Tag: spartans alternative school

Spartans Pop-Up Shop & DJ Event

WEDNESDAY 13 DECEMBER from 5 – 6.30pm at SPARTANS

In September this year, our young people held a successful Art Exhibition at the arts venue Out Of The Blue Drill Hall. At the opening event of CREATE TO ESCAPE, the young people sold prints of their artwork and raised just over £600 for for the charity Turn The Tables DJ, which offers workshops to improve mental health for those affected by homelessness. 

 Following on from the success, there will be an ART POP UP SHOP & DJ evening where some of our young people will be doing a DJ set, demonstrating the fantastic work they have been doing with their Music teacher Hope, here at the Alternative School. There will also be a chance to purchase some of the incredible Artwork by young people.

 Wednesday 13.12.23 5-6:30pm

Spartans at 94 Pilton Drive, upstairs in the Robinson Trust Suite

Please come along and support our young people in their final fundraising effort for this worthwhile charity which they chose to support!

Last chance to see Spartans Alternative School’s art exhibition

The FREE Create to Escape Exhibition is open at the Drill Hall in Dalmeny Street until TODAY – Friday 8th September!

Hurry – this excellent exhibition closes at 2pm!

PICTURES David Bishop/ArtSquat

Create to Escape: Spartans Alternative School art exhibition

The young people who attend Spartans Alternative School are excited to share with you their up and coming art exhibition CREATE TO ESCAPE

Where: Out Of The Blue Drill Hall, 36 Dalmeny Street, Edinburgh, EH6 8RG

When: 5th – 8th September 2023

Exhibition and coffee shop

Open daily 10am-5pm Friday 10-2pm.

The collection of collaborative work by the Young people attending the Alternative School at Spartans Community Football Academy explores the interaction between art, mental health, social identity, and personal perception.

Through spray painting, film, sculpture, design, music, and photography, young people take art outside the curriculum to create space for escapism and well-being within their sometimes hectic and stressful days.

You will also get the chance to see CONCRETE JUNGLE, a film written and directed by the young people and filmed and edited by Rory Easton. This was a collaborative project with writer in residence, Edinburgh International Book Festival’s Chris Barkley.

Sales from the Exhibition will raise money for the charity Turn The Tables DJ, which offers workshops to improve mental health for those affected by homelessness

This exhibition has been possible with the support from ArtSquat, a charity that supports artists on low income to  showcase their work.

We are very excited to see you there!

Create to Escape Exhibition

Spartans Alternative School students present ART OFFENDERS

ART OFFENDERS is the first exhibition presented to you by CREATIVE COLLABORATIONS

Wednesday 8th December 2021

4pm – 7pm

Spartans Community Football Academy, Ainsley Park, 94 Pilton Drive

This event is FREE

Prior to the pandemic, the young people who attend Spartans Alternative School connected their art with their social enterprise project and named it CREATIVE COLLABORATIONS.

Their mission was to create awareness and positive change while they explored different ways of creating art. This year they spoke a lot about war and the negative impacts that battle and war has had on the lives of our soldiers when they return home. 

This exhibition features drawings, paintings, creative writing, film and 3D work that will be available to purchase.  Specially designed cards, prints and mugs will also be on sale at our ‘pop up shop’. They have chosen to donate money raised, to Scottish Veterans residences, based in Edinburgh. 

SCOTTISH VETERANS RESIDENCES, provides supported housing for former members of the UK Armed Forces who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Their services are located in Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow.

We look forward to welcoming you to come enjoy some Artwork and support our mission, to raise funds for Scottish war veterans.

Citizen: A hearty helping of Stories and Scran at the Book Festival

I was delighted to be part of Edinburgh International Book Festival’s ‘Stories and Scran’ event on Tuesday evening.

The event was a celebration of the book festival’s Citizen programme.

Over the last 12 months, Citizen Writer in Residence Eleanor Thom and poet Leyla Josephine have been working with local groups to discuss and respond creatively to themes such as home, identity and belonging.

The evening – a lively mix of live readings, stories and short films – showcased impressive work by participants from Spartans Alternative School, the Citizen Collective (some brilliant young writers aged 16-18) (above), the Citizen adult writing group, the Saheliya Champions and more. And all in front of a live audience, too!

The event was preceded by a delicious community meal prepared and served up by by a team from North Edinburgh’s very own Scran Academy. 

Congratulations to the organisers – coronavirus restrictions must have made this a very difficult event to plan and stage, but it really couldn’t have gone better.

Stories and Scran was live streamed and you can view it here:

 https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/stories-scran-1/player

Social Enterprise Award for Spartans Alternative School

Spartans Alternative School have won an international award for a social enterprise created by their students.

Bethany Marshall (below left, pictured with Ashey Telford) explained: “At the Spartans Community Football Academy’s Alternative School we created artwork using paint and footballs.  

“We then learnt how to use photoshop and to create digital drawings that became designs for our mugs. The mugs where then sold to raise money for UEvolve. This was our chosen charity for our social enterprise ‘Creative Collaborstions’.  

“We have been working on this since February 2020 to raise awareness of young male mental health. Despite Covid-19 we continued to develop the social enterprise.

“As a result we won a social enterprise award and featured in the schools edition of the Big Issue.  We have since sold a total of 100 mugs 50 Big Issues and we have 30 mugs still to sell.  We’re proud to announce we have just received the Social Enterprise World Forum award 2020 for Health and Wellbeing.”

Spartans Alternative School manager Emma Easton added: “We still have more mugs to sell as sales were hampered by timing of Covid lockdown. Profits are going towards U-Evolve to support young men’s mental health – this was the charity our students chose.”

To purchase mugs (£10) or Big Issues (£2.50) please email Emma at emmaeaston@spartanscfa.com