ABScraft

To call a conference BRILLIANT was optimistic. I recall an event at the Williamson that was called PERFECT but we added a “?” to make Perfect?. Were we too cautious, did it lower our ambitions for the event? No, ours was about perfection and female form and the public perception. The event tied in with Davy and Kirsten McGuire’s tech and performance piece STARKERS which involved image projection onto a white marble statue called Pauline in the Williamson Art Gallery collection. It discussed the male gaze and the fact of females being represented more as naked muses than artists in their own right in public collections. But I digress…. Back to the education conference I attended yesterday for Wirral MakeFest with the bold pronouncement. “Brilliant” punches high with its title and the day was excellent with a variety of speakers from education and industry. The branding was ever present and pleasing. The location was good for views and public transport. The variety of speakers was enlightening and good have a few representatives of the youth of local schools including Emily Garner who sang Amazing Grace and discussed some of her mentoring roles as a visually impaired student. Different from the larger C- Change conference that I attended at the end of September which also was inspiring to me as a non-educator in the conventional sense. I think it is good to shake it up and have more voices in the room than from one sector alone. How can that be facilitated without diluting the aim of a conference?

So was it Brilliant? It was broad, engaging, enlightening and hopefully it will prompt some improvements for us at Wirral MakeFest. We like being in the room.