Artists in Schools: Faith Bebbington
Sculptor Faith Bebbington is some sort of paper-mache ninja. Newspaper, tape and wire all yield to her experienced hands. She conjures up people, animals and lettering from the things other people throw away. She is dynamite in the classroom, too.
I was lucky to work with Faith for six days at my old school, acting as her assistant and chaperone. This was the most fantastic experience for the students and the best professional development I have had since leaving teacher training. I am buzzing with ideas.
Faith told me she wanted to be a sculptor from age six. The inspiration for her sculptures stems from being born with cerebral palsy. She has always been curious about how people and animals move: balance, the process of falling and capturing sequences of movement feature in her work.
After surviving what she was told was terminal cancer, she moved away from working with fibreglass and moved towards working with recycled materials. She explained to students that her favourite medium is plastic milk bottle cartons.
Whilst I was with Faith, the students explored the idea of the philosophy ‘Ubuntu’. This is an African term meaning “humanity”. It is often translated as “I am what I am because of who we all are”.
Faith gave the students an example of the school they were within. The school is what it is thanks to the builders who built the building, the craftsman who made the furniture, the cleaners, and the catering staff, the teachers and, of course, the pupils.
Faith taught the students (approx age 13) how to make a figure from newspaper, wire and tape. She then showed them how to add buttocks (yes, much snickering), thigh muscles, calves, feet, chest and back muscles, transforming the stickman into a sculpture.
This project was unusual because when one class left and another arrived, they just continued with the work on the table. Students went on to add colour by collaging tissue paper. The result was truly impressive.
Faith Bebbington: An individual Response
Faith has worked with numerous schools. I was interested to see some of the work she had created, particularly where students had created an individual response.
Faith Bebbington is based in Liverpool. If you would like to contact her about working in your school, you can find her details on my Artists in Schools Database.
So insightful! Can’t wait to apply these tips.
Thanks for your feedback Sui 🙂
Greetings from Houston Texas.. I love teaching others too how to make things with recycled materials. My 87 yr old mom has shredded all of her old tax documents that’s she’s been saving for the last 50 yrs. I have 9 big black garbage bags of shredded paper to make paper mache. Happy to show your kids how to make this .. via zoom. Would love to make it over to England again. I’m on Instagram @pen2win
Take care!
Hi Kelly, Thanks for your message. The shredded paper from your mother has such meaning to it! I’m sure you could plan a really relvant piece of art using that material. Paper mache is great for the classroom as it cheap but has so much potential. Julie Arkle is very popular here in the UK and I have used her work in the classroom.
very nice and informative post, thanks for the quality post.
You’re welcome!
All of these things are so cool and I would really love to be an artist oneday.
You can be an artist if you want to! You probably already are 🙂
Great very informative.
You’re welcome.