CUTTING-EDGE professionals from the world of film and music shared their skills with teachers and artists as part of Northumberland Rising, hosted by Creative Partnerships Northumberland.
The workshops gave teachers and professionals the opportunity to learn new skills from internationally-acclaimed artists in the five-day residential programme at Longhirst Hall, Morpeth.
The project, part-funded by the European Social Fund, is a f
ollow-up to last year's and was aimed at inspiring teachers and professionals to use new ideas in their work.
Working with three leaders, participants took part in three workshops based around music and performance.
Nitin Sawhney is an internationally-renowned composer who has made seven studio albums and experiments with music combining different sounds and cultures.
Sandra Kerr is an acclaimed folk musician from Warkworth and is well-known for writing the music for the 1970s children's TV series Bagpuss.
Ricardo Tobon is a computer artist from Florida who has worked with many of the world's top animation studios.
Each leader ran a different workshop based on their skills. They also took part in an impromptu collaborative project that included motion capture and a live music performance based on the traditional music of Northumberland.
Attendees came from a wide range of backgrounds including teachers who work with excluded pupils, dancers, choreographers and musicians.
I worked with Sandra, singing repetitive and catchy songs to focus on engaging people into the work they are doing.
With Ricardo, we looked at creating digital motion and animated characters and how using different software can create different motions.
Nitin held music sessions, working out how different things can affect rhythm.
He said: "People seem really open to making and working with new ideas. It is nice to have three leaders here with different interests and abilities and they work really well. They are all complementary to each other."
Hazel Stewart works with excluded children from north Northumberland for Education Other Than At School (EOTAS).
She said: "There are many young people that are difficult to engage and who have been offered education that hasn't worked for them, that's not to say the schools haven't worked well.
"I'm using the workshop to acquire skills for myself and getting a taste of the skills by the experts to provide for special projects."
Fiona Macleod, from Eglingham, an arts worker for children's charity Mobex North East, said: "It has been absolutely fantastic, meeting all the people that are here, and everyone is really open and showing ideas and really inspiring."
