Fragments

a visual art project

Towards the end of the summer term, Sawston Village College was delighted to receive funding from the Arts Society South Cambs for an art project. The school decided to focus on visual art and established a project which would:

Be led by a professional artist. Sawston Village College wanted to have a professional artist lead this project in order that:

• pupils experience how an artist approaches a brief, and the research and preliminary work that goes into to creating a final work.
• the project generates high quality outcomes.
• pupils learn about pathways to a career as an artist and how an artist works, and other related professions.

Be inspired by the school site and architecture. Sawston Village College is to be the focus of a new DfE building project which will see some of the existing buildings on the school site demolished. While none of these buildings have the immediately obvious charm of the original 1930s Grade 2 listed buildings, they are, nonetheless, significant – and of importance to many, including many former pupils, and so a project aiming to capture the architecture and essence of these buildings is timely. The aim will be to have the works created from this project eventually hung in the new buildings, thus maintaining a link between old and new.

Produce art for permanent display in school. Sawston Village College would like to increase the number of artworks on display in school. While the school places great value on the arts today, as evidenced through its recent award of Artsmark Platinum, the highest accreditation from Arts Council England recognising a school’s commitment to creativity and cultural education, focus on the arts at Sawston can also be traced back to Henry Morris, the school’s founder. For Morris, it was important that original works of art were hung in schools, rather than reproductions, and it is with the desire to create an inspiring environment for our pupils that we also seek to hang original works of art on our walls.

30 Year 9 pupils were involved in the project working over four full days with professional artist Amy Wormald to explore the buildings, come up with designs and then paint their canvases. At the end of the project they held an exhibition to showcase what they had achieved and also made a film about their experiences, which you can see below: