Year 9 Visual Art trip - Stowe House Preservation Trust Art competition
Our Visual Art department has very excitingly entered 12 of our exceptional Year 9 art students into an inter-school art competition, hosted by Stowe House Preservation Trust, based at Stowe School and part of the National Trust.
As part of the competition, we took the students to Stowe House on Thursday 2 May for a tour of the house and a day of art workshops. The workshops were run by their inhouse artist and included various sketching techniques, cross-stitch, collage, sculpture and gilding. During the workshops, the students had to respond to the three themes of Portraiture, Architecture and Restoration. Each workshop was situated in a different room in the house. The students were fantastic and really enjoyed the experience.
The students now have 6 weeks to produce a piece of artwork to submit to the competition, and we will be running weekly lunchtime sessions to help them achieve this. The artworks will be taken to Stowe House by the Visual Art department before the deadline.
Stowe House will then host a Private View and awards ceremony in the evening on Monday 15 July, for all students, parents and staff to attend.
Click here to learn more about the project
About the project
The project invites local secondary schools to select up to 12 pupils to participate in an arts competition and exhibition over the summer term. The pupils will start with an on-site visit where they will be taken on an inspiring tour of the house and offered creative workshops to kick-start their ideas. The pupils will then have approximately 6 weeks to create an artwork inspired by their time at Stowe House. The artworks will be judged by a committee of creative professionals and presented in an exhibition which will be on display at Stowe House during the month of August.
This opportunity would be ideal for pupils who show interests or skills in applied and visual arts, as well as history. We encourage schools to select pupils who they think would benefit in taking part. Participation in Open Arts would offer pupils the chance to be involved in an art exhibition which will be displayed in a unique setting and viewed by hundreds of members of the public during the summer holidays. The exhibition will be launched with a private view and prize giving ceremony in the grand state rooms at Stowe House.
Themes of the project
Stowe House has a rich history of artists and creatives flowing through its’ doors; from its humble beginnings in the late 1500s, to the artists who created myriad of the paintings, frescos and sculptures which once adorned the state rooms during its’ heyday; Stowe House has always been a place for new ideas and creative pursuits. During the on-site visits we will investigate three key themes related to Stowe House and learn about the stories that inspired its’ splendour and resulted in its’ downfall.
- Restoration: we will consider how old processes and cutting-edge technology are blended in order to restore the grand state rooms to their historical splendour for the benefit of the everyone who visits today.
- Portraits and identity: we interpret the rich history of portraiture with regards to the stories of certain figures associated with Stowe's history and understand how some of these figures resulted in Stowe’s eventual downfall.
- Architecture: we will define Stowe’s flourishing architectural expansion which took place over the course of a century and identify the principles upon which it was founded.