MATHS can strike fear into many – but the aim of council adult learning initiative ‘Multiply’ is to make number work positive.
A wide variety of teaching schemes earlier this year under the ‘Multiply’ banner included learning maths through drama, the outdoors and art.
Innerleithen artist Jules Bradbury’s course ‘Art Counts’ united six artists who were all afraid of maths.
And it has led to the creation of an artwork, ‘Our River’, unveiled recently at the town’s Buccleuch Street library.
The mixed media work was created by the student group called ‘The Double Elephants’ who are: Phil Crowther, Louise Cumming, Simone McLauchlan, Sarah Miller, Anna Nicholson and Sue Zacharias.
An explanation sheet below the painting by Ms Bradbury states that the painting came from a session on scale.
The work was based on a black and white A4 photograph of the Tweed banks which had to be increased to A1 on a scale of 1 to 4.
Ms Bradbury said: “To achieve this we divided the A4 image into 18 pieces, each identical in size and handed out blindly to members of the group.
“Our task was to freely interpret whatever we could see by painting or drawing but on a bigger scale.”
The A1 library painting is the result of joining all the individual pieces back together.
Ms Bradbury continued: “The painting has been carefully installed and we are working towards it being a permanent feature in the library.”
‘Multiply’ is funded by the UK Government and is focused on improving numeracy in the Scottish Borders Council (SBC) area and was implemented by two council officers, Mary MacRaild and Katy Jenkins, who work in community learning and development.
Ms MacRaild said: “This showcases Jules’ workshop and its collaborative artwork and will also launch the next round of adult learning and numeracy.
“We have also brought some examples of physical resources for increasing numeracy.”
This newspaper spoke to some of the ‘Art Counts’ students about why they took the course and how it helped them.
Phil Crowther said: “I gave up on arithmetic at primary school because I did not understand it.
“This is one of the best courses I have been on because of the research Jules undertook beforehand and the way she explained the Arabian history of mathematics and number.”
Sarah Miller said: “I was already taking training with ‘Multiply’ and met Jules through open studios, her workshop has taken me a long way.”
Lou Cumming, of Innerleithen café Loulabelles, said: “The part I loved the best was learning about the Fibonacci sequence. Once you had worked out all the maths you ended up with something very creative.”
Sue Zacharias said: “I had struggled with maths my whole life before Jules’ course.”
In the autumn, Jules will run a further three sessions of “Art Counts,” which can be booked on SBC’s online Multiply scheme, at Traquair and Broughton’s village halls and at the Little Art Hub, Galashiels.
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