Art Report, Spring Term 2023

Art Department Report – Spring Term 2023

We are very excited to have one of our A Level students going on to study architecture next year, and with multiple offers, she has her work cut out deciding where to go!
We are so proud of the ambitious, thought provoking and brave pieces from our students, which have adorned the walls of the Bunker Gallery for all to see.
It has been an exciting year with lots of new members of staff in the Art department, and this has given the opportunity to explore exciting new schemes of work, carousel topics, and a new scholars programme.

This year, Miss Anjum (Graduate Assistant) and Miss Baker (Artist in Residence) have delivered exciting and inspiring new initiatives to the carousel programme. Initially students had a go at storyboarding and illustration, which then lead on to binding their own books. This term they are creating collaged bugs, which are being produced for the Mayor of Godalming’s ‘Other Mother’ display at Godalming Museum.

The scholars programme, as ever, sets out to stretch our most talented and enthusiastic pupils. Earlier in the term Miss Anjum set them the task of designing and creating a maquette of a sculpture that should appear on the 4th Plinth in Trafalgar Square. More recently the scholars are collaborating on an illustrative retelling of the Grimms Tales Cinderella. As ever, they are a delightful group buzzing with enthusiasm.

This year King Edward’s also ran its first ever Big Draw competition, which is a national Art festival celebrating all that is drawing. This year we adhered to the title they gave us which was ‘Bring Back the Colour’, a love letter to culture and diversity, as well as being a bright and positive metaphor for times ahead. In response to this theme, we collaborated with the students of Barrow Hills, giving each pupil a square of fabric, on which they were allowed to decorate it in any way they saw fit as long as it responds to the theme of colour. We then stitched them all together to make 4 giant collaborative tapestries which are now on display in the chapel at Barrow Hills.

We also had the pleasure welcoming internationally renowned artist Ian Murphy, 35 of our students got together for a full day of drawing under his tuition. This was such an unbelievable opportunity, and the pupils learned so much about texture and risk taking. In addition to this we have run trips to London for 3rd and 4th Form, and we have an upcoming residential 6th form trip to St Ives in the new academic year. It has been a busy and exciting year in the Art department!