Meet the Young Collaborators

In South Ayrshire, artist Catrin has been joined by Young Collaborators Abi and Rebecca.

The Young Collaborators have co-designed and co-facilitated workshops with parents and toddlers, with older people living in care homes and with S1 pupils attending Z1 Youth Centre. They have also been sharing their experiences of living through the pandemic.

Here is Abi and Rebecca’s take on the project:

Abi with workshop participants

‘Remembering Together has been fun to be involved in. It is good to hear the different experiences of people during covid. You learn lots. It is really important for people to have a voice about the lockdowns. I feel art calms you down, it takes away your focus from what you are saying so you don’t overthink. It is so important for everyone to be heard, so they don’t feel alone or bottle up their feelings,’ says Abi. 

Rebecca with a workshop participant

‘Lockdowns were so traumatic for many. It has affected some people more than others. Now we are back to normal and those who weren’t so affected want to brush over. It makes people feel forgotten about.

Art is great because it breaks down walls when talking. Your brain is busy so you aren’t thinking so much. We’ve used art like this with our art teacher. We go at lunchtime, make art and talk. It really helps.

   During the lockdowns we couldn’t do the fun stuff in art. We just drew with pencils because that is all we had at home. We were only doing art for the exam deadline – it took the fun out of it. This project has helped make it fun again. It is really social,’ says Rebecca.