Art

Art has a significant contribution to make to the development of every individual. Creativity, intuition, sensory awareness, and dexterous co-ordination are as vital for students as the traditional academic skills. In developing the full variety of human intelligence art is a fundamental way of organizing our understanding of the world, requiring profound qualities of discipline, insight and a firm grounding in knowledge.

The physical interaction between an individual and materials should cover as wide a range of media, processes and methods as possible, and these, alongside the study of art of the past and present, are integral. It provides a means of formulating and clarifying the student’s own ideas as well as grounding them in the context of history and culture.

In making art it should:

• be intended – art does not happen accidentally
• have content or a meaning
• function on numerous levels to be appreciated intellectually, emotionally, skilfully and visually

The Art School’s philosophy, aims and exam board requirements provide a structure both intellectual and practical. Learning takes place in a multiplicity of ways and the department’s wish is to work with students across as many disparate situations and practices, encountering as many staff as possible, including the Artist-in-Residence. Fostering artistic and experimental growth, we present students with problem solving situations that challenge perceptions, guided discovery procedures, and opportunities to create and discover how to make sense of a small, but important, part of their lives.

Our philosophy is fluid and ever-changing, influenced by a shifting cultural climate, a changing staff and student body as well as the exam board’s requirements, and we embrace evolution as integral to a dynamic and thriving Art School.

As the students develop through the school, they are actively encouraged to take ownership of their work and projects are devised to allow individuality to flourish. In taking control of the generation of ideas, decision making and results, students develop a responsibility for their creative growth. Teachers work with their ideas wherever possible in order that the work created is genuinely personal to each student. The students who opt for Art from the LE through to Grecians are given an Art Pack that contains the basic materials that they need to make art whilst in the department, back at house, or wherever they are in the world. We enrich their studies with exhibitions, competitions, lectures, and trips, including a biannual trip to New York.