University of Warwick welcomes schools for FABFest 2023

FABFest took place on Wednesday 28^th June, welcoming over sixty Year 8 pupils (aged 12 to 13 years of age) from five Coventry and Warwickshire secondary schools to the Faculty of Arts Building. Etone College, one of the schools that attended has shared a fantastic blog describing their experiences of attending: https://www.etonecollege.co.uk/university-of-warwick-fabfest/

Pupils had the opportunity to explore a range of subjects during FABFest through a wide range of academic taster sessions. The aim of the day was to allow students to experience and explore a range of subjects and to inspire them to think about future subject choices in the Arts and Humanities. Faculty of Arts staff have shared some insights of their experiences of taking part in FABFest 2023:

“The students joined in enthusiastically and asked some great questions. They picked up ideas and definitions of the creative industries very quickly and were very entrepreneurial! Lots of ideas for next generation creative businesses - look forward to working with them again.”

Chris Bilton (Centre for Cultural Media Policy Studies)

“Staff and students from ECLS are always keen to welcome groups to campus and share our love of literature. Our workshop enabled young people to consider what the arts can do in response to the climate crisis. Working with visual media and experimental forms, we each produced three pieces of creative writing that allowed us to think about how we might write our way towards a safer future for everyone.”

Charlotte Pearce (English and Comparative Literary Studies)

“The Classics Department were pleased to be able to offer two sessions for the FABFest. Students led a subject taster session and spoke about the ancient world and brought along some artefacts including Roman coins, and the attendees enjoyed taking part in some creative activities including drawing and designing their own coins and vases. At lunchtime, pupils were treated to a taste of the Roman world from our Roman Cookery Workshop. Events such as FABFest allow us to reach new audiences and share our interest in the ancient world with students who often would otherwise have no opportunity to study these things. In this way we hope to inspire future Classicists from more diverse backgrounds. These events also give our students invaluable and enjoyable experience in outreach and engagement, something useful for future career development and which our students find very rewarding.”

Paul Grigsby (Classics and Ancient History)

During FABFest, every pupil also had the opportunity to explore the university campus with the Creative Learning Team at Warwick Arts Centre. One of the sculpture Trail leaders Charlotte Brookes, explains further;

“It was so great to have the students with us for FAB Fest and to give them the opportunity to experience a little of what Warwick students are lucky to have on their doorstep, including Warwick Arts Centre and the Sculpture Park. The students were excited to get hands on with the sculptures, which is a great way of removing the physical and mental barriers for children accessing contemporary art, often for the first time. They enjoyed learning about a few of our most popular sculptures and did an excellent job of reimagining their own version of the iconic White Koan.”

Charlotte Brookes (Sculpture Trail Leader, Warwick Arts Centre)

Students also enjoyed the opportunity to explore a range of drop-in activities during lunchtime ranging from Chinese Calligraphy to Roman Cookery and Virtual Reality to Medieval Recipes. Rob O’Toole who contributed a virtual reality activity during the day has shared:

‘FABFest was a great opportunity to meet lively young imaginative minds, and to see what they make of the latest immersive technologies and techniques - specifically, our new approach to creating augmented reality museum exhibitions using Quest Pro headsets. The school students were fantastic to work with as we explored how we can bring dinosaurs back from extinction in an engaging and creative way.’

Robert O'Toole (Arts Faculty Director of Student Digital Experience)

Thank you to everyone that contributed to the collaborative efforts of FABFest and we look forward to building on this event in the future.