Press Play - more than just a course
Press Play is an ethos and a community, now in its sixth year based at Spike Print Studios.
I created Press Play in response to my need for a structure through which to continue to develop within a group of artist-peers.
At the time the closest thing I had to a model of professionalism was an account of his own practice given by Matthew Burrows MBE to a group which happened to include my mum, at Bournemouth Uni. In the talk Matt touched on ABC, his Artists’ Boot Camp, created to facilitate his own engagement with a small group of peers for the purposes of rigorous discussion and dialogue about their work.
I emailed Matt, which was something you could just do in those days, and he offered to visit so Press Play had help from outsiders right from the first year, and Matt’s generosity has always been key.
The course introduces a small cohort of artists to a series of questions and practical tasks designed to build confidence and knowledge of one’s practice. There are individual sessions on research, having ideas and tools for reflection but the course outline itself is fluid, changing in response to the make-up and needs of the group, which is a fantastic thing. It’s playful and the teaching is person-centred employing a ‘Humanist’ approach.
The year group tends to stick together afterwards, continuing to provide one another with support and feedback. In this way the course is generating communities, perhaps even ’scenius'.
There is also enough material in terms of learning and teaching content for me to work with artists and groups outside the Press Play programme on a session by session basis.
