Art Highlights

This has been another year packed with Art highlights at Queen’s!

Trips and Workshops

The I Junior trip to the Strange Clay exhibition at the Hayward Gallery kick-started this year’s extensive array of creative trips and was an exciting way for the pupils to delve into the world of contemporary ceramics. The Art Scholars were also lucky enough to take part in the Pupil Takeover Day at the Hayward Gallery, where they were able to explore and gain insights into the ceramic works through workshops and conversations led by their peers at other schools.

Thank you to Talisa in I Seniors who, as part of her role as subject representative, organised a trip for her class to see the captivating and immersive experience of David Hockney’s work. In another I Senior outing, students visited the Allison Jacques Gallery to view the thought-provoking exhibition by Veronica Ryan. Through her diverse artistic practices, Ryan explores themes of identity, race and memory.

Class 3 pupils were lucky enough to visit the Tate Modern, where they experienced the captivating works of the renowned painter, Cezanne. To ignite a sense of wonder and curiosity in our Class 2 pupils, they went on a fantastic trip to the Grant Museum of Zoology. This excursion combines art and science as students explored the fascinating world of zoological specimens and artifacts, which formed the starting point to their own sculpture projects.

The Art Department were also delighted to invite Sheyamali Sudesh to lead an Art Scholars’ workshop which explored pupils’ ideas and associations with safe spaces. Seeing the groups work together and forge relationships across year groups was delightful, alongside their ability to problem-solve and create.

As part of trips and activities week in the Summer term, Class 2 pupils experienced all of the Arts in action! Thank you to Talia, Theodora and Efimia for sharing their thoughts….

“Tuesday’s workshop was such a fun experience! We spent the whole day taking part in a variety of activities to do with the arts - dance, drama, art and music. We created our own painting tools with different materials such as bamboo, sponges, and recycled fabrics. This was used in the mark making activity. We then dipped our feet and art tools into ink and danced to the background music, which allowed us to open our feelings and express ourselves. As well as this, we learned how to play the djembe drum, a West African instrument and were taught how to choreograph a fight with bamboo sticks! Overall, it was a fantastic day!”

Art Exhibition

We were delighted to host the annual GCSE and A-level Art exhibitions in June and, once again, the exceptional talent of Queen’s students was on full display. The showcased artwork was not only thought-provoking but also brimming with energy and diversity. The students demonstrated remarkable ambition in crafting their bodies of work, employing a wide range of media to explore captivating themes such as vulnerability, surveillance, social media and transience. Visitors were treated to a mesmerising array of sculpture, installation art, textiles, drawings, paintings and printmaking.

Many congratulations to all the artists for their dedication, hard work and creativity, which radiated throughout the exhibitions. Their artworks stood as a testament to their skill, talent and ambition.