Arts Award 2021

Explore

This term, our Junior art enthusiasts have continued with their World of Fashion Arts Award Explore course. We managed to fit many activities into this term, starting with a fun shoe design project. The girls used vibrant fabric paints and marker pens to decorate canvas shoes before we replaced the plain shoelaces with fancy ribbons. Following this, we created funky pendants and necklaces by moulding multi-coloured silk clay. All three groups have also researched items held in the Victoria and Albert Museum and studied the work of a local Manchester-based fashion designer. All evidence of our activities has been displayed in unique portfolios that the girls have taken time to decorate. Our group of Upper II girls have also gone above and beyond and pushed forward to complete the award early. They have practised their stitching skills and sewn pretty felt flowers that we then attached to pastel-coloured headbands. They were delighted with the results! For the rest of the girls, we will resume our Arts Award sessions in the Autumn term, and everyone will have the opportunity to make their own floral headpieces then!

Bronze

Our large group of Arts Award Bronze girls have completed beautiful sketchbooks that highlight their individualities. They spent many hours researching different artists and arts events and have displayed all their findings in such interesting and creative ways. Their reviews and personal reflections are absorbing to read and the collections of imagery and photographs that they have displayed in their portfolios are fascinating. Recently, the girls also produced jewellery, keyrings and trinket trays out of air-drying polymer clay and these look completely dazzling and eye-catching! The Bronze portfolios have now been assessed and will be presented for moderation over the holidays. We are very hopeful that many of our talented artists will continue on to take our two-year Arts Award Silver course in the new academic year.

Silver

We celebrated the culmination of our Arts Award Silver cohort’s hard work in a relaxed exhibition just before the end of term. This was a lovely event that provided opportunity for both our Year 8 and Year 9 girls to showcase their work to each other and staff members. The event gave pupils the chance to talk about the positives and the personal challenges of taking the Arts Award Silver course. It was particularly poignant for our Year 9 group as they have now completed the course and this was our final session together before many of them take up GCSE Art in September. Our artists should be extremely proud of themselves for putting together such wonderful portfolios that communicate their thoughts and ideas with such clarity. The girls have thrown themselves into completing sketchbooks to such high standards and they have covered every inch of every page with drawings, diagrams, practice pieces, decorations and written annotations. A special thanks goes to Ms Knipe who has been a tremendous support throughout the year and has organised numerous interesting and beneficial virtual meetings with alumnae who work in the creative industries. It has been a pleasure to work with the girls both online and in person this year and we look forward to seeing what artwork they create in the future!

 

Miss H Brown

Arts Award Coordinator