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Educator at the School  for the Blind and Amblyopic of Krakow (Poland)

" On september this year, there were sculpturing workshops in our institute. They were inspired by Mrs Sophie Dalmon from France. The workshops were intended for 16-18 years old teenagers. The workshops had not only educationnal and learning charactere, they let the participants to get to know the methods  of sculpturing in clay, but what’s the most important, in our opinion, is that the workshops made the young participants to think about themselves and about the world around them. That was a lot easier because of the special questionnaire they had to complete. These workshops’ subject was self-portraiture. The sculptures had not only to take into consideration of the outside  reafing - reflection, but also the inside of every participant.

On the first workshop, the teenagers sculpted their self-portrait using only their own skills, independentely of any modelling experience. The second one xas the sculpture-lesson that was given by Sophie. The teenagers got to know every step and method of creating an human face. By the end of these classes, the participants could compare the new self-portraits with the former ones.

This idea was very interesting because the teenagers could find out how much they had learnt. Even the participants who didn’t like their their work at first, discovered their surprising progress. It was just very nice and motivating for them. The participants believed that in such difficult branch (sculpture), thei could not do so much. The proof they got that they were wrong is very promising for the future as for now, they might find this kind of challenge easier for them.

The last workshop was the time when the participants were using the new purchased skills, to model a self-portrait that shows their personnality or emotions. The main value of this workshop was to encourage the teenagers to think about themselves, to explore and to know better  their own caractere, and above all to discover the meaning of the “inside” beauty that every human being held.

The questions the teenagers had to answer before every workshop, asked about  the perception of beauty within their surounding and within themselves. The youngsters had to decide what - according to them - is beautiful, if they were beautiful, if and why other people were... There were very difficult questions for their age.

Young people are very critical to themselves and others. They care about how they look and they don’t always see their own value. Thee workshops could possibly change their attitude a bit. The participants could not only learn how to sclupt but also  - what’s even more important - they could think about very serious issue (myself, the world around me, people’s perception of me...).

At first, the artistic aspect appeared to be not accessible to everyone, but the workshops proved, it wasn’t true. Every one can be “an artist” and create something really beautiful and interesting. Sculpturing also gives much fun and satisfaction, which is an added value. Teenagers from our school attended these workshops with real pleasure. By eand of every classe, they were very excited and happy because of what they did.

The biggest value of these workshops was their leader, Mrs. Sophie Dalmon. She had very logical and easy way of giving knowledge. She also had very good contact with the teenagers whom were given creative freedom. Sophie didn’t evaluate their efforts or results, she was only giving lots of impartial advices. She had a very good influence on the teenagers by giving them all the support and inspiration they needed. She was the good spirit of these workshops.

We must say that this experience was not only interesting but also usefull for our students. We are looking forward the next one."