Enrichment Week - Art Exhibition

Monday 18 July 2011

Preparing an Art Exhibition

For the second year running an outstanding exhibition of Year 11 Art and Design work was held at Cirencester Deer Park School. The Art Department was transformed into a gallery space with all courses offered by the Faculty of Design represented.

The transformation took place during our annual Enrichment Week. The Art Department and Design Atrium were once again changed into a colourful gallery space full of a diverse variety of inspirational work. Work put on display was produced in both Art and Design for the BTEC and GCSE courses offered at Cirencester Deer Park School.

A team of pupils were responsible for selecting the pieces and hanging the exhibition as their work experience. The pupils study art and felt the process helped them to understand how to display different types of art and the difference good presentation makes to how a piece of work is viewed. ‘These few days have helped me understand how I can layout my sketchbook in different ways and gave me ideas how to get better grades overall in my art work,’ reflected Katie Lafford-Taylor. These were feelings shared by the whole team who worked extremely hard over the week putting the exhibition together. It was a positive experience for everyone involved.

Art Exhibition – A Private View

On Wednesday 13th July the faculty hosted a ‘Private View’. This was an opportunity for the pupils, their parents and members of our local community to see the very high standard of work produced. It was a great success. Paul Logan, the School’s Improvement Partner came and commented, ‘As last year, very impressive both in the variety of work and the huge effort that is behind the finished pieces. Well done the class of 2011.’ Michael Spittle, a member of the school’s governing body shared a similar view: ‘I visited the Design Faculty Exhibition. I met Head of Faculty, Annemarie Evans, and some pupils. I thought how sophisticated some of the work was over a wide variety of subjects and materials. They were definitely projects to be proud of. Congratulations to all concerned.’
A wealth of talent was on display, including ceramics, print making, painting, textiles and work in wood and plastic. There were teapots inspired by flowers and birds, paintings of food good enough to eat, tables to eat at and sketchbooks to inspire.

Many others commented on the quality of the work in the visitors’ book.

‘I loved the range of ideas and materials. Well done to all the students and a big thank you to the staff.’

‘The ceramics are particularly impressive, showing confidence and creativity. The exhibition demonstrates an extraordinarily high level of ambition and commitment from both pupils and staff.’

‘Looks like the hours of hard work paid off! Well done for creating some beautiful pieces of work.’

Staff within the Design Faculty were very pleased with how the exhibition of work was received and are already planning next year’s show.