‘PECKHAM MEETS PICCADILLY’ Go to the gallery to see some of the children’s gesture drawings.

Photographs by Beth Evans: www.bethevans.com

This Thursday (March 10th), nineteen Year Five children from Brunswick Park Primary School in Peckham were given an exclusive tour of the Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly. Facilitated by arts organisation Young Visions and funded by the Excellence in Cities initiative working with the Royal Academy Schools and the Education Department, the experience gave the children a unique introduction to one of the UK’s most prestigious artistic institutions.

First, they were greeted by Professor Maurice Cockrill, Keeper of the Royal Academy and taken on a guided tour of the current exhibition by two students. Then they were shown around the Schools in the basement of the Academy where they observed the current postgraduate students hard at work in the studios. Professor Cockrill said: “I hope this visit will widen the children’s horizons both as young art critics and young artists. By welcoming them to the Royal Academy we are showing that we value them. These young children are our potential audience, students and artists of the future. We want to give them something memorable that can act as a source of inspiration.”

The group was also granted special entry into the iconic Life Room, unchanged from its inception in the eighteenth century and normally only accessible to students of the Academy. Sitting where celebrated artists such as Turner and Constable would have done, the nine and ten year olds took part in a life-drawing workshop run by Phillippa Clayden, director of Young Visions and chair of the Royal Academy’s alumni association (RASA), along with Licy Clayden, Young Visions co-director and tutor. The children were given expert tuition on drawing a dressed life-model using unusual techniques such as using a pencil in each hand. Morgan said ‘I love learning new ways to draw. I really enjoyed looking at the art too’ and Tom said ‘I liked drawing the silhouettes and making them 3D. I’m going to bring my family here and tell them that I made art in the Life Room- I’ll even bring my children when I’m older!’

The work they produced will be exhibited in the Schools for current RA students to admire, and will later be taken back to their school and exhibited. It was an extraordinary art lesson where the children not only learned valuable technical skills, but also gained an impression of the entire process of being artist.

This project is part of Phillippa Clayden’s work with Young Visions, an organisation she founded 28 years ago which is dedicated to bringing unique visual arts teaching methods to young people of all backgrounds and abilities in Southwark. Her recent work has involved bringing the UK’s prestigious arts institutions into creative collaboration with Southwark primary schools.

In delivering ‘Peckham meets Piccadilly’, Clayden has given children access to the high profile world of the making of art, and helped them to be confident within it, and in their own abilities to contribute to it. The art co-ordinator at Brunswick Park School and one of the accompanying teachers, Mahnaz Kamran commented; ‘This visit has been wonderful. The children might not have been comfortable in an arts environment before, they may even have felt excluded from it, but the Royal Academy has really welcomed them and shown them how much they can enjoy looking at art and making art. They have gained lots of confidence from the event and I’m sure they will be keen to visit exhibitions and get involved in arts projects in the future.’

While the obvious learners in the project are the children, Phillippa and Licy are both keen to recognise the reciprocity of the learning experience, and they thank the children of Brunswick Park Primary for their influence on the Royal Academy. Phillippa says: ‘It’s great to see the children in the Schools bringing their new perspectives and fresh ideas. The RA Schools initially started because a group of artists thought more people should be given the opportunity to create. It’s events like these that remind everyone of the founding principles of the Royal Academy.’ Inspired by its teachings while she was a student, she has taken the methods and ethos of the Academy out into the community and, in turn, brought the community back to the Schools. In that sense, she says ‘“Peckham meets Piccadilly” has come full circle’.

Remmel: ‘I love being here, I love to draw!’
Remell Williams age 9

Weblinks

:http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/

http://www.brunswickpark.southwark.sch.uk/

http://www.phillippaclayden.co.uk/

http://www.licyclayden.co.uk/
Media enquiries: Julia Brosnan 07870 306867, julia@dovetailtogether.co.uk
and Cathy Wilcock 07846628669, cathywilcock@gmail.com
www.dovetailtogether.co.uk

March 24, 2011 | Filed Under Home