On Wednesday 22 November, Fine Art and Art and Design students from Years 12 and 13 visited the Tate Galleries in London. The purpose of the trip was to enable us to research and gain more ideas which would help us towards our projects.

The Tate Modern is a very contemporary gallery and on entering, the first thing that caught our attention were the large slides, designed by Cartsen Höller, as one of the sculpture exhibits filling the main entrance hall. Not only were they a great design but students were also given the opportunity to go on them, even though there was a queue!

In both Tate Galleries, students went off in small groups to view the works of various artists and made sketches of the pieces relevant to their current units of work.

Once finished in the Tate Modern, we took a short boat journey across the river to the Tate Britain, home to many great works of art. This year the gallery is hosting the presentations of four short listed artists under the age of 50 in the running for the Turner Prize. Some of the group were lucky enough to view these exhibits, gathered from work done over a twelve month period. The presentations for the Turner Prize are all contemporary British artworks.

In both galleries, students bought some postcards that depicted scenes and sculptures relevant to their personal projects. These postcards and our own sketches would help us make connections to other artists, which is a required criterion for all art projects, and would help us gain inspiration in developing our own ideas for our themed unit.

A good but exhausting day was had by all.


By A. Costidell
Year 12

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