Art Exhibitions

The Gallery has been busy this year with a wide-ranging and inspiring programme of exhibitions and displays. We aim, where possible, to use the space as an arena where we can show our own pupils’ achievements, but also bring other work into the space, whether by pupils within the local community, or practising artists from further afield.

We held five exhibitions over the course of the year, all of which helped towards representing our varied and outward-facing attitude to Art education.

OUT OF BODY

The rationale behind this exhibition was to present a theme (in this case ‘the body’), and show how professional artists have produced work under this very loose umbrella. The exhibition brought together four artists from very different disciplines, including a painter, a sculptor, a photographer and a graphic artist, and provided a very useful starting point for pupils to respond. We also held life drawing classes within the space for Sixth Form pupils. As a further layer to the exhibition, we ran a postcard competition for our own pupils and pupils from local ISSP schools, and the English department also ran a Haiku competition on the same theme, the winner of which was included as a stencilled exhibit within the exhibition.

HERE WE GO!

Every year we try to include an exhibition of work by pupils in the Third Form, and this year the title of the exhibition was Here We Go! Every pupil within this year group take Art, and thus gain a taster of the possibilities and creative opportunities available to them at the School.

The work is always varied, and we try where possible to include at least one piece per pupil. For many this is the last year that they will take Art as a subject, but for many it is just the beginning!

LEEDS ARTS UNIVERSITY

We have a number of pupils every year who decide to continue their studies beyond the Sixth Form, whether they apply to do an Art Foundation Course, or go straight onto a degree course. This year Lucy Dabbs, who left St Peter’s in 2018 and who was studying on the Foundation Course at Leeds Arts University, curated an exhibition of work by students currently on the course, entitled Progression as a State of Mind. This wide-ranging and exciting exhibition gave our pupils (and also students from local schools) a ‘taste’ of the sort of creative experience they might gain on such a course. It also provided the Leeds students with valuable curatioral experience and gallery experience.

YORK OPEN STUDIOS

Every year York artists open their doors to the local community with York Open Studios. This dynamic and popular event brings together over 80 local practitioners and the event is held over two busy weekends in April. All the Art teachers at the school are practising artists and all exhibited their work in the Whitestone Gallery, along with the work of Penny Phillips, our resident artist, and Jane Wright, a peripatetic music teacher at the school and a stunningly talented botanical artist. The weather brought people out in droves and over 1,000 people visited the gallery over the course of the two weekends.

IMAGINE 19

The ‘Grand Finale’ of our gallery year is our annual exhibition of GCSE and Sixth Form work, exhibited throughout the studios in the impressive facilities of the Art School. With Pre-U (Upper Sixth) pupils dominating the ground floor, and Third, Fourth and Fifth Form art throughout the rest of the building, work by over 150 pupils displayed was displayed. The work throughout was marked for its variety and skill, and the sheer inventiveness of the students. Using a range of media and disciplines through drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed-media and sculpture, the pupils have achieved a huge volume of work. Their achievements were reflected in the impressive boxed sets of postcards entitled Imagine 19 that were a popular ‘takeaway’ for friends and family, and a worthy reflection of a busy and creative year.

Mrs Charlotte Chisholm