Through the summer term, pupils at Lathallan joined forces with Lada Wilson, the artist and curator behind Fife’s 201 Telephone Box Gallery, to create the 202 Art Box, a full-size replica of the original telephone box.
The collaboration built on a restoration project completed by Ms Wilson in 2018, in which she transformed a disused telephone box in the village of Strathkinness – bought under BT’s Adopt a Kiosk scheme – into a tiny, contemporary art gallery. Since opening, the gallery has hosted more than 20 exhibitions in the compact space, featuring local, national and international artists, alongside some educational projects.
Awarded funding by the St Andrew’s Community Trust to work with teenagers, and keen to build on the gallery’s success, Ms Wilson invited schools in the North East of Scotland to work with her on a new project. After learning of the initiative, Lathallan School art teacher, Mrs Park, signed-up senior school pupils from her art personal development class, getting them involved.
Working with Ms Wilson for five weeks, the 10 senior school pupils involved created sculptural artworks out of old mobile phones and a protective cocoon made of recycled fabric, designed to cover the 202 Art Box and keep the artwork safe, while allowing people to see inside. Those of you that joined us for this year’s Presentation Day, may have seen the installation on display.
Mrs Park said: “When we first started this project, we asked our pupils to think about words they could use in connection with communication, such as speech, morse code, sound waves, with those ideas transferred onto fabric before being hand sewn by the pupils. They have really benefited from working with Lada, who has encouraged them to express themselves and develop their own ideas.”
Ms Wilson said: “As a visiting artist, it was a great pleasure and joy to work alongside art teacher Mrs Park and the Lathallan pupils. The concept of communication and how it can be applied to an exhibition in a telephone box that functions as a gallery was their inspiration, and their ideas and creativity led to the making of a fantastic art installation in a replica of a traditional red telephone box.”
The 201 Telephone Box Gallery has engaged in a number of outreach programmes since lockdown, like the one at Lathallan, with Ms Wilson adding: “Visiting contemporary artists can bring a lot to schools. Creativity can be shared in many ways and pupils can benefit from the input of external professionals, providing another approach that could intrigue them to explore something new and different. For me, working with a group of zealous and talented pupils in such a welcoming environment was a dream come true.”
Every Friday afternoon, pupils at Lathallan have the opportunity to participate in a range of activities organised and run by the school’s multi-talented teaching staff – ranging from skiing, Warhammer, tennis and chess, to art, climbing, dress-making, archery, and writing and publishing, among others. The next art activity is photography which will run from August to October, with pupils’ work displayed to the public in an exhibition hosted at the Johnshaven Heritage Hub.
201 Telephone Box Gallery is not the only successful transformation of these iconic phone boxes under BT’s Adopt a Kiosk programme. In 2019, Kirriemuir Community Council set up a Crowdfunder campaign to raise money for four defibrillator units to be installed in repurposed phone boxes. Across the UK, other phone boxes have been turned into tiny coffee shops, pop-up plant shops selling flowers and vegetables grown by local schoolchildren, work pods and micro libraries.