Open Eye Gallery’s creative producer for schools and young people, Anna Wijnhoven is a finalist in the One To Watch Award category for the Northern Cultural Education Awards 2024! The judges from across the sector have reviewed over 150 Award nominations across all 7 categories and the standard across the board was extremely high.

Anna works on the Schools and Young People programme, ensuring that young people get a chance to creatively express themselves and start a career in photography. Her role includes  managing Open Eye Gallery’s children and young people’s projects, running photography workshops, and photowalks and curating Whitby High School exhibition together with the students. Here are some of the projects that Anna has been working on.

Whitby High School project

Open Eye Gallery has a long-standing partnership with Whitby High School, working with Year 12 photography students. During their project with the gallery, the students get the opportunity to visit our exhibitions,  take part in workshops with professional artists, get to know the different roles in the gallery to help with career choices, and improve their visual language to be able to use photography to talk about the narratives in a way that is important to them. This results in the students having a broader understanding of the inner workings of the gallery and the staff, as well as a more imaginative and rounded approach to their own work and exhibition. They know that an art career is accessible and that there are multiple ways to be a photographer or artist in the modern world.  

The engagement between the school and the gallery has led to students’ increased confidence, sense of agency, and general enjoyment. One of the students said in an anonymous questionnaire: ‘I feel as though it gives me inspiration for my project. I enjoy the tasks we are given, as it challenges me and helps me to improve my knowledge and skills.’ 

Student engagement in this project is helping to drive engagement in other aspects of the programme: the students became interested in volunteering, participating in various open calls for early career artists and in the University courses that are conducted in partnership with the gallery. Here’s the interview with one of the students to know more.

This year the students are working on the topic of climate change, and their exhibition will open on 12 June. 

Community project

Community project in Ellesmere Port became a continuation of the Whitby High School project, People and Place, when Anna was able to secure funding from the local counci and Cheshire West Voluntary Action to organise an exhibition and a series of responsive workshops in Ellesmere Port Library. The exhibition features a selection of works from ‘People and Places’ by the Whitby High School students and works by Hinderton Primary Autism Specialist School students – another school where Anna had conducted a series of creative workshops. This exhibition and workshop programme showed how important it is to bring the work home, to bring different communities together and to give people more opportunities for creative self-expression. 

Me, Myself, My Space project

Another project that Anna produced with artist in residence Faye Heran, was Me, Myself, My Space. It challenged young LGBTQI+ and ally people to use photography and art as a tool for navigating their identity, mental health, belonging and place through self-portraits. The resulting exhibition celebrates diversity, inclusivity, and self-expression in a creative and empowering way. New Beginnings youth group have explored self-portraits through expressive and meaningful photography, art, moving images and music. Speaking about the project, one of the group members said: “I have enjoyed being part of this project because it has helped with my confidence and it has helped me with photography because I’m picking it for college.”

One change for cultural education

Here’s what Anna said about one change she’d want to see in cultural education:

– One change I’d like to see in cultural education is a more inclusive and diverse curriculum that accurately represents the impact that arts and photography have on young people. This change is essential because it helps young people gain a wider understanding of the world around them, as well as increasing empathy and respect for the many different cultures and backgrounds that we are lucky to have in our world. A curriculum that embraces arts and photography will help young people build important life skills such as self-confidence and a healthy well-being tool kit – even for those who don’t believe a creative career suits them.

Identity, belonging, and place are all crucial elements in shaping the lives of young people today. Anna thinks it’s especially important to take the time and really listen to young people, to have the patience to understand what it’s like to be a young person (especially LGBTQ+ young person)  in a world where they often experience hate and bullying. It’s about providing them with a space they can really feel safe and creative.

The Awards Ceremony will take place on Friday 24 May at The Edge Arena in Wigan.