From before the Hepworth Wakefield opened in May 2011, until March 2020, when the lockdowns started, I was part of the Learning Team delivering composing workshops to visitors. Here are some of the stories, compositions and workshops from that very creative time.

October 2010 – Application
This is when I applied for the job of Creative Practitioner at The Hepworth Wakefield. I wrote this paragraph among others, and designed these two learning activities to support my application.
“The majority of children (indeed people of all ages) seem to find things easier to understand initially through their sight rather than their hearing, and therefore I have often found it motivating to use visual art as technical, emotional (and also more literal) inspiration for composing with young people. This in turn has encouraged more detailed study and insight into the techniques, theories, styles and philosophy of the art itself. Many of the compositional tools I like to encourage as part of the technique of composing, whatever the inspiration or “style”, are similar to terms used in art: timbre, instrumentation and dynamics equate with colour, light and shade; texture is similar in both – how layers are put together; melody and harmony equate to shapes and lines; rhythm is to do with the length of notes, emphasis, patterns, busy-ness or movement and rest or silence and can be fluid or metrical. Structure provides most effective comparisons where aspects of foreground and background, proportion, placement of ideas, and climax or main focus are analogous in both music and visual art…”

Picture Music Card 21 – Forms In A Flurry, Barbara Hepworth

Picture Music Card 22 – Three Forms, Barbara Hepworth

Early 2011 – Planning
The Learning Team, including about 12 or so Creative Practitioners, gathered together a few times during early 2011 to plan activities and workshops for visitors. The ones I was part of, were initially schools workshops, but then when I saw what the others were planning for families at the weekends and in holidays, I pitched a family workshop of my own!

Gaps, Hollows Silences – A workshop for high school students. Explore connections between silence in music and the holes and spaces in Hepworth’s pierced forms through composing, listening,  exploring and being inspired by her work.
Yorkshire And Wakefield in Pictures And Music – A workshop for primary or secondary school students. Sing and play songs inspired by the images and history in our “Yorkshire and Wakefield in Pictures Collection” and compose your own song, musical poem or soundscape inspired by the pictures you explore.
Geometric Soundscapes – A workshop for primary school students. Be enthused by some of the amazing shapes, angles and colours in the sculptures on display, and let your musical imagination loose on some geometric composing and performing, using classroom instruments, voices, and our eclectic found-sound collection. Leave the workshop, your brain a-buzzing with further bonus ideas for art and music activities inspired by your visit.
Wiggle, Ping Pop – A Workshop for Early Years classes. How would a sculpture move if it came to life? What sounds would it make? This lively session will encourage children to find shapes and make connections in the building and artworks and develop movement and music based on their discoveries.  Be prepared to get physical and make some noise!
Musical Sculptures -A Drop-In Workshop for families. Come and flex your musical muscles by responding to our inspirational art works through singing, composing and playing music with composer Cheryl Camm. No prior musical confidence or skill is required!

Update 2014: “Yorkshire And Wakefield In Pictures” never actually made it to the brochures, but I did compose a song inspired by the Chantry Chapel – the paintings of it, the history of it, and the actual building which sits next door to the gallery. It’s turned out to be quite popular with choirs and schools. I’ve combined it in this arrangement with the Yorkshire version of The Holly And The Ivy.

May 2011 – Eva Rothchild, Hot Touch
The early planning was generic and could be applied to any art work. I also developed some activities specific to the temporary exhibitions that would come and go. The first of these was Hot Touch by Eva Rothschild. This was my initial exploration activity which would lead on to the composing part of any workshop. This picture is of me and a primary school class performing our Geometric Soundscape amongst the Rothschild sculptures.

September 2011 – Pierced Hemisphere
Before the gallery even opened, I was commissioned to compose something for The Handling Collection. I was asked to choose something that was on display in the gallery and create a learning activity that could be used by visually impaired visitors. This is what I came up with. You can read more about it here.

2011-2012 – Push The Boats Out
One of the first songs I wrote for these workshops was Push The Boats Out, inspired by Christopher Wood’s painting “The Fisherman’s Farewell” which was on display in the gallery when it opened. There are three characters in the painting and I composed three verses, each from the point of view of one of those characters. In the background you can see the man’s colleagues preparing to head out to see – these are the figures that inspired the chorus. I used the shanty with lots of workshops. It was very popular. Participants composed music to accompany the song and many also learned to sing it with me. After the art work went away, I turned the song into a 3-part choral piece and a few have sung it since then.

January 2012 – Snowstorm in Wakefield
Some of my earliest Musical Sculptures workshops at the Hepworth Wakefield were captured for publicity purposes by a photographer at the gallery. You can see our “Snowstorm”, “The Fisherman’s Farewell” and Clare Woods-inspired compositions with eager families here! https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150478435254296.366609.372833059295&type=1

Also, I did actually compose some music to inspire the Snowstorm workshops.

May 2012 – Publicity Video
The Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield produced a publicity video for the gallery which included footage of some of my Musical Sculptures workshops. The visit of the video-makers coincided with the first “Zombie Weekend”  at the gallery so there some weird and wonderful costumes and make-up on display. The hands on the keyboard are mine! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_LmWtcOxkA

February 2013 – The Boy On The Beach
I was back for two exhilarating days of creating world premieres with drop-in visitors. It was a bumper gathering with over 120 young composers and their families all together. It saw the first couple of outings of my newest song inspired by Wainwright’s “Boy On The Beach”, complete with accompaniments created by the participants, as well as workshops centred around Paolozzi’s “Theory Of Relativity”, Hepworth’s “Winged Figure” and Moore’s “Reclining Figure”.  Chichester clockmaker Matthew Read visiting with his two children tweeted, “Utterly brilliant musical sculptures with Cheryl Camm here at Hepworth Wakefield @HepworthGallery #paolozzi”, and local Wakefielder Theresa later sent a message “Thank you Cheryl for a wonderfully inspiring workshop at The Hepworth Museum. My daughter (Tilly at 4 years old) wasn’t too keen to have a go at first but she loved it as soon as she saw all the weird and wonderful instruments she was allowed to explore. She felt confident enough to answer questions within the group of strangers and was very excited to perform our concert in the gallery…All in all 10 out of 10!”, and another anonymous comment: “It was lovely and Chantel really enjoyed it. She’s been making her own musical instruments since.”

October 2013 – The Man Who Suddenly Fell Over
My main activity these days at the Hepworth Gallery is delivering Musical Sculptures composing workshops to visiting families. I am there about every sixth or seventh weekend encouraging musical creativity as well as in-depth study of the inspirational art works on display. This weekend was a sad occasion as it was the last time “A Man Who Suddenly Fell Over” by Michael Andrews will be there for a Musical Sculptures weekend. It has not only inspired many of these composing families in the last few months, but also a dramatic song from me: “The Man Who Suddenly Fell Over”. The next Musical Sculptures workshops are inn the weekend November with new art works to inspire!

October 2013 – Geometric Soundscapes
Every so often a school decides to go to the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield to compose some music in a Geometric Soundscapes session, and I do try to lead the workshops in energetic style! This happened in October 2013 when the Year 4 class from St. John’s School in Mexborough, South Yorkshire, visited.
They looked carefully at Hepworth’s Crucifixion, found angles and shapes, as well as colour, texture and structure, then composed their own Crucifixion music which was performed upstairs beside the sculpture itself. Then the class split into small groups, selected another geometric sculpture from “The Gift” in Gallery 5 to inspire them, then returned downstairs to the learning studios to compose their own compositions. To finish the workshop, all the small groups returned to Gallery 5 to create a Geometric Soundscape of performances of their pieces.

December 14th 2013 – Lots of Practitioners
As you know, I am one of a companionship of creative practitioners in the Learning Team at the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. We invent, plan and deliver thrilling activities and workshops for schools, community groups, and families throughout the year in the gallery and also sometimes at events and in community venues and schools.
Yesterday we had our Christmas get-together. We usually work on our own in the gallery so it was a real treat to have so many of us gathered together in the one place at the same time for a proper catch-up! As I listened to stories of books at publishers, installations in Buddhist centres, festive workshops (nine days in a row!), the organisation of arts festivals, Christmas drama productions, end-of-term school art displays, collections of wood for sculpting, prize-winning programmes and activities,  poetry grants won, public installations remembered, I re-realised what a stunningly creative group of artists we are, and what a delight, honour and inspiration it is to be part of this team.
Yesterday’s get-together was our equivalent of the ‘Office Christmas Party’ I guess, but without the office. So thank you to my friends and team-mates Liz, Gillian, Laura, Kate, Becky, Nat, Neil, Bryony, Emma, Becky, Jennyanne, Sarah, Nichola, Karen, Michiko, Vic, Carla, Sarah, Ami, Hilary, Fran, Kieran and everyone else I’ve worked with so joyously, thus far, at the Hepworth Wakefield.

January 2014 – Reclining Figure
The Musical Sculptures family drop-in workshops occur about every 6th weekend, but due to the ever-changing turnaround of art works and exhibitions on display at the gallery, the focus of the workshops is also ever-changing. For the last two sets of workshops in November 2013 and January 2014, I’ve included Henry Moore’s dramatic Reclining Figure  which is currently on display in gallery 1 in the set of four workshops on offer each day.
The family participants have described it as shiny, curvy, in four parts, like a bear, slow-moving, metallic, with gaps, blobby, cold, smooth, massive, loud, sleeping…etc etc. Each group has composed appropriate music during the workshops, each of which culminates in a performance for the assembled art observers beside the remarkable sculpture. Here’s one of the larger groups from January’s workshops in the middle of a Mexican Soundwave – we had ten of them in this particular composition, of varying speeds, directions and lengths!

June 2014 – Keeping His Newspapers Dry
The most popular of my recent “Musical Sculptures” workshops at the Hepworth Gallery, centred around Philip-Lorca diCorcia’s exhibition (Feb-June 2014) has been those featuring the bluesy song “Keeping His Newspapers Dry”. The work shows a business man walking down a rainy New York Street, talking on his phone, under his umbrella. Tucked under his arm is a bundle of newspapers (on the chair in front of the keyboard in this workshop photo by participant Tony Hill). Here’s one group, performing the song, with some rainy music composed by them beforehand and during the singing. This workshop ran several times during the course of the exhibition. In the background of this workshop picture you can see other works by diCorcia used in this series of Musical Sculptures workshops.

This man is tip-tip-tapping with his shiny shoes, on the splish-splashy mirror of a side-walk.
He’s got his sharp suit on, his wife’s on the phone but he won’t be out for long.
He’s got his umbrella up because his quiet concern is he’s keeping his newspapers dry.

September 2015 – What did you enjoy most?
……about the Musical Sculptures workshop?”
Esme (aged 7) “It gave me confidence performing in a public place with strangers watching. This is the best activity I’ve done here.” 6/9/2015
“Great facilities (musical instruments) well-planned, very welcoming.” 6/9/2015
“All able to take part 1-47 years!” 3/1/2015
“Enthusiasm of staff got the whole group engaged.” 22/2/2015

“A chance to explore sound, creation/performance of music to a sculpture. Great to get the chance to perform in front of the sculpture in the gallery… We all [The whole family] took part equally and had something to offer.” 6/9/2015
“all-inclusive – my son is very young but was also encouraged to get involved.” 6/9/2015
“Really enthusiastic, brill. Kids loved it.” 6/9/2015

“Everything, everyone joining in, great fun. It was excellent.” 2/8/2015
“All joined in – kids and parents.” 2/8/2015
“Everyone joined in!” 2/8/2015
“The drums (JJ aged 7). The unexpected new composition.” 2/8/2015
“Playing the different instruments. Learning about how you can interpret a picture into music.” 27/7/2015
“Makes you look at art in a different way.” 27/7/2015
“Our daughter was one of the youngest (4 years old) but she followed it with no problem and loved it.” 3/1/2015

“Spending time with the family looking at art in a different way.” 26/7/2015
“My son really enjoyed playing the instruments that you don’t normally use. My son enjoyed the performance – his Dad was rubbish!” 7/7/2015
“Great fun, very enthusiastic and inclusive leader.” 17/5/2015
“Interactive – children really involved.” 26/5/2015
“Extremely creative, involved the children’s ideas very well and lovely to give a live performance in the gallery. Lots of fun, developed musical and artistic/creative skills as well….it was a fantastic, extremely high quality activity.” 26/7/2015
“Imaginative, fun and confidence-building for the kids.” 26/7/2015

“Enthusiastic teacher. Very enjoyable.” 26/7/2015
“Musical Sculptures composition – excellent, drew ideas out from the children.” 29/3/2015
“Something for everyone – all 3 children (9,4 & 2) joined in and enjoyed it. (+2 adults!)” 29/3/3015
“Imagination. Creativity. Improvisation. Children led.” 29/3/2015
“The creative part was amazing. Working as a team and accommodating everyone’s ideas was a beautiful experience.” 29/3/2015
“Great interaction across all age groups. Good fun! Superb!” 29/3/2015

January 2016 – Gertrude and I
There’s a new display at the Hepworth Wakefield and therefore new workshops for me to design. It’s the illustrations and sculptures of Gertrude Hermes, and the works I’ve chosen to inspire my “Music Sculptures” families are the waterfall, the starlings, the frog door-knocker and the spider. I’ve written a song for the purpose, which has so far gone down very well with today’s participants. You can hear the waterfall verse at about 1 minute, before and after that is the 3pm group’s composition inspired by the song and the illustration.

January 2016 – Creative Carousel
This week I’ve delivered some Geometric Soundscapes workshops at The Hepworth Wakefield for teachers enjoying a Creative Carousel INSET day. Three groups of 6-8 primary school teachers composed their own works inspired by Hepworth’s Genesis III and performed the world premieres of their compositions in the gallery. Interesting that three groups of similar professionals all came up with different ideas and therefore a different result for their final works. Here they are:

May 2016 – The Laughing Trombonist
There’s been a big exhibition of the photographs of Martin Parr at the Hepworth Wakefield this year and I went there to see which photos would inspire my next “Musical Sculptures” Workshops:
“I went to the Hepworth to see Martin’s photos
Thinking we’d croon on the rhubarb.
Inspired by the tarts and the man with the stare
And the candles that flickered so pinkly,
I thought that I’d cracked it so went on my way,
But turning the corner my thoughts went astray.
Now there’s only one photo the notes want to play:
It’s the one with the laughing trombonist!”

May 2016 – New Geometric Soundscapes
My schools’ workshops for Primary Schools at the Hepworth Wakefield, have usually been centred around the works of Barbara Hepworth herself in the maths-and-music-based “Geometric Soundscapes”. In May, some quick-thinking at lunchtime with fellow practitioner Rachel Howfield sent us both working in new places and with new art-works in order to give the Year 1 and 2 pupils from Monk Fryston School the broadest experience of the gallery we could. I used my “Big White Room” song to explore Gallery 5 “The Gift” in the morning, and then quickly composed some new lyrics to adapt the song for the new exhibition from Kettle’s Yard in the afternoon. Great composing and singing from everyone involved!

June 2016 – No Quiet Space
At the beginning of June, I delivered some art-inspired composing workshops in a new venue: The Tetley in Leeds, as part of the gallery’s family workshops programme for the No Quiet Space exhibition. I was offered this work as a direct result of my role at the Hepworth, so the story fits here! All the exhibits used sound in some way, and many had lights as well as other visual aspects. I chose to focus on Hanne Lippard’s “Lostisms” in Gallery 1 for inspiration, and in particular its emphasis on the letter s. Most groups chose to perform their finished compositions in the main Leeds Beckett Gallery to the accompaniment of Full Metal Jackets by Anne Walsh and Chris Kubick.

September 2016 – Gallery Sleepover
Several packs of Wakefield brownies, guides and rainbows had a sleepover at the Hepworth Wakefield. They had a whole range of activities provided for them including a specially designed musical workshop in which they explored Stanley Spencer’s shipyard paintings, sang a brand new song about sleeping in the gallery with them, and made up some accompaniment patterns. We recorded the song, and I edited the workshops together overnight so they could hear the results of their work after breakfast. See and hear the results here.

October 2016 – Wiggle Ping Pop
Way back when the Hepworth Wakefield was first opening Bryony Pritchard and I designed an early years workshop based around appreciating the art works through music and movement. I ran it a couple of times way back then, but Bryony’s skills with that age group far outstrip mine, so I’ve not done it for years. Anyway, Bryony was obviously unavailable in October because I was hired to deliver an hour and a half of energetic musical, arty, merriment to an excited bundle of 3-year olds. I rather enjoyed myself – managed to keep their attention for the full duration, and they seem to have enjoyed it too. This image is from the school’s website with the caption “Everyone had a fabulous time!” I reprised my Wiggle Ping Pop and Zebra Zig Zag songs, we composed with a balloon orchestra, and I played my flute without running out of breath.

February 2017 – Precarious Cat
After a few months of responding to Anthea Hamilton’s Table Volcano in the Musical Sculptures family composing workshops at the Hepworth, I decided to use the inaugural Hepworth Prize as inspiration for the January and February Workshops. In particular the cat images of Helen Marten. I composed a song with four verses – one for each picture – and the groups selected their verse and composed incidental music to match the verse and the picture itself. After the final workshop, I edited together all their performances into this video: Precarious Cat.

January 13th 2019 – Hepworth Circles
I went to Wakefield today and had a very cheery and busy day of making music about Barbara Hepworth’s circles with lots and lots of families. Before I left, I noticed that the shelf in the utility room upon which all our pots of spare wall and wood paint sits, had fallen to the ground, depositing paint all over the floor and splashing various of our other things in there – a big colourful mess it was…and still is, because I’ve been in Wakefield all day and Jamie has big meetings in London on Monday and had to prepare for them, so only really had time for an intense clear up of the most urgent damage. However, all was merry otherwise, and here is some Hepworth circular music from a previous visit. I was way too busy today to take photos or record anything!

November 2019 – Twelve Of The Best Music Inspired By Art
It has been my delight and privilege to frequently work with visual arts as a composer, most notably in recent years, at the Hepworth Wakefield in “Musical Sculptures” workshops. Art works have inspired composing both by myself and by those attending the workshops. Here are twelve of the best – most performed, most popular, my favourites! You can find out more here!

March 2020 – Final Thought
There are many more songs composed and workshops run that have not been included in this collection of edited highlights. I did completely love my time at The Hepworth Gallery, the feedback was almost always very positive, and I’m really proud of all the music I made there. Here are a few images to finish this off.