Our Partners – Barnsley Adult and Family Learning Service

After a slow start to our partnership working with Barnsley Adult and Family Learning Service (AFLS), the project has been a runaway success. When we launched the project with AFLS, the priorities and pressures on local schools meant that they were reluctant to commit to it. However, due in no small part to the dedicated efforts of Bev Ellis and Gary Dutton of ALFS it gained momentum. They involved more than 20 primary schools throughout the borough.

Along with 220 adults, a number of their children attended classes and produced a piece of art work in the style of a selected past Barnsley artist. These included works influenced by

Barker Fairley’s portraits and landscapes

Pen and ink drawings of old Barnsley by Kenneth Leslie Graham

The art nouveau designs of William James Neatby

The travels and paintings of Thomas Witlam Atkinson

The underground paintings of miner Samson Gilbert Daykin

A number of these pieces of substantial art work were exhibited in St Mary’s Church for 10 weeks of the Cooper Gallery exhibition and for one month after it had closed. The artists were delighted to see their work on display and showed it to family and friends with obvious pride. Some have gone on to further learning with AFLS. In many of the schools this artwork has a permanent place in the public spaces of the school.

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