Whitworth Art Gallery: iPads and Book-making

Today is the ‘Get Digital’ day for Adult Learners’ Week and I have organised two fab workshops for adults at Whitworth Art Gallery: book-making and iPad iTour.

Lucy May Schofield was the tutor for the bookmaking. Lucy is a consummate professional. She always arrives in plenty of time to set up the room. She brings all the necessary equipment for up to about fifteen participants. Her teaching style is spot on with lessons pitched at the right level and pace. I have received excellent feedback about her workshops, and her personal hand-made books are beautiful.

I first met Lucy when I attended one of her two day bookmaking courses at Hot Bed Press in the summer of 2010. I loved it! I made six or seven little books using folding, cutting and sewing techniques which I then used for my Level 3 Photography Diploma.

For the more experimental iPad iTour workshop, learners filmed some footage of the gallery on new iPad 2s then edited it down to a couple of minutes, added music or a voice over then watched their short film on a big screen. It was amazing to see what the learners produced after three hours, one of which was spent on a guided tour of the gallery. I have to admit that the new iPad 2 is a gorgeous, covetous, pretty little thing and makes my iPad 1 seem rather clunky and outmoded.

Anyway, the reason I’m telling you about this day, is because these two workshops have proved inspirational for the project idea, which is still forming in and around my head like a cumulus cloud on a sunny day.

I know that somehow the new bid will include bookmaking of some kind and the use of iPads to make films.