London Art Trip Inspires GCSE pupils

An intense two-day excursion in the capital was enough to inspire our budding artists to produce some of their own masterpieces ahead of their GCSE exhibition. Head of Art, Mrs Pearson sums up the experience.

This year’s GCSE London art trip was as busy as ever! Arriving early on Friday morning we dropped our bags and headed off to the museums of South Kensington in search of inspiration for the pupils’ set task. The Natural History museum and V&A are treasure troves and the groups split to make the most of the time to sketch and take photographs for their sketchbooks. After a few hours of intense exploration and a spot of lunch we moved on to the Kings Road and the more contemporary works at the Saatchi Gallery which is always an eye-opening and stimulating experience. The current exhibition features a number of up and coming artists whose varied and experimental ways of working gave us lots of ideas.

The evening was spent on the Southbank having dinner and visiting the Tate Modern which is now open until 10pm. The permanent collections offer the opportunity to see a wide variety of artists’ works, something for everyone I hope.

Day two started with a hearty breakfast followed by a short journey to the Sir John Soane’s museum which is an extraordinary place. The sixteenth century architect amassed an amazing collection of art and artefacts from around the world which are displayed in his house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, well worth a visit. We then moved onto the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. Seeing so many famous works reaffirmed the importance of seeing works of art “in the flesh”. After lunch we went to the British museum via the Contemporary Ceramics gallery both inspiring in their own ways.

We have returned to Yorkshire with heads spinning full of ideas and hundreds of photos to process. The results of the students’ work will be exhibited for all to see at the annual Summer Art exhibition in June, we hope to see you there!