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Year 12 Art and Photography students will be collaborating with Sophie Huckfield.

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latest West Midland art + education opportunities + news

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Find out more from Wolverhampton Art Gallery 

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Find out more from Wolverhampton Art Gallery 

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and get involved!

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View students work on our website ...

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British Art Show 9 visits Wolverhampton, Aberdeen, Plymouth and Manchester with new commissions and works not previously seen in BritainBritish Art Show is a landmark touring exhibition, widely recognised as the most important exhibition of contemporary British art. Organised every five years, it presents the most innovative and exciting contemporary art produced in this country, across museums, galleries and exhibition spaces in each partner city.
British Art Show 9 has been developed at a precarious moment in Britain's history that has brought politics, narratives of identity and questions of agency to the centre of public consciousness.
The featured artists respond in critical ways to this complex context, imagining more hopeful futures and exploring new modes of resistance.

This is a fantastic opportunity for our students and our art department to be involved in the British Art Show Learning Programme. We are a large art department and we are passionate about engaging with contemporary art. Every art project we deliver always incorporates contemporary art and to explore the BAS 9 will add fresh and exciting new ideas to our curriculum. Students at Phoenix have previously engaged with other contemporary art projects such as, MultiStory and artists-in-residence. The benefits to the students were immense such as, gaining confidence through self-expression and understanding the role of an artist in society which in turn inspired students to continue their creative journey at college and university.

We are one of the largest secondary schools in Sandwell and we work with many disadvantaged pupils. I believe our students, department and school will benefit from this experience by:

Raising aspirations

Narrowing the achievement gap

Cultural development

Inspire teaching

Learning experience

Community Integration

Critical thinking

To have this opportunity at our school we hope to inspire the school community and allow students to engage with contemporary art and find their creative voices.
​During the lockdown in March, many people turned to art as a creative outlet. I, like others, had time to reflect on my art practice and at the same time I was commissioned by Multistory to create a piece that reflected 'Stories in Isolation'. This commission was offered to me because of my involvement with 'Blast', a contemporary photography festival organised by Multistory. I used performance art that echoed my feelings in isolation and issues of vulnerability so I took strength from the advice I give to my students - be open and playful and see where the art takes you without judgement. I shared my experience with the Art students at my school and we engaged with the other artists responses to the pandemic which raised lively and important dialogues on contemporary art, society and personal expression.

I would hope that working collaboratively with the BAS and the Lead Teacher core group, the West Midlands community would benefit from a range of exciting outcomes to be accessible to students from all backgrounds. Through the collaborative process, a broad and differentiated range of teaching resources, ideas and projects to promote engagement with contemporary art could be developed to support and share with other teachers and community organisations.

At our school, we have themes for each year group and always encourage students to explore a range of artists including cultural, historical and contemporary. We have taken students to numerous art galleries to engage with contemporary art, such as The Ikon, Walsall Art gallery, Tate, London and Liverpool and MOMA, Oxford. We find contemporary artists mostly inspire the students. This has been the case when we have had artists-in-residence and artists coming in to talk to the students. A photographer, from 'Blast', Multistory introduced his work to different year groups and worked with our A level and GCSE art students which culminated in a film and zine. Students were fascinated and asking many questions about the concepts and meaning about the work and students reflected on their views and ideas. The experience initiated lively debates and inspired students to continue on their own creative journey - for example two students went on to study photography fulltime at University. Student responses to artists work have included film, photography, painting and drawing. We share our student art experiences through school exhibitions, school art web page, Twitter and an Instagram page.

As teachers we are continually striving to develop imaginative ways to engage students and the focus for this academic year is to build resilience, reconnection and confidence. We are currently planning and delivering blended learning and remote learning resources. One area we are currently reviewing is ensuring we include artists of colour to each of our projects, that reflects the students we teach. Such as Barbara Walker, Vanley Burke and The Singh Twins.
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Including the British Art Show in our curriculum with fresh and diverse art work would inspire the teachers which in turn would motivate the students to create their own personal responses.

The main way an artist finds inspiration is looking at other artists' work and learning from them and they tend to use some of their own imagination and combine all the ideas they have including the research they have done to make their own art work. They also get inspiration from their own experience, observation and photographs.
​Artists help people to see the world in new and inventive ways. All artists reflect themselves or their surroundings onto the art they create. Artists can express their opinion or feelings to the work they create and create a moving and lasting impact on the viewer. Artists have the ability to change society due to the way that they hav total freedom of thought and real communication which is transferred onto the work they create. ifferent people find different things beautiful, therefore no one can decide what is the true meaning of beauty. n artwork doesn't have to be beautiful because it may be showing something which is not suppo to be beautiful, therefore important to show everything in its true form. Tilly

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British Art Show 9 visits Wolverhampton, Aberdeen, Plymouth and Manchester with new commissions and works not previously seen in BritainBritish Art Show is a landmark touring exhibition, widely recognised as the most important exhibition of contemporary British art.

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Student example of their mind map on BAS9 themes

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Student example of their mind map on BAS9 themes

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BAS9 Lead Teachers first meeting and thoughts...

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BAS9 Lead Teachers first meeting and thoughts...

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contemporary art year 7 2- Google Jamboard

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Yr 12 first thoughts on the themes

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As a British Art Show 9 Lead Teacher, I started this online platform to share students journey of work.  As Head of Art at Phoenix Collegiate, I encourage a holistic approach to art.  I am hoping that through engaging with contemporary art students can expand their creative expression. This Padlet is also a reflection of the many ways we are working during lockdown to share and collaborate ideas through the use of digital platforms.

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As a British Art Show 9 Lead Teacher, I started this online platform to share students journey of work.  As Head of Art at Phoenix Collegiate, I encourage a holistic approach to art.  I am hoping that through engaging with contemporary art students can expand their creative expression. This Padlet is also a reflection of the many ways we are working during lockdown to share and collaborate ideas through the use of digital platforms.

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You can find more about me as a Fine Art Practitioner and Educator here: