Everyone has a story. Making art isn’t just creative, it is a great tool for building confidence and problem solving says art teacher, art therapist and maker, Berrin Bates. Interview by Nicola Baird
Berrin Bates teaches art at three primary schools. “Teaching is very rewarding and so lovely to see that confidence in a child, especially if they weren’t feeling very confident and then you enable them. The best sign is when a child says I love this, can I take it home please?’ Then I know they really love what they’ve made because they want to have it.” (c) BB
What’s your connection to Islington?
“I live in Muswell Hill but when I came to London my husband, Martin, who is a carpenter, had a flat already in Finsbury Park. We also lived at Highbury Grange. I loved living in Islington, it is a great community and it still is; I have so many friends here,” says Berrin Bates who grew up in Turkey.
She studied art at Istanbul Mimar Sinan university and has an MA in Fine Art. Then she moved countries. New to Islington she found that trips to Highbury Fields for picnics with her young children was a good place to make friends. “I found the other parents very friendly,” says Berrin whose daughters have English and Turkish names – Lucy Latife is a doctor now and Ella Emine is doing a PhD on neuroscience.” This interview was done in early summer 2020.
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Nov-Dec 2020: For the next 3 weeks we are busy on Crowdfunder trying to raise £1000 for a community project called Everyone has an energy story. This is a 2021 Islington Faces project which will see locals asked what puzzles them about trying to change our carbon hungry habits, when we’ve found out we will then seek solutions from locals. We’d love you to donate especially as if we raise £1000 then M&S Energy has promised to match it. Whether you can donate or not, sharing on your social media would be fab. Thank you.
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Art teacher Berrin Bates has just finished a Masters in Art Therapy. “Art is the best way of regulating your feelings and your blood pressure. Grayson Perry’s TV Art Club showed how people really enjoyed making things, and lots of people with mental health issues were saying they got massive comfort from making art.” (c) BB
Berrin also found the events at Christchurch, between Highbury Barn and Highbury Fields, were a quick entry to getting to know more people. “Even though I didn’t grow up as a Christian we went to Christchurch as where I grew up in Turkey being part of the community was very important. I talked to the vicar, John Littlewood and asked if we could make rotas and cook food for people if they were elderly or ill. In Turkey you always bring food! The vicar was so lovely and let me do this. And it went on even after I left. I still do the night shelter in Christchurch during the winter. I also ran an art club with my dear friend Teresa Robertson for 10 years, then when she left and I did another three years on the art club.
Art teacher Berrin Bates has just finished a Masters in Art Therapy. (c) BB
Places Berrin Bates loves in Islington
- I do love Highbury Fields. I still go and meet friends there after work.
- I love Drayton Park school. I love the art building here! And I love coming to work here.
- What I like about London is that everything is so accessible: there are so many treasures. I used to love the shop on Cross Street behind Little Angel puppet theatre which was selling buttons and wool, and before that secondhand tools. Holloway Road has lots of secondhand clothes and furniture shops.
- I like the Trullo restaurant at Highbury Corner. At Gallipoli – I always have spicy sausage sucuk as one of my starters. Then I have a beyti kebab with aubergine, it’s delicious. The owner, Ender, and I used to work in a Turkish restaurant, Sosra, when I first came to London in Mayfair. The word sosra means a low dinner table, which you sit around cross-legged. It’s also used to make flat pastries for winter.
- I love to see the Modigliani painting in the Estorick gallery collection in Canonbury. I think the work the Islington Museum puts up is brilliant and I love how they engage with the schools.
- I also love the Business Design Centre and the big exhibitions they run. I really enjoyed the final year show from universities like Manchester and Birmingham – it was a few years ago and there were the most amazing inventions.
Art teacher and practitioner Art teacher Berrin Bates has just finished a Masters in Art Therapy. (c) BB
What were you doing in lockdown?
DISSERTATION: “At home I was busy writing my dissertation for my Masters in Art Therapy. It’s 7,000 words, which is hard when you are dyslexic and Turkish! I’ve also been making art all the time using different materials – whatever is left in my studio. I was thinking a lot about Turkey; about my ancestors, and my grandparents who are dead, as are my parents. I did a lot of 3D printing and layering, I think as a way of dealing with knowing that I won’t be able to go to Turkey this summer, where I usually go.”
CLASSROOM TEACHING: “I was also doing one and a half days a week at Montem school working with the key workers’ children. Three schools work together – Drayton Park, Pakeman and Montem – and we had about 30 – 34 children in total. We’ve printed a lot of rainbows! Art has a very therapeutic effect on children.”
ON LINE ART CLUBS: “I also carried on running after school art clubs on Zoom from 3.30-4.30pm – numbers varied but mostly there were 12 – 20 households. That was amazing because parents had to be there and they really enjoyed doing art with their children and some were able to join in which helped them to engage with their children in a different way. What was so nice was that I and the parents were interacting with each other and help let the children to take control. Parents need to understand that ‘children are the famous artists’ and the parents are just the assistants. So if you are doing a collage and a parent is helping cut out pieces it is the children that decide where to stick it. I really enjoyed doing that: I did wonder if it would work, but it did. Before the Zoom started I’d send an email saying what we were going to do and what they would need. I’d be mindful about the materials so I used local things, from the household or garden. We used a lot of natural materials and if the family didn’t have paint I encouraged them to use ketchup and soy sauce and maybe tea or coffee. I also asked for things they could find in the garden or street – feathers, sticks or leaves and plants which we used for print making and mark making.
“I stopped running the art clubs in July because my teaching hours increased at Drayton Park. I’m now doing art and Year 6 transition work with the children. They are so nurtured at primary school and staff have lots of time for children, but at secondary school so much is expected of you, so it’s good to be prepared and encouraged.”
What is it about art?
“My background is textiles, focusing on printing techniques. Then I did a Masters in textiles and fine art at Istanbul. When I came to England and did some teaching courses and now an arts therapy – should get my Masters’ certificate at the end of July. I’ve also done an arts counsellor course.
“Art is communication. With children they might use it as a bigger tool to express their thoughts and feelings. With the adults sometimes they are not able to tell everything, but using hands and creating – any kind of creativity like art or sewing – has a calming effect, and helps problem solving by finding out routes people might never have thought or explored before. It’s one of the most effective therapy tools for expression. Art therapy is not only for children, it’s very effective with adults as well.
“I run a parent and child art-making group and lots of parents say ‘I’m really bad at art’. People always say, I’m not a good drawer’, but that doesn’t make you bad at art. You can use tracing paper and draw it, and there are lots of copying technologies. The important thing is how to use it, even if you copy an idea at the end of the process you’ve changed and adapted it – it makes your brain cells develop. It’s like learning another language. So it has a massive effect on the brain and your wellbeing, and understanding your surroundings because you are relating to different materials – the thickness of the paper, or the wetness of the clay when you move and push it – you can destruct and construct. It’s like a relationship: you can have a bad time with a friend or a good time with a friend! You can bash the clay. Cay is very tolerant. You can express your anger and the clay will take it.
Why is art important in schools?
Every school should have an art studio and an art teacher. It’s not just fine art that has this effect explained above, it’s also music and drama and it doesn’t just stop at year 6. Schools only cater for one type of student: the ones who can do Maths and English, or Science. Art is not valued when it is so, so important. It’s essential: it’s like clean water and air for children’s development. And for children who are not really good at English and Maths but are amazing when comes to making art it’s a way of encouraging them and giving children confidence, because if you can’t do English and Maths you can feel stupid. Recently I was making this mosaic with as child. They did really struggle with education, but he was so brilliant at getting this mosaic amazingly spaced and organised. Some children are brilliant at sculptures or 3D work, but can struggle with drawing. I am very lucky that Drayton Park School values the importance of art and we have an amazing, purpose-built art room.
Summing up
Berrin is such a gifted art teacher – lucky Islington Faces’ daughters were taught by her at Drayton Park – and this does take up a lot of her time. Islington Faces was also lucky that she was able to bring a group of Drayton Park students as the first guests willing to offer feedback on the layout at our Inspiring Islington photography exhibition at Islington Museum in spring 2019.
Berrin also works as an artist and sells her paintings. She can be commissioned to design wonderful chandeliers using recycled materials like bicycle wheels, knives and forks. She will also take on private commissions to print textiles or run an art therapy session. If you are interested, just contact her via her website.
- http://www.artwithberrin.co.uk
- Insta: @berrins.bates
Feedback
From Facebook
Eleanor Y: “Berrin Bates is a massive hero to me 
o much so I spent 3 years of my life building (well fundraising) a gorgeous art building for her!”
Gillian: “What an interesting article. I know the Turkish restaurant she talks about. It’s lovely.”
Over to you
If you’d like to nominate someone to be interviewed who grew up, lives or works in Islington, or suggest yourself, please let me know, via nicolabaird dot green at gmail dot com. If you enjoyed this post you might like to look at the A-Z index, or search by interviewee’s roles or Meet Islingtonians to find friends, neighbours and inspiration. Thanks for stopping by. Nicola
