13 October 2022
Miss Siobhan Campbell, Head of Art
We made the most of Woldingham’s proximity to some of the world’s best galleries for a Sixth Form art trip earlier this week, starting with a visit to The Royal Institute of British Architecture for the FORMA exhibition, a subject fair for the arts. Our students were able to meet and discuss BA courses with the School of Visual Arts NYC, UAL, the University of Reading, and Winchester School of Art among others. A specialist talk was given by lead practitioners from UAL and Westminster University. The focus was on industry opportunities, discussions of personal statements and portfolios. There was an emphasis on the importance of pre-degree foundation courses, explaining the need to build a mature portfolio after A Levels and stressing the expectations of highly competitive degree courses. We were also able to make links with universities which have offered to run masterclasses for our students.
In the afternoon we went to the William Kentridge exhibition at The Royal Academy. The extensive exhibition displayed the artist’s animations, tapestries and drawings. The political context, alongside the beauty of Kentridge’s mark making and landscapes, was quite heavy but nonetheless both moving and inspiring. It was a fantastic opportunity to see an artist’s process and understanding of work within a gallery setting.
Lower Sixth student Liv said: ‘The William Kentridge exhibition was very impressive. I particularly liked his large motion picture animations that told a story. It was amazing to see how he created his pieces. My favourite part of the exhibition was the 3D art that you could only see through goggles with lenses.’