Young Arts

Three schools in the New Forest have had a fantastic opportunity to work with Iain Green the Wildlife photographer.  They spent a day in may studying the grounds in their respective schools looking for wildlife – insects, plants etc to photograph. The aim was not only to improve their photography skills , but also to encourage them to look. To look at the world around them and and see the amazing things that are so near to them. Iain began by showing the pupils photographs he had taken over the year – including a huge , awe inspiring tiger in India. The children then grouped in 3s and 4s and each group was given a camera. Their enthusiasm and interest was excellent and to see them searching and hearing their cries as they found something interesting to photograph was really impressive.

The second day in June they’re even more enthusiastic as they knew more what they were doing and on this sunny day their discoveries and resulting photographs were quite exceptional.

Being part of these two days and seeing the pupils’ pleasure and enthusiasm showed just how important and valuable this element of the work of The Arts Society can be.

 

Below you can see some of the fantastic photos taken by the pupils

This year the focus for our Young Arts is the creation of a banner to celebrate the 50 years of our Society. Members of our Society are working in four schools to create a piece of work with the theme ‘Gold’ which will then be mounted on the banner.

Sway School pupils have worked on individual patchwork squares which they have designed themselves

Several months ago I spoke with Helen Murt the Art Co-ordinator at Lymington School to discuss a possible art project.  She had previously expressed a wish for us to work together to promote art at the school.

I contacted several local artists to see if they would be interested in running a workshop with pupils from Lymington Junior School. My idea was for the year 6 pupils to create something to be placed in the grounds as a memory of their time at the school. Local artist Nicola Henshaw was very keen to work on this project

In discussion with  Helen Murt they decided on a seaside theme as Lymington is on the coast. Nicola suggested creating a sculpture of fishes with the pupils designing their own fish on paper.

 

The concentration and and enthusiasm was very apparent and the results were so impressive.

Nicola  then cut out these designs  in wood ready for the pupils to paint them..They were encouraged to mix their colours and to be creative and daring in their work.

These fish would  then be mounted on rods and displayed on a base.

The pupils were very proud of their work and it  has been placed in the playground and creates a most impressive and eye catching sculpture.

Our thanks go to all the pupils and the staff and to Nicola for all her hard work and inspiration to the children.

The whole project was jointly funded by Arts Society New Forest and Wessex Area.

 

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A day at Roche Court.

On May 20th. we spent an amazing day at Roche Court sculpture park near Salisbury. The day was partly funded by NADFAS Head office through the Patricia Faye Memorial Fund and partly by our own branch – New Forest DFAS. We   took 5 pupils from each of three primary schools in our area- Lymington Junior, William Gilpin and Sway St. Lukes. Each school had chosen five pupils who they felt would gain the greatest benefit from the day – and not necessarily the best artists. They were accompanied by staff from their schools. The day was led by excellent staff from their education department who enthused the children from the moment we arrived. 

We began by studying one sculpture and pupils were asked what they thought it represented.

This resulted in much discussion and the thoughts and ideas of each pupil were recognised and valued. Continue reading “Young Arts Visit to Roche Court” →

The New Forest Decorative and Fine Arts Society was delighted to take pupils from three local schools to visit the Tate Modern gallery in London. Not only did we feel that it would be a good opportunity for pupils to see, first hand, some famous and interesting works, but more importantly, we wanted the pupils to feel that they had the right to have opinions about the art and also that their views and thoughts were valid.

Originally we had planned to visit the National Gallery but on the two dates we had booked there was a strike so many of the galleries would have been closed. Tate Gallery were excellent and provided us with a vast amount of educational material to support our visit. Continue reading “Young Arts visit to Tate Modern” →