BP632: Wearable Arts at Te Papa

Abstract

Reference: Case Study BP632
Classroom Practice: Year 13 Materials Technology
Title: Wearable Arts at Te Papa
Duration: Whole Year
Overview: Two students in the Queen Margaret College Year 13 Materials Technology class created a wearable art window display environment for their client, Te Papa Store. These were displayed in the entrance windows of the museum and gained much attention for both the shop and the school.

Focus Points:

• Working with a high-level client
• Skills Development

Background

Queen Margaret College is an inner city, private girls' school of approximately 680 students. Technology is taught as a compulsory subject in Years 7-9, with Materials Technology offered as an option in Years 10-13.

In 2005 Head of Department Barbara Knight formed a relationship, facilitated by Futureintech , with Te Papa Tongarewa (Museum of New Zealand). Her Year 11 class produced a range of prototype souvenir items for the museum shop, Te Papa Store.

At their first meeting about the souvenir project Barbara and Colin McFetridge, retail manager of Te Papa Store, had also discussed the idea of a wearable art window display. Following the success of Te Papa Souvenirs he suggested that Barbara's students do a window display in 2006.

Some emails later they agreed on a wearable art project which would involve two students and four windows. Te Papa wanted each student to produce a life-sized outfit for one window and a mask for the other.

Pre-planning

Barbara's approach to the NCEA Year 13 client project is to have her students work with one client all year, where all of the achievement standards are embedded into this major project of work. "It's a pretty meaty project, there's a lot in it" says Barbara. They do their conceptual design project first and then, after a revision process and rewriting of their briefs for implementation, produce the one-off solution. After client approval of the final conceptual design the students revise their brief, working towards Achievement Standards 90792 (3.2), 90686 (3.6) and 90687 (3.7).

There were ten students in the 2006 Year 13 Materials Technology class, two of whom - Eloise Jack and Sarah Bowerman - were hand picked to take on the wearable art at Te Papa project. Barbara says there was a lot riding on such a public project - the school's reputation, her own reputation, as well as the professional risk the store managers were taking in trialling the project – but she never let the girls know this, because she didn't want them to worry about it.

Barbara initially had a meeting with Colin and Te Papa Store display organiser, Jan Morris, where they talked through the display environment requirements and set a date for the girls to visit. Jan would be their key client.

Delivery

Barbara introduces the components of technological practice in Year 11, so by Year 13 the class has a good understanding of the process. Year 13 students normally do all of their own planning. Barbara has a session on context brainstorming where students pick their project, think about a suitable client and plan their research and interviews for the initial consultation. She discusses possible outcomes, but each student must finally decide on these with their clients, according to their constraints and specifications.

"I can't say where their individual projects are going to go. It very much relies on lots of individual chats with the girls about what stage they're at, the beauty of a small class being I can do that on a regular basis."

Before tackling their client-based projects the class worked on a conceptual design project, a fashion drawing assignment, which they used to enter the national Sheilah Winn Secondary Schools Shakespearean Costume Design competition, which was won by Eloise.

Eloise and Sarah started working on their projects in Week 7 of term 1; "horribly late" says Barbara. They had to have the display in the windows by 18 September in time to coincide with the launch of The World of Wearable Arts (WOW) show in Wellington on 23 September. This meant the girls, despite the high profile project they were attempting, had a much shorter timeframe than anyone else in the class.

Although she didn't know all the constraints at this stage, Barbara ensured that Eloise and Sarah were well set up and fully understood what was required. She arranged for their first consultation meeting at Te Papa with Colin and Jan, after which the girls took responsibility for making and keeping meetings with their clients.

There was a great deal of contact between the girls and their clients, who were quite flexible with meeting times throughout the project, understanding that the students had other work commitments as well. The girls emailed regularly, with increased contact as the project drew closer to completion, and were able to sign out of school to visit Te Papa.

They spent the first ten weeks of the project on research, looking at the WOW phenomenon and talking to past winners to find out what made their projects successful. They had to consider the multiple design aspects of their project - making a display piece was one aspect but using a window environment in a high profile location required a lot of critical thinking.

Eloise and Sarah visited the store in order to develop an understanding of the environment and location. They had been told that the store is the most visited place in the museum and that the Te Papa Board of Directors is very interested in what's in the windows - "the eyes of Te Papa." They took photos, observed people's movements and reactions and surveyed visitors to see if they knew about WOW.

They also researched window displays around Wellington and talked with a window display artist about her job, so they could understand balance and proportion and how to display things to good effect.

One of the main constraints from Te Papa was the inclusion of their trademark 'thumbprint', so the students had to consider how this was used in merchandising and branding. They were initially told 'Do what you want, just include our thumbprint' which, while allowing freedom to use their creativity meant being unsure about where Te Papa wanted them to go. After a couple of meetings they had more of an idea of what was wanted, which gave them more direction.

Barbara says they didn't realise until the end of the project the importance of the integrity of Te Papa's 'thumbprint' logo and that there are guidelines for its use. Luckily the girls interpreted the thumbprint in a way that the Marketing Manager and Directors, who came to view it, were happy with.

It took a while for the girls to come up with concepts and they were aware that the Te Papa team were starting to worry that they wouldn't get it done on time. Sarah and Eloise explained the NCEA requirements to Jan and the things they needed to do before they could get into designing. This allowed Te Papa to understand and help along the way, rather than panicking at any delays.

Eloise and Sarah knew that Colin had to report to the CEO and the public relations team on what they were doing. "We had to constantly keep thinking about that, that we had to have something of high quality to show them, to keep their confidence up, and that was quite hard."

Because of time constraints they moved quickly from developing the brief into construction, which meant dropping book-work for a while and concentrating on making the solution, coming back later to fill in the gaps. The only way to keep tabs on everything was to keep a rough log and take lots of photos, so they could remember what they had been doing and write it up.

Barbara says it was hard to anticipate the skills to teach Eloise and Sarah, so she worked on a need-to-know basis. At times the girls would start making something, find out it wasn't going to work, go back and try again. "That was our basic skills development process – testing and modelling, and whatever didn't work we'd just try another way."

The girls had to consider the materials they used - these had to withstand the heat of the lighting and be constructed well enough that the work didn't fall apart in the window and embarrass Te Papa.

Wearable art differs from the usual materials project where students aim for high quality pattern-making and construction. This is a display and while the mannequin outfits had to be fit for purpose and meet criteria, high quality in this project also related to public window display requirements for the project.

A local textiles tutor who was experienced in wearable art construction, Lyndal Sheat, visited the class to show students some interesting techniques they might like to use, including fabric manipulation which Sarah ended up using to make her material look like seaweed.

Eloise needed to learn how to use an overlocker and adapt a pattern, whereas Sarah had to work more on the conceptual theme design of the project and what materials to use to make it work.

There was also expertise within the school for the girls to draw on. Preschool teacher Denise Ongley, who had won a section at WOW, shared her experience and helped with some of the construction. Technician Marie Paterson, a highly skilled textile artist, was also available to help. Barbara enlisted Wellington High School teacher Kylie Merrick, who had experience in window display, to help with this aspect of the project.

Barbara notes that "When you're making wearable art, it doesn't always look like a quality product until you get it finished and in the display space. The girls kept saying 'it doesn't look good, it doesn't look good'." Although Sarah and Eloise found it quite a change creating something using hot glue, wire, papier-mach&eactue; or glitter designed to look high quality rather than being constructed as such, they were pleased with the final look.

The school mannequins differed from those at Te Papa which Barbara didn't think would matter. However, when they went to dress the Te Papa mannequins they found that the different arms made it difficult to fit the outfits on, and they had to do some last minute cutting and construction modification.

Outcomes

Barbara had known her students for five years and had a good relationship with them. "This particular class was a star group; high flyers who have excelled in Technology and achieved high grades. We had a lot of fun together and enjoyed working with each other – that kind of class is what makes me love teaching. I'd been their form teacher and knew them really well and I guess they trusted me. We had a few melt-down moments but I think they trusted me and knew it would be okay. I never let on to the girls that I had concerns about whether we'd be able to pull it off."

Barbara points out that the project was a professional risk for Colin and Jan; she appreciates that they went ahead and were very supportive. At times they may have been concerned with progress but after seeing Sarah and Eloise's workbooks had a greater understanding of how and why things are done, and that a lot of practical work doesn't happen until mid term 2. Next time Barbara will ensure the clients understand the analysis and documentation required at Year 13 right from the beginning.

The display was in the windows for four weeks and gave a high profile to the school and to Technology education in general. There were plaques in the windows with photos of Eloise and Sarah in their uniforms, their names and the school log. There was also a paragraph about the work, explaining it was a school Technology project and what the girls were asked to do.

The school's senior management was very supportive, though they didn't know very much about the project until the end, when Barbara could confirm that the window display had received client approval to go ahead. Barbara had a Plan B in case Te Papa said that the work wasn't good enough to go in the windows.

Public reaction to the display was enthusiastic; the school received emails, phone calls and comments from visitors about the display. Sarah and Eloise's client told them that store sales had increased compared to the same time last year, due in part because the window was drawing people inside.

What next?

Te Papa wanted to carry on the project in 2007 and two students are working on it again. Barbara is wary of the inherent pitfalls of repeating such a project, and has made it clear to the girls doing it that they are to take full ownership of their work and not be too influenced by what was done the year before. "However, it is such a unique, awesome opportunity and an authentic project for my students, who can resist?", she says.

This year the Te Papa Marketing Manager was involved in the initial meeting and presented the guidelines for using Te Papa's thumbprint logo, branding, colours and trade marking.

Sarah is now at Victoria University doing a conjoint Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Teaching degree. Eloise, who received a New Zealand Scholarship Award for Technology at outstanding level, visited London in 2007 with the Young Shakespeare Company.