With the eyes of the world on Yorkshire for the Tour De France Grand Depart, this week was the ideal time to unveil a magnificent Tour De France inspired mosaic at St Mary’s Community centre in Pontefract.

The colourful mosaic, inspired by the beautiful Yorkshire landscape, has been created by students from across Yorkshire with careful guidance from artist and WEA tutor Julie Hand. The vibrant artwork was unveiled at St Marys Community Centre, Pontefract on Tuesday 1st July where it will remain on permanent display.

The students were joined by a crowd of family members, friends, dignitaries, school children and staff to watch as the mosaic was unveiled. It was clear from the reactions that the mosaic will be much admired for many years to come. Julie Carritt, St Marys Community Centre Manager said how thrilled she was to be housing the artwork and as a thank you provided a wonderful buffet lunch to all attending.

Julie Hand, artist and WEA tutor worked closely with students from across West Yorkshire to compose the artwork. Taking over 2,000 hours to create, the piece incorporates elements of the iconic Yorkshire landscape as recognised by the students including the White Horse of Kilburn, the mills of Yorkshire the Jurassic coast and much more.
The project would not have taken place were it not for the kind donations from our sponsors, Topps Tiles, St Marys Chequerfield Community Project Ltd, Pontefract Community Partnership, Harold Kebir Berry MBE, Steven Collins, David Jones, David Tolfrey and Geoff and Sam Hollies – Heating Advisory Services. This sponsorship allowed students to create this celebratory piece of artwork which is now on display for all to see.

If you feel inspired by our Tour de France Mosaic why not join our class and develop your creative skills – beginners welcome.

Exploring the Art of Mosaic – Starts Tuesday 23rd September 2014 (10am – 12pm)

St Marys Community Centre, The Circle, Chequerfield, Pontefract, WF8 2AY

WEA students in Doncaster have been able to make their experience count thanks to NLDC funding from Adult, Family & Community Learning at Doncaster Council.  20 people have taken part in this project which has enabled them to think about what skills they already have and make informed choices about opportunities available to them so they can plan and prepare for moving on to further opportunities – work, volunteering, new interest or making changes in their personal lives.

Student comments:

‘Now I am at the end of this course I know what direction I am heading in and can do this with more confidence and assertiveness.  I no longer feel lost nor full of self-doubt. I Can Do It!’.
‘I have found out that I have a lot of life skills I can use to help others.  I feel less anxious about talking to new people.’
‘I have learnt so much from myself and what I would like/want to achieve.’ 
‘I’m feeling more confident in meeting new people and now have started to go on new courses.’
‘I joined the course to learn how to make myself better, to count, to get more confidence and to learn to de-stress and help myself to gain my goals.’
 
The students were very proud to receive their WEA certificates and hope to go on to achieve even more in the future.
 
Photo:  Tutor Tara Hannan-Murphy with some of the Doncaster students.
 
Sheila Smith

This summer the WEA is reviewing how we use the web right across the association. With so many different websites and systems the time has come to rationalise these and begin working together on a common platform. We need your input.

To help us make the right choices we want to know what you think; What are we doing well, and what could be done better?

This is your opportunity to shape the WEA’s new web presence and tell us how you want it to work. In fact, we couldn’t do it without you. So if you’re interested in sharing your ideas here’s how you can help:

Step one – fill in the online survey > http://ow.ly/y7wl2 

Step two – Join in with the discussion on Twitter with the hashtag#YourWEAWeb and let us know your thoughts.

Step three – Register to take part in one of the focus groups and get involved! You can enter your details at the end of the survey, or email us direct: yourweaweb@wea.org.uk

Together we can make the web work for us the way it should.