The Forts education programme was a year-long project devised in response to Stephen Turner’s planned residence on the WWII sea forts. Artists Jo Addison, Alex Schady and Raine Smith were invited to work with forts education project co-ordinator Alice Walton. Four classes in two schools were involved, Community College Whitstable and Whitstable Junior School.
Community College Whitstable had been developing a new approach to teaching students who were having difficulties within the school. A vertical curriculum had been devised where students of different age groups could be taught together every Friday afternoon. The Forts education programme worked with three student groups from the vertical curriculum and 10 different members of staff from across the curriculum. The contact with Whitstable Junior School was with children from the final year at the school and although more traditional in structure provided a useful counterpoint to the activities at the Community College. With access to a generous materials budget and artists whose skills base included photography, video, sculpture and installation, it was possible to develop a creative and responsive programme that challenged everyone involved.
The project took place over a school year and was structured into three terms. The first term tackled some of the underlying themes in Stephen’s work from the students’ own perspective. Without introducing the sea forts themselves we started to consider isolation and what it might mean to each of us. As a group we investigated when and how you might feel isolated and whether the word had any positive or negative associations. As a personal response to this the students built a series of idealised forts where they might escape to if they needed to be alone. These became the basis for a series of activities that included a group installation (linking all the structures with a series of bridges and tunnels), stop motion animation, and a short live action film. By the end of the first term even though we hadn’t addressed Stephen’s work directly we had explored themes (isolation, independence, freedom) and techniques (construction, filming, drawing) that could be used to unpick the Seaforts project itself once it was introduced.
In the second term we unveiled Stephen’s proposal and began to consider the practical and emotional implications of living on a rusty WWII fort in the middle of the Thames Estuary, eight nautical miles from land. The students responded with a barrage of questions. Where there be toilet facilities? How would the artist communicate with the outside world? Would he miss anyone? How would he collect food and water? We felt the best person to answer these questions was Stephen himself. We therefore devised a series of activities that solicited direct responses from him. The students made messages in bottles, they photographed their own work and made postcards, they filmed themselves as TV interviewers and all this material was sent to Stephen over the course of the term. Stephen in turn responded with an original hand drawn postcard addressed to each individual student answering all their questions and asking many others. On the last day of term Stephen came into the school and took part in a press conference where the previously recorded questions were answered live.
In the final term we wanted to further explore the theme of communication. On the one hand we wanted to communicate with Stephen on the fort. We also wanted to communicate with a wider audience to help promote the work of the students within the local community. We began to plan a series of events, the climax of which was to be a public performance on Whitstable Beach to which the local media would be invited. The students made cork images of themselves holding a project information pack. These were then attached to helium balloons that were released, and so spread news of the project far and wide. The second half of the performance was an attempt to contact Stephen on the forts. For this the students made miniature models of the person they would most miss if they were on the fort. These were balanced onto grapefruit boats and launched out to sea. The event was a great success. Friends and family got a chance to see the students work and articles appeared in the local press.
The Forts education programme was an ambitious attempt to unite students from different schools, of different ages and academic abilities. Add to this four artists all from different disciplines and up to 15 members of staff and the scale of the undertaking becomes clear. We were determined to make the project process lead, rather than to focus on outcomes. The students on their part were sometimes confrontational and often challenging, but they were always eager to explore with energy and enthusiasm. We wanted the students themselves to guide us. We were always prepared to change things if we felt this was appropriate for the group. We worked closely with teachers from very different disciplines to explore how to work creatively across the curriculum, and teachers also explored ideas within their own lessons, creating cds for Stephen to take to the fort, and making forts in metalwork.
The Seaforts education project was funded and supported by Creative Partnerships, Kent.
Children on the last day of the project, on Whitstable beach.