Congratulations to the schools who successfully achieved their Artsmark in the latest round. Look out for prints by Bow Arts education artists and young people in your Teachers Toolkits!
Artsmark is awarded to schools and colleges across the country who have been recognised for their quality arts offer. Bow Arts was commissioned by Artsmark to produce the artwork for Round 12, for use on Teachers Toolkits, certificates and posters.
The brief was for 6 artists to produce a piece of artwork inspired by or made with children and/or young people. The chosen lead artwork for secondary schools was Opinion by Christina Wrege; a print developed in collaboration with students at William Morris Sixth Form. For primary schools it was a piece by Tessa Garland and 9 and 10 year old pupils, using drawings of themselves making art, dancing or performing. The other 4 artworks were all included as A4 prints in each of the teachers packs. The range of artworks produced and the stories behind them were so varied, and just show the diversity and scope of artists' work with young people.
Have a look at a few examples here:
Opinion by Christina Wrege and students from William Morris Sixth Form. "The students were given the freedom to draw what they recalled to be the most memorable story from the local newspaper that morning. They could freely explore the medium of dry-point. This work is a testament to the underlying creativity in every student."
Untitled by Tessa Garland. "Equipped with brushes and Indian ink, I worked with a class of 9 and 10 year olds to make drawings of themselves making art, dancing, performing or writing. I wanted the drawings to be loose and free. The children produced hundreds of marvellous characters that I eventually whittled down to the very best to use on the final piece. All the characters were then digitally put onto the computer where I was able to construct the final design."
Exploding Shapes by Anna Vening. "When I thought about working with young people in creative workshops, more than anything, energy, enthusiasm and dynamism came across as important elements in the workshops I’ve conducted. I also wanted to produce an image that would appeal to a young person and have a sense of fun and playfulness."
After Create Skills, Barking Abbey by Daniel Wallis "uses 50 words, phrases and sentences that came out of a session I led for Bow Arts exploring ideas around what a group of A-Level students thought being an artist actually involved and introducing them to the realities of it as a career. I entered these short sentences and words into a search engine, saving the random returned images. I then systematically collaged these images together on a computer."
We wish continued success to all those schools and colleges striving to continue improving their arts provision and offering fantastic opportunities to their students.
