% year on year for A-Levels and GCSE’s”(Hall, 2023). Retaining and encouraging the growth of more community hubs that triumph an overlap of ecological and artistic discourse in their activities is an ethos Big Help Project aligns within its support delivery. Flowers sprout out of planters that populate the entrance to the centre adding darts of colour to an otherwise urban setting. Departing The Drive, I am taken to a community outdoor garden space they support. Its green appearance spaced between housing and open public green space offers a contrast of the urban dichotomy. Ecosystems are alive in wooden joints that comprise planters and flowers that bend towards the sun. The Drive and Big Help Project is increasingly aware of its socio-economic and environmental footprint. As such; the ability to incorporate all of these facets into singular projects and programmes remains a valuable way to attach progressive ideas to traditional activities like mosaic making–an ideal they both vehemently champion.
References
Fragkoulis, I. and Koutsoukos, M.(2018)‘Environmental Education through Art: A Creative Teaching Approach’, Education Quarterly Reviews,1(2), pp.83-88.
Hall, R. (2023) “Languages and creative arts losing favour with GCSE and A-level students, ”The Guardian, 1 June. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/01/languages-creative-arts-losing-favour-gcse-a-level-students (Accessed: August 18, 2023).
Tate (no date) Why study art?, Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/talking-point/why-study-art (Accessed: August 18, 2023).