2000 Lines
In 1999, Heads Together were approached by Leeds Education Authority to explore the idea of literacy among twenty one schools in the East Leeds area; a genuine commitment to get children to engage with reading and writing stories, and to really enjoy it.

Inspired by a book written by children in Birmingham in the 1970's, we proposed to produce a book with the children of East Leeds that told their own stories at the turn of the millennium. Working around the themes of community and individual identity, the '2000 Lines' project was created.

Sixteen Primary Schools, one High School and one Special school in the area took part in the project, along with four local libraries. Each school was encouraged to explore the scope of their own 2000 Lines project under the overall theme of 'who we are'. Each school also nominated a co-ordinator who met regularly to plan the project across the area, and who took responsibility to develop the themes throughout their school.

Once each school had identified their project ideas with Heads Together, it was up to us to come up with the right artist. This was a partnership approach where the artists were there to support the teachers and provide additional skills and input. Nineteen artists worked in different schools on projects, which included photography, painting, radio, illustration, poetry design and more. Each artist had four days in school, spread out over a period of time.

A vast amount of creative material was generated on this project. Each school was given a cardboard box at the beginning, and everything which would normally have gone in the bin – the first draft of a poem, the discarded photographic prints – were all saved in the box. When it came to the process of sorting through the final material, the boxes gave a real insight to the process the children had gone through.

At the end of their individual projects, each school had an exhibition of their work before pooling all their material for inclusion in the book.

On 30th April 2000, all the work produced by the children was laid out on the gym floor at East Leeds Family Learning Centre. The quality and extent of the work was overwhelming. Now began the difficult task of editing through the wealth of work into a book, which would adequately tell the story of what it is like growing up in East Leeds at the turn of the Millennium. With additional financial support from Elida Fabergé (now Lever Fabergé), we were able to produce a well-designed quality book. Working with designer Andy Edwards, the results surpassed every ones expectations.

But the real test of success was with the children and their families. On July 11th 2000, a book launch was held in Waterstone’s in Leeds City Centre. The Lord Mayor attended in his mayoral chains to give praise to the children for their achievements. The 'icing on the cake' though was to have children and young people from East Leeds sat in a bookshop in the middle of town, signing copies of their book to a queue of adults waiting eagerly to get their copy. The book remains on sale at Waterstone's to this day.

The book has been well received across East Leeds by families and friends of the pupils, as well as throughout the country by educationalists, neighbourhood development teams, artists, youth development and health sector workers.

The 2000 Lines book goes from strength to strength, recently winning Overall Design Award in the prestigious national McNaughtons Design Review. The judges commented: "This book tells a story and what's important about the story is that the children tell it themselves. The content is superbly handled. Every spread works. Drawings by children so often come across as clichés - but here, they are fresh, engaging and not at all forced."

Copies are still available from Heads Together - £14.99

2000 Plus
Following on from the 2000 Lines book project, Heads Together built upon the success of the schools to extend the creative activity beyond the school gates.

One of the themes that came across very strongly in 2000 Lines book was the children's desire to improve their environment, to make East Leeds an even better place to live. With support from Artists In Schools, Lever Fabergé and arts@leeds Neighbourhoods and Communities Partnership, the 2000 Plus project was able to bring architects, sculptors, photographers and designers into schools to work alongside the children and their teachers.

Each school worked around the theme of 'Citizenship' and 'Responsibility', to create public art pieces for the schools and their surrounding community. Some focused on their school’s role in the community, some looked at particular places in the neighbourhoods around the schools and how they could make a visual impact, and others teamed up with local community organisations. Whilst the children involved developed their skills and their confidence, working both individually and in teams, the project as a whole served to forge links between the different schools and their local communities.

At the end of the project, an exhibition was created on a single banner some 4.5m x 2.5m consisting of a series of images and montages from the different projects. The exhibition is on permanent display at East Leeds Family Learning Centre in Seacroft.

The next development in this phase of creative activity is to run a Community Radio Station in the summer of 2003. The radio project will be led by John Smeaton Community High School, but will link in all the other schools and the community of East Leeds.

The potential with radio is for intergenerational creative projects around storytelling, drama, soap opera, music, documentary, poetry... the list is as endless as it is exciting. There is a real buzz in East Leeds. Tune in your radio next summer and hear it for yourself.

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