Artists in Creative Education: Pakistan and UK

Ikon has collaborated on an exciting international partnership between Creativity, Culture & Education (CCE) UK, Vasl Artists’ Collective Karachi, Pakistan and the British Council.

In May 2013 three artists from Birmingham and three from Karachi came together at Ikon for a week long training programme led by CCE.  The programme aimed to support them as artists to work successfully in schools, developing creative approaches to teaching and learning.

Following this training Karachi-based architect Mariyam Iftikar, sculptor Sara Khan and ceramic artist Sara Mahmood shadowed projects by visual artist Shaheen Ahmed, photographer Mahtab Hussain and performer Bharti Patel who were working with five local schools in Birmingham. Their collaborative projects with pupils and teachers focused on addressing certain challenges within the school such as social inclusion, identity and learning behaviours.

The Pakistani artists then used this learning to inform their projects at five schools in Karachi and in September 2013 the Birmingham artists and Ikon Learning Co-ordinator Emma Bowen completed the exchange by visiting the projects.

AiCE is a collaboration between Ikon, CCE, Vasl Artists’ Collective and the British Council.