Changin' it up after a bite in the face!!

Thurday 25th March
So this week was an extremly good session for the group- and even more so for me , it gave me a great chance to reflect on what interacting with a group in this way really is, what the important underlying dynamics of working in a community of people are, how you must adjust the way you work to be sure to include all those who want to be, and then progress forward in a positive way. So just to track back a bit, the reason i have been so interested in doing my class around graffiti is because i knew that it is something interesting and relevent to my generation, it has an edge to it, something which i know appeals in large to a younger group of people but also something self expressive, a chance for people to say what they feel. And after 6 or so weeks of this class i have noticed excellent participation and development in this area, but still some no-shows. This is no fault of the people who don't sit in on the sessions, there are completly voluntry, but i felt like i was excluding some people by pushing forward with something that didn't really appeal to them. So i felt i had to do something different, something to get everyone around the table again, so the solution as simple as it may seem was tattoos. An area i knew the group as a whole would take interest in as some already have tattoos. So I used this session to design ones for the people who wanted some done and i soon realised that it was a success, i looked around the table-a very full one i might add to see the group as a whole really interacting with each, more that they had for a few weeks.
So on reflection as someone who is interested in working with community groups, i now know you have to be flexible, be able to freshen up the class if need be, and worry less about the actual body of work that is being produced and instead focus on how the group as a whole are working out, after all it is a community.
I have learned that the content is not as important as i first thought, although it is a vital factor in pulling a groups interest, but instead its the team building, the interaction between people, and their progression over time.
Keep ya posted,
Ste