Our open programme in Highland is normally advertised to the general public and organised either by a member of our staff or through our local associations. These courses are subsidised by our local authority partners Highlife Highland through a Service Level Agreement. Our open programmes and courses sometimes have a small fee to attend which is paid for by the individual learners.

Mindkind

We aim to enable a positive group experience by providing a communal art space where artists can share ideas, work on projects and improve their creative practices. The goal is that the group will be peer led; allowing a less structured approach to sessions and allowing a potential sense of ownership within the group itself. At the core of the course is simply a safe space to make art with like minded individuals.

The Environmental Art class is designed to get learners out and about and at one creatively with Mother Nature. Our aim is to explore the long standing links between the outdoors, therapeutic art and overall wellbeing. We provide an opportunity for inclusive and supportive group work, where learners can experience art making in a natural environment. The course improves confidence and broadens art practices whilst raising better awareness of our great outdoors.

Participants will develop new literacy and digital skills. By the end of the course, they will have produced quality pieces of writing, of varying lengths, ready for publication on their organisations’ websites, blogs, Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Workplace learners completing vocational qualifications sometimes struggle with the ICT and written aspects of their vocational courses. WEA tutors can come into the workplace and provide literacies and ICT support at a time and in a place that works for learners.

Wish your WEA course would last a little bit longer? Now you can make it happen. This course can be used as an add-on to an existing course or programme of learning. Groups will develop the skills, knowledge and structures required to continue shaping their own learning through running autonomous ‘Learning Circles’. Learning circles will meet regularly to work on projects of their own choice and may request tutor-input in the future, where appropriate, and as funds allow.

Learners will learn about the many benefits of journaling, both for mental and physical wellbeing. They will explore practical journaling activities that can help service users develop a safe and effective journaling practice.

Through learning how to start and maintain a regular journaling habit, participants will develop new strategies for improving their own mental-wellbeing, discover useful problem-solving skills, and find strategies for identifying what problems they might want to share with others.

Want to tell the story of your group or organisation, but don’t know how to begin? Want to get service-users talking about their lives or interests? Fancy doing a bit of research into your local community, or investigate an episode in history that interests your branch members? WEA tutors can help turn your group’s idea into reality, embedding literacy and ICT skills where required.

Through getting involved in a range of creative writing projects, learners will develop a closer relationship to, and pleasure in, their own writing. Placing learners at the centre of their learning, no two WEA Creative Writing courses are alike. Past projects have seen learners publish books of their work, perform at venues throughout Glasgow or go on to take part in a variety of further learning.

Each Creative Writing Course run by the WEA is unique, responding to the needs and desires of each particular group.