About
Who We Are and What We Offer
Truck Workshops is an initiative from the people who bring you the annual Truck Music festival in Oxfordshire.
We specialise in connecting schools and other community groups to professional working artists from various backgrounds: crafts people, musicians, actors, dancers, and photographers.
With the help of professionally trained teachers, the artists create innovative workshops that can be tailored to the requirements of individual groups.
Our artists are highly skilled, friendly and keen to work with you to provide an unforgettable experience.
We can arrange a variety of workshop services including one-off events, festival activities, art weeks or longer residencies.
Why work with professional artists?
Our artists bring an influence from the creative industries not normally available within a school or community group setting.
They provide introductions to the creative industries and produce fresh and innovative approaches to learning.
Artists can make learning come alive and inspire people to pursue their own creative interests.
Our workshops can be tailored to benefit people of all ages and are easily applicable to mixed ability groups. They are also a great way to form productive links between different parts of the community.
Why bring artists into a school?
In a school setting workshops can be used to tackle issues which directly affect pupils’ lives and environments.
The workshops are flexible and adaptable and we are able to work collaboratively with teachers to help address different topics.
Our workshops can be used to help achieve the aims laid out in the National Curriculum, and wherever relevant we will try to incorporate current education initiatives.
We employ a professional teacher to advise each of our artists, and we will provide a workshop pack with consent forms, health and safety assessments and details of the curriculum aims and objectives covered in the workshop activities.
Why is creativity so important?
Today more than ever the National Curriculum is placing an emphasis on the need for creativity in education. The key message is that ‘creativity improves pupils self esteem, motivation and achievements’.
We support the aims of the national curriculum, and believe that creativity, in all its many forms, is an essential and enriching part of everybody’s life.
The ability to act and think creatively is not just an artistic pursuit; it is a skill transferable to all areas of life.
Getting creative can help people:
- Reach their potential
- Invent new ideas
- Learn new skills
- Be inspired
- Feel confident
- Develop new perspectives
Getting Out and About
Getting creative outside is a great way to introduce people to their local environments.
By encouraging people to explore and have fun in their environments they will be inspired to help protect these places in the future.
Have a look at what’s coming up for details of some of our outdoor events, or speak to our team about arranging your own outdoor workshop.
If you have an outdoor space you think we may like to use, let us know and we will come down and have a look.
Our Foundations
These three ideas form a backdrop to all of the work we do:
CREATIVE LEARNING FOR ALL
- Inspire creativity, confidence and achievement by encouraging imagination and exploration
- Provide an enjoyable, inclusive learning environment free from judgement, and give value to different levels of creative talent; it is the creative process that is of importance
- Make our services accessible to everyone
FLEXIBILITY AND RELEVANCE
- Work with non-prescriptive learning styles and remain adaptable to current issues effecting (affecting?) communities or groups, and help tackle these issues through our work
- Learn from co-created knowledge, reflect on our practices and invite the evaluation of others
SUSTAINABILITY
- Always consider our environment and the impact of the work we do
- Run a self-sustainable business and form mutually beneficial relationships in the community