The most difficult group within the community to enthuse and motivate is the 13 – 17 year old male. They have a “Ain’t bovverd” attitude to almost everything. They want the good things in life, the bling, the car, the flash house but they don’t want to work for it. Most have no idea how to put a strategy in place to achieve a little of the good life. For some there is a belief that they will win the lottery or win Xfactor or get signed to play for Chelsea FC, sadly for a hard core group, their solution would be, if they want something they will take it off someone who already has it.

Trying to get young males involved in creativity had been very difficult until we met Jason and realised that he had been motivated to be creative purely by the thought that he could possibly make money from it.

Here is Jason’s  Case Study.

Jason came to one of our creative workshops in 2002 he was fifteen and was in a group of 5 other boys of the same age. When I started to demonstrate what we were going to do with the clay  they giggled , moaned , swore, but begrudgingly took some clay and started to work with it, as they worked we talked, I asked what they wanted to do in the future, not one had any idea of working, most had crazy dreams of massive lottery wins. All the boys were materialistic, they already had gold chains but wanted bigger, they had mobile phones but wanted better and they all wanted flash cars in a few months time, after about 20 minutes they were getting bored and were talking of going off for a smoke. To keep their interest I told them that the artist Damian Hurst is one of the wealthiest living artists and that the Art World is still one of the fastest growing sectors of wealth creation.  They wanted to know more!    

I told them that there were no barriers in creative work, Its not a requirement to have been to art school or have a degree in anything but you do need enthusiasm to have a go … to experience different materials and the determination to complete a project, so if you had a interesting idea for a drawing,  painting, sculpture or installation, talk about it to someone who can help supply the knowledge needed to make it happen.
After listening to all this two of the six boys still went off for a smoke the four remaining made a competition out of creating the best character face with the clay.

Jason made a lovely face, full of character and it was obvious that he had a talent for creative work. After about an hour of working they all went out with the others for a smoke but about five minutes later Jason came back into the class and continued to work on his clay head, asking questions talking about things he’d seen and how ideas that he had had could be turned into reality and how could he make money from working in the creative industries. 25 minutes later the other boys rejoined the class and Jason slipped back into the language and actions of a boy from the ‘street’.

Two days after that workshop I had a phone call from Jason asking if he could visit my studio, we arranged a time. When Jason came to see me he bought with him a lump of plaster that he had found on a building site, he thought the mix had dried into an interesting shape that looked like a gnarled old face, he had used a knife to carve out certain areas making them wonderfully sculptural. Over the next few weeks he worked with me whenever he could soaking up creative knowledge at every opportunity, he said he had never tried to be creative before coming to the workshop and that was the first time anyone had said he had been good at anything. Jason was a very likable young man who obviously had a talent for working with his hands, he admitted that he had to act and talk like he did to fit in with his peer group but he wanted to break away and work hard to make something of his life.
Jason was taken on as an apprentice to a local cabinet maker and after passing all his exams is now thinking about setting a business of his own making beautiful bespoke furniture.

If Jason hadn’t come to that workshop all those years ago and been told how good he was at being creative and how being creative can provide a good living…where would he be now.