Futures Coventry Urban Mining Programme

In collaboration with The Futures Trust we are running a parallel Urban Mining x Public Art Coventry schools programme with President Kennedy, Park Gate and Barr’s Hill in Coventry. This will inspire civic agency and climate awareness in our next generation.

This programme demonstrates the value in applied, project-based working methods, focused on the creation of sculpture, as a way to engage all school subjects and demonstrate the reality of their interconnected nature.

The development of site-specific public art works involves skills including social, historic and geographical research; community consultation and interviews; creative thinking as well as technical drawing and design skills. It’s creation in physical 3d form involves all STEAM subjects, including through the construction and alchemical processes such as in mould-making and casting. Sculpture engages technical skills transferable into multiple sectors including construction, engineering, film/tv, digital and other creative sectors. Creative thinking is essential to innovation universally.

The programme includes an ‘artist-in-residence’ model. A mix of direct working with teachers and students in TFT primary and secondary schools, bespoke programming for different schools and age groups will explore and replicate the most appropriate aspects of the wider Pangaea Urban Mining public art project, modelling the design approach of ‘discover’, ‘define’, ‘develop’, ‘deliver’.

Pangaea will work initially with a selected groups of up to 15 students in each setting over a period of 6 weeks, one day a week, in a range of workshop activities and field work. This work will culminate in the creation of a collaborative sculpture developed from the Urban Mining framework, with all the participating students, at the end of July on one site.