This year, as part of the Y13 Liberal Studies programmes of study, the art department is offering the opportunity of working with the Tate Gallery, Unilever Series, on their Turbine Generation project.  The projects objectives are set out briefly below:

The Unilever Series: turbinegeneration 2010-2011

During the autumn term 2010, a small group of Liberal Studies students from JAGS and Dulwich College started working together on the Turbinegeneration project set up by the Tate. The project was set up to enable schools across the world to explore cultural issues through the language of art. The project theme this year is 'Collaboration' and students have used construction, photography and collage to respond. We have been partnered with Escola Artistica de Soares dos Reis, a school in Portugal, and during the term have exchanged images and ideas as they have develop via the internet. This exchange has shaped and changed the project and its outcomes and has resulted in a cultural dialogue with virtual exhibition space. The project is still in its infancy and after initial teething problems the potential of exploring artistic and cultural ways of communicating have proved interesting and rewarding. The second part of the project will begin in the spring term.

Visit http://turbinegeneration.tate.org.uk/

Chantal Gillingham

11 January 2011

Bessemer Grange Primary School - Children's Art Project

Each year, the Art Department organises an art project in conjunction with staff and pupils at Bessemer Grange primary school. This provides year 13 pupils with an opportunity to work closely with year 5 pupils, exploring materials and constructing artworks. This popular course allows children and young adults to work collaboratively in the process of making and allows year 13 pupils to see first hand that developing a project idea and delivering it in the lesson are two quite different experiences!

At the beginning of the course, year 13 volunteers from both James Allen's Girls' School and Dulwich College meet to devise and develop new ideas for projects. Pupils are asked to consider the making of the envisaged final piece, in stages, the timing and pace, and the layout of the classroom and the number of pupils; most importantly, trying to anticipate the questions that the pupils may ask.

Both older and younger pupils learn considerably from each other during these projects, which have so far included: weaving, modelling, painting, creating mosaics, and construction. Themes have included Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Decorated Faces, and Ancient Roman and Greek Mosaics.

We have received extremely positive feedback from both the pupils and staff at Bessemer Grange Primary School.  

Bankside Urban Pioneers

Molly Dalton,Year 12, our very own Bankside Urban Pioneer, was one of four 16-19 year old Southwark residents recruited to work with the Architecture Foundation on its autumn education programme over ten days (after school and weekends) critically exploring the area of the Bankside Urban Forest, which is about to undergo a huge re-design.

They worked with artists, film makers, journalists and architects, interviewing residents, writing, acting and directing and editing a film in a day, making a radio programme to be broadcast on Resonance FM, designing a website and a treasure hunt, and planned this launch event to showcase their work.