Looking back this has been a good year for art in bucks. I managed to see about 12 exhibitions and am full of admiration for the quality of work students are doing. It was good to see so much strong (and often large) drawing and painting. Some superb figure and portraiture work with references to Jenny Saville and Lucien Freud. Often this work has an intensity and honesty which is very moving as students use their art to genuinely explore ideas about themselves and the world.
It seems that the use of digital camera's and art software has now come of age and most shows contained students' works which showed confidence in the use of digital imaging as a means to explore, record and develop ideas. To a certain extent this has meant that images are very often informed by photographs that students have taken and processed (cropped, coloured, filtered) themselves. Often students will also work over coloured printouts with traditional media.
This year also saw the first cohort through the digital art GCSE course at Chalfonts Community College. This work was intelligent and funny and often drew directly from the cultural references of the students themselves. Animations which originated from video captured by mobile phones, for instance. Another thing that occurs to me is the coming of age of Specialist Arts Colleges. The exhibitions this year showed how the curriculum offer has been successfully extended and widened and how courses in endorsements such as graphics, theatre design, textiles, photography are based on real expertise and experience. These courses are now showing the fruits of the real efforts by teachers to develop these courses and extend their experience and repertoire. We should recognise, value and find ways to share this expertise if we can. The year also provided an opportunity to host a national BECTA course for teachers at Chalfonts Community College and this also broke new ground. We moved beyond Photoshop to work which included animation and digital sculpture. The course provided an opportunity for 14 teachers to exhibit their work in public in the Waddesdon Manor Wine Cellars.
This weekend festival was very successful. It included over 2,000 pupils in performances of art, dance, drama and music. We have convinced Waddesdon Manor that schools can deliver sufficient content to fill the stages, grounds, marquees and buildings of this most impressive venue in Buckinghamshire. As a consequence this is likely to be an annual showcase for the arts and for schools. A brilliant result.
During the event slide shows or work from many schools were shown projected onto the brick walls of the wine cellars - it looked fantastic and people stayed for up to an hour to watch the show of over 200 images. Next term I will be pleased to add this to the other work I have tried to gather and share with schools. (thanks to those schools who were able to send images for this exhibition) Thanks also to Marc Berrett and Greg Hodgson for all their work making this event successful.
In the last week of term some Bucks teachers and I were involved in a QCA working party to review the proposals for a new programme of study for KS3 to be introduced for 2008. Another Bucks teacher worked with art advisers at the British Museum to share how we are begining to explore the opportunities to extend and enrich learning presented by the Bucks VLE. This enables us to share ideas through the internet and web conferencing between schools and artists. Bucks teachers are also presenting at an international conferfence for users of MOODLE (our VLE) during the holiday.
The most exciting thing, however, is the widening circle of colleagues begining to work together across schools and phases of education. This is happening through the network of AST's and Specialist Arts Colleges. This group is increasingly taking responsibility for CPD and for networking. This 'Arts Team' is begining to make a real impact. All in all Bucks teachers and schools are making a name for themselves and I am proud to be able to recommend the work we are doing in Bucks.
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