Myth: Folklore: Legend at Horniman museum 31st March 2010

So here's the photos from the final show which was a brilliant experience and a great success, and builds on our previous site-specific work at Dulwich Picture Gallery and in Shop.

Some things students working on the project said;

"A really good site-specific experience, bringing the community together"

"The venue was amazing"

"Good for our parents to see our work in a professional context"

"Organisation- we got a chance to take control"

"A real confidence booster"

"Now I understand site-specific work better"

"Great experience: first real Year 12 show"

"Good to interact with members of the public"

Stuart Worden, Assistant Principal said, " Thank-you for the Horniman last night. Once again I see the VAD team pushing boundaries, working in exciting places and producing high quality work. I felt that the work benefited from clear subject matter and was impressed by the level of creative and intellectual engagement. I particularly loved the use of film and the piece with the children's clothing will stay with me for some time.
Brilliant commitment and thank-you for the vision and the energy."

Thanks very much to The Horniman museum for letting us loose in their fabulous museum- we hope to be back :)

Nature:Nurture versus The City: gallery

Phew! Here are more photos from our show last night. A great night with our friends and families, with much to celebrate from our Year 11 and 13 BTEC Art and Design students eclectic mix of work.

Nature: Nurture v The City, Year 11 and 13 BTEC Art and Design shows

Hello, our end of year strand shows are on Thursday 20th May 4.30-8.30pm, visual arts studios, click on flyer for more information.

Following our great off site success in YBsA at The Rag Factory, off Brick Lane, East London, (reported here in East London Lines and images in our flickr gallery here) you are warmly invited to come to our Year 11 and Year 13 BTEC First and National Diploma Art and Design end of course shows, the former group has responded to the theme Nature:Nurture and the latter, The City.
Students are showcasing their Final Major Project work through a wide range of visual arts and design disciplines, from animation to painting, to video, printmaking, performance art, sculpture and fashion illustration. Year 13s will have browsers displaying their final portfolios and also sketchbooks will be accompanying the show for the Year 11s.

Hope to see you there!

YBsA: YOUNG BRIT SCHOOL ARTISTS show in East London, 27&28th March 2010

YBsA flyer above: click to enlarge

Hello! You are invited to come along to our forthcoming annual show, this year at The Rag Factory, off Brick Lane, East London- details as follows;

YOUNG BRIT SCHOOL ARTISTS is a showcase of work by 14-19 year old artists and designers, experimenting with painting, photography, drawing, craft, jewellery, fashion illustration, graphics, textiles, print, live art, video, sculpture, installation, community projects, interdisciplinary arts.

YBsA @ The Rag Factory16-18 Heneage Street, London, E1 5LJ

Private View with live events (£4/£2)

Saturday 27th March 2010 5-9pm

Includes the alTURNERtive prize judging with special guest judges Oliver Evans, Assistant Director at Maureen Paleys Gallery and Arts correspondent for Dazed and Confused, and Artist Yara El-Sherbini at 7pm

Additional opening times (free entry)

Saturday 27th March, 11am-4pm

Sunday 28th March, 11am-3pm

At the Private View, come hang out in East London with the new up and coming YOUNG BRIT SCHOOL ARTISTS. Vote for the people’s prize in alTURNERtive painting and photography, browse the wares in a crafty market stall, and take part in a collaborative tribute to Alexander McQueen. You could win a young artists work in the art raffle, participate in live art events, enjoy a cupcake or a few iced gems, washed down with a glass of fizzy pop or two......Wear your best party frocks!

Please note:

Tickets for the Private View on the door only, arrive early to avoid queuing.

More to follow soon.....watch this space

Year 11 BTEC and GCSE Art and Design final show

On Tuesday the 12th of May up in the Visual Arts and Design studios 704, 705 and 706, we are holding our Year 11 show.
Come along and celebrate with us the great work they have produced over their respective courses during their 2 years here.
There is a huge range of work this year, ranging from beautiful paintings to origami based installations via post apocalyptic dioramas and knitted textiles.
Show opens at 5 and runs until 8pm, refreshments will be available.
See you there!

Year 13 Final Show: 23/24/27th April 2009

Please come and join us in celebrating the achievements of our Year 13 BTEC National Diploma Art and Design students for the Private View this Thursday, 5-9pm or 10-4pm Friday 24th and Monday 27th, in the Whitgift Centre, near the middle of it, opposite Pumpkin Patch, CR0 1LP.
The show, which turns an empty shop into a temporary white cubed gallery space, promises to be an array of work across the breadth of Visual Arts and Design including graphics, illustration, painting, sculpture, textiles and video. Students have responded to the theme Presence of Absence in creating their final pieces.

Hope to see you there. Entry £1 on the Private view.

[Please note this is different to the Year 12 BRIT Visual Arts Shop project currently in the old Legends site]

Visual Arts and Design department

Year 13 BTEC National Diploma Art and Design: afternoon lesson re-enacting Gillian Wearing's work, Thursday 27th November 2008

As part of Unit 59, Multi-Disciplinary work in Fine Art, students are developing approaches to Live Art exploring different methods of engaging with their audience, both on and off site. In Year 12 for Open evening November 2007, students undertook this work with the prospective students but we were keen to consider with them how the work would change out in the public domain in the schools locality at a junction including areas around shops such as Halfords, Staples, a barbers, bus stops, Tescos.

Posts which follow this entitled 'After Gillian Wearing' are the students recording of the experience.

Some background information:


Wearing’s work demonstrates a complex understanding of the alternately comic and tragic experiences of everyday life. She uses the techniques of documentary photography, film and television to frame the concerns, words and actions of ordinary people, often in everyday situations slightly and often subtly displaced in context. This repositioning creates an uneasy sense in the viewer - it forces us to question our preconceptions in face of the image Wearing presents to us. [Taken from British Council website ]


Thoughts we discussed prior to the re-enactments:

• Evaluating examples of Gillian Wearing's work
• Where? Who to ask, what to ask, how to frame the experience? Ask for email addresses?
• Watching the use of the site first, considering where to ask eg going into and/or out of the station? How does change of site affect responses?
• Short term public engagement, community, social, what are we learning?
• Spontaneous approach
• Strangers more honest than people you know?
• Passers by- transient community?
• Highlighting the human connection between us?

Preparing for A-Block show next Wednesday

The excitement is mounting! Things are really hectic getting ready for our big show next week- sourcing lampshades, writing the programme, buying the prizes for the alTURNERtive prize, organising our fab judges - artist Laura Green and Deputy Director of Chisenhale Gallery Dierdre Kelly, building our confessional style boxes for our Art translator....amongst many many other things. As we get out the rollers and into our painting overalls, many students are mucking in transforming the OBIE theatre into an art show alongside the fantastic technical theatre team who've built our gallery.

Here's a selection of the work in progress:

More images can be found on our flickr account here


Year 13 student Jake Roberts is combining graphic, painting and assemblage techniques for his entry for the alTURNERtive prize

Grainne Mears-Bullen (above)Year 13 is exploring memory and perception visually using contemporary oil painting techniques.

Helena Dillon (above) is exploring themes of mortality exploring traditional techniques in oils on paper for the alTURNERtive prize

Luke Jonas, Year 13 is exploring contemporary culture and issues of race in his piece for the alTURNERtive prize.

Year BTEC First ART and Design students are working on their built environment installation inspired by the Psycho Buildings exhibition at the Hayward earlier this year.

Rebecca Pillans is exploring issues of the body and age for her Year 12 BTEC National Diploma outcome for the show.

Crockery is arriving and becoming part of a big cafe-tea room installation that the Year 13s have organised. The audience will be having tea and cakes and reading their graphic novels.

With most of the painting of white walls and plinths unexpectedly completed today, Monday and Tuesday as a team of staff and students start early and finish late hanging the show....and in between get baking cakes too.

First up- our annual showcase!!

more to follow on this-work in progress photos and about the work in the show....

love to see you there!