Art
Aims
The Art and Design Department aims to:
- establish a creative working environment for all students.
- stimulate visual awareness.
- encourage critical awareness.
- promote disciplined working practices.
- encourage the talent of all students.
- extend and challange the development of the more able students.
- encourage independent study.
We believe that:
- aesthetic awareness is vital for all students and this is best, although not exclusively, developed by practical means.
- visual language, like its verbal counterpart, can be learnt and requires no special aptitude beyond effort and enthusiasm to achieve proficiency.
- self expression, the most important outcome of art and design work, is best achieved with a sound grasp of technical skills.
- pupils’ confidence in their creative abilities are more easily encouraged when skills are taught and used within a structured framework.
- it is important for a pupils’ personal aesthetic vision, that an understanding of the richness and variety of art practice, past and present, is developed.
- pupils should be encouraged to work as ambitiously as possible.
The art masters are professional practitioners who work in their studio classrooms so that pupils can respond to them as artists. They themselves demonstrate techniques as much as use the latest audio-visual aids and provide bespoke exemplar material for projects.