When planning your Arts Award programme many centres want to incorporate exhibitions but are unsure of how they can be embedded or evidenced. In this blog we are going to look at how you can use exhibitions to showcase young people’s work, as the focus of a leadership project, or as an arts event for young people to review and research.
For both Discover Part C and Explore Part D, young people must share what they have enjoyed and learnt with others. A great way to do this is to create an exhibition of their work and invite people along to see it. This could be part of an open day, a parents evening, or an end of project celebration day.
In this example of Discover in a Day from Maidstone Museum each child created a mini exhibition of their artwork at their tables. Each of them presented what they had created, what inspired them, and what they’d change or do next to the rest of the group, for their Part C.
This approach would also work for Explore Part D: young people could create an exhibition that shows the work they have done throughout their Arts Award. This could be pictures of them participating, the artwork they have created for Part C, and what they have enjoyed or achieved. This exhibition could take many forms, for example you could create a museum in your classroom.
Take pictures of the exhibition to include in the children’s logbooks or record them doing their presentation. Remember you need to evidence what was shared as well as how it was shared.
For Gold Unit 2 and Silver Unit 2 creating an exhibition of artwork can be great leadership project for young people. For an example take a look at the art exhibition this young person created for their Gold Unit 2 project. Or in this example of Silver Arts Award from Hampton School an end of year exhibition is used to display students work so that they can share and celebrate what they have done with fellow students, staff, and parents.
If your young people are creating an exhibition for their Silver or Gold leadership projects this can be a virtual exhibition, for some advice on how to create a virtual exhibition take a look at these online platforms to showcase student art. You could also take a look at the tips UCA gave on delivering their Arts Award programme online.
It is important to remember that as well as the ‘end product’ of an exhibition, your young people must also evidence all of the work, planning, and reflection they did along the way in order to achieve Unit 2. Always refer to the evidence requirements set out in the adviser toolkit.
Perhaps the trickiest area to incorporate an exhibition, and where young people can sometimes go wrong, is Bronze Part D. For this part young people must pass on an arts skill to others through leading a short workshop or presentation that includes an explanation of their arts skill. Simply exhibiting their artwork would not meet the criteria for this part, however an exhibition that included a presentation or a workshop element would work. Young people would need to evidence this interactive element of the exhibition as well as any pictures of the exhibition itself.
Remember to also evidence of planning, and why they have chosen this activity, along with their reflection on how their skills share went.
Another key way exhibitions can be incorporated into your Arts Award programme is through writing a review of an exhibition for either Bronze Part B, Silver Unit 1 Part C, or Gold Unit 1 Part C. For an example of what this could look like, why not read this fantastic review of a David Hockney exhibition written by a young person completing their Silver award. Or this great example of a wildlife photography exhibition review by a young person completing Bronze Part B.
Don’t forget that you do not have to visit exhibitions in person, virtual exhibitions are also acceptable for Arts Award, and there are now more virtual exhibitions to view than ever. Google Arts and Culture is a great place to start or, if seeing the work of other young artists might inspire your own, take a look at the Royal Academy Young Artists summer show.
Pictures from the exhibition, or screenshots if it was a virtual exhibition, can be included alongside the reviews.
For guidance on planning and delivering Arts Award in your setting contact the Sector Support Team on ArtsAward.Enquiries@trinitycollege.co.uk
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