Key Stage 4
Art
Wolverhampton Art Gallery in partnership with Ercall Wood Technology College.
The teacher wanted to increase student:
- awareness of the local built environment
- ability to develop art that responds to their personal project experience
- confidence to use their own original ideas
Collage by Ercall students on view at Wolverhampton Art Gallery © CABE
Studying the history and development of another place can be a great way to see your own area in a different light, and even to see many things about it that you have never noticed before. GCSE students at Ercall Wood Technology College worked with Wolverhampton Art Gallery to study the special character of Wolverhampton. They then returned with these new perspectives to look at their local area and create artwork for their portfolios.
As with other Engaging Places projects it was very striking how quickly the students were inspired to take a detailed interest in the built environment. Students’ attitudes to the built environment changed from a lack of awareness to a very sensitive and passionate appreciation. Only the right opportunity is needed: one where buildings and places are taken seriously as something compelling and inexhaustible.
With Stories in Stone the students’ eyes were opened, and they began to discover many things about their locality for themselves. They became alive to the styles and to the small details in things that serve to differentiate them. They learnt how you need to look up above the recent changes to buildings at street level to see the history of a place written out higher up. The artworks the students went on to create are extremely varied, from prints and collages to 3D wall hangings.
