Flight of Fancy was developed by Shermine Slocombe in collaboration with Emergency Exit Arts and was a Creative Learning project inviting KS2 children and their families to venture into places of limitless possibility and take a flight of fancy by peeking into the imaginations of others. This flight encompassed invention, digital animation, drawing, collaborative mark making and surprise as each school created the content for their own installation to convey a larger than life experience.

A project funded by Arts Council England and Mercers was developed to improve the creative wellbeing of young people within the theme of ‘My home, my nest’ and to support the significance of family values. The young people took a voyage of the imagination through the eyes of a bird to re-imagine new worlds and landscapes to see themselves and others differently to develop empathy. We experimented with activities to encourage students to change habits and learn new ways of thinking to avoid comfort zones. There is growing evidence that creativity can make a significant difference to our health and wellbeing – and also to how they feel about, and interact with their community by changing habits, taking personal responsibility for their actions and seeing an alternative perspective. People who know how to watch, listen, and observe the actions and emotions of those around them are often the most successful in life.

We worked with students at a secondary school as co-creators within the project, allowing them to participate, consult and create in all elements of the design and direction.

Each school made work in response to the theme and their work was digitalised as an animation. The installations were housed and disguised in bird boxes, giving spectators the element of surprise as they peeked inside the hole and were transported to the depths and dizzying heights of the young people’s imaginations.

The digital installation of bird boxes toured to different public spaces in Greenwich throughout the summer 2019 and were viewed and experienced by members of the public. Children and their families could also participate in visual arts activities responding to the themes and content from the installations.

    More details about the project can be found on Emergency Exit Arts Website.