Yorkshire Sculpture Park | October 2021

On a somewhat miserable October day, our staff and first year students braced the weather and had a superb day out visiting the Yorkshire Sculpture Park; an annual tradition which we missed out on last year due to Covid, and were therefore so excited to bring back this year. 

After so long without a trip for us as staff, as well as so many of the students who came along with us, it was a great day all round and such an enjoyable and valuable experience. 

As we visited Damien Hirst, Sean Scully, Ai Weiwei, Barbara Hepworth and Joana Vasconcelos (currently exhibiting in Underground Gallery), our students studiously produced work in the form of drawings and photographs, and conducted research to understand more in depth the concepts and ideas of the artists. 

Fine Art created some stunning expressive and formal drawings of the work along with Graphics, who also visited the shop to research existing product and graphic design, and Photography students conducted planned photoshoots of the park and sculptures. 

While the rain may have cut our trip a bit shorter than we had planned, we were so impressed by how much good quality work our students did while on the trip, as well as how engaged and enthusiastic they were.

Thank you for a lovely day out folks, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Black History Month | Artists

 Following our recent Instagram post, here are some links with more information about the artists we featured:

Tewodros Hagos - https://kristinhjellegjerde.com/exhibitions/206/overview/

 Frank Bowling - https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/frank-bowling 

Kwame Akoto Bamfo - https://thesoleadventurer.com/redefining-african-art-in-conversation-with-kwame-akoto-bamfo-by-angela-okorie/ 

Joy Labinjo - https://www.tiwani.co.uk/artists/26-joy-labinjo/ 

Black History Month | 2021

Black people have been a fundamental part of British History. However, as campaigners have been highlighting, the contributions, impact and shaping of our current world in terms of politics, culture and social and economic successes have been overlooked and undervalued.  

Black History Month is a reminder to us that History is written by people and therefore it is inherently biased.  The people who have had their voices heard in the past are mainly the privileged, the wealthy and the white. If you would like to learn more generally, the Black History Month organisation have lots of information to start with: https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/  

Art History is dominated by the white patron and religion, as in the past, Art is something that the wealthy used to demonstrate their power. So the paintings we see from History are a record of what the wealthy and religious leaders wanted to pay for. However, Art and artists have always been an important part of subcultures, rebellions and protests. Art is not just a way of presenting the status quo, but a way of challenging it. We are going to start by sharing some resources, but keep an eye on our feed, we will be sharing student work and a focus on Artists who have confronted the existing state of affairs by telling their stories. 

Resources and Links

Black History Month | 10 Artists you should know:

https://blog.artsper.com/en/a-closer-look/black-history-month-10-artists-you-should-know/  

5 Powerful Stories on Black Art History - this article has some fantastic interviews with Artists to watch:

https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/collection-insights/2021/black-history-month-videos  

Photography | Working in partnership with Black Cultural Archives, the V&A identified and acquired photographs taken by black photographer, or which document the lives of black people in Britain, taken between the 1950's-90's:

https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/staying-power-photographs-of-black-british-experience  

Graphic Design | Black creatives who shaped the course of design history:

https://www.editorx.com/shaping-design/article/famous-black-graphic-designers  

Artist of the Month | September 2021

Hello everyone and welcome to Artist of the Month!

Celebrating achievement is something very important to us in the Art department. We encourage everyone to aim high and take risks, and so we make sure to acknowledge this when students go above and beyond in their work. If this is your first time visiting our blog - here's how it works! We nominate a student from each subject and each year group who have really impressed us that month, either from the high standard of work they've produced, from trying something super ambitious, or even just shown a great attitude and commitment to their course.   

We have already seen an incredible start to the year, especially given how turbulent and disruptive education has been for the last few years now, and we really appreciate how difficult it can be to get back into the routine of lessons and the workload that comes with it. So a huge well done to all our new students who have joined us this year and made a super start to their subjects, and also to our second year students who have come back from the summer with some amazing work and really ready and raring to get back into it.

And so, here are just a few of those students who have really impressed us this September. Well done folks!

 A1 Fine Art - Melanie Cornelius

A2 Fine Art - Sophie Galloway

A2 Fine Art - Lauren Bates

A1 Graphics - Katie Turnor

A2 Graphics - Haleemah Ashraf

A1 Photography - Amber Lenton

A2 Photography - Elizabeth Stewart