Young people on Creative Pathways Glasgow are baking a name
for themselves – they’ve chosen a pizza
theme for the environmentally-conscious work they’re engaged in over the next
few months.
Artists Mina Heydari-Waite and Allan Whyte are working with
16-17 year olds, teaching artistic
techniques while exploring environmental issues and devising ways of promoting
green messages in their communities.
At workshops running each week at our Factory premises in
Dennistoun, the young people have been trying their hand at screen-printing,
natural dyes, paper collage and pinhole camera photography.
The group have also been discussing environmental issues
locally – identifying problems such as pollution, litter, vandalism and overcrowded
public transport.
They have decided to use their time with Creative Pathways
to plan a pizza-packed community event in Glasgow and design a community
toolkit that can be used by others the world over.
The team were donated an environmentally-friendly portable
pizza oven by Edinburgh-based company Ooni.
The team assembled the oven and have been using it each Friday to hone their
pizza practice.
They have also struck up a friendly relationship with the
Zero Waste Market in Dennistoun, who have donated package-free vegetables and oil.
The project is running until June, when the young people
will used recovered and recycled materials to build their own pizza oven at a
community garden in Glasgow.
To mark this event, they will create a riso-print
publication outlining the steps they took so others can follow their example.
In the meantime, the group – who are not currently in
employment, education or training – are getting support from Impact Arts to
find opportunities for them to move into once the course finishes.
The programme is
funded by Our Bright Future, the National Lottery Community Fund and Skills
Development Scotland.