Internationally renowned artist visits South Devon College

Internationally renowned artist Rachel James, whose recent clients include Harrods, BP and the National Library, recently visited South Devon to present a unique workshop for a whole week to lucky Art and Design students at South Devon College. This was made possible thanks to the College’s own charitable trust known as the ‘Friends of South Devon College’ securing funding from the Ernest Cook Trust who generously agreed to award a grant for this exciting project.

The project takes the form of a week long workshop exploring and creating art through inflatable sculptures with Rachel James herself. Rachel's interests lie in working with a combination of materials to explore ideas of movement, balance and texture.

Following a presentation of Rachel’s work, artistic profile and an introduction to a range of technical and contextual possibilities, the students this week have been busy designing and constructing their own sculptures under the theme of ‘Continuity’. 60 students have worked with the international artist all week using the unusual material of plastic and unfamiliar tools and techniques to create inflatable art. The project theme of Continuity will inspire the students to collaborate towards creating an exhibition which will navigate the viewer on a journey through the exhibition space. The aim will be to link each groups’ sculpture to the next, so the work flows from one into the other forming a continuous sculpture.

The physical outcome of the project will be high impact with 20 ‘floating’ sculptures being created over the week, but linked together to create a single form. The students’ work will be exhibited in the Street at South Devon College during Freshers’ week and beyond for others to benefit from and be inspired by this unusual art. Students will also benefit longer term from some of the tools and materials that are needed to be purchased to deliver this project.

Helen Honnor, New Developments Manager at South Devon College, said:

“The College is committed to providing inspirational teaching and learning opportunities and supporting students to achieve outstanding results. As a college of further education, we receive government funding strictly tied to the delivery of taught courses. This funding can only be used for the purposes laid down by the Learning and Skills Council.

For this reason, a committee of College supporters established a charitable trust known as the ‘Friends of South Devon College’ to actively fundraise and seek donations in order to create new experiences and additional facilities for the local community, many of whom come from extremely disadvantaged backgrounds.

The Friends of South Devon College were asked to try to find funding for an inspirational learning experience to develop the skills, knowledge and aspirations of the new Foundation Art and Design students our as they commence their studies at South Devon College in September 2009. We were delighted when The Ernest Cook Trust generously agreed to award a grant for this exciting project.”

Past experience has shown that students respond extremely well to such an interesting and practical module at the beginning of their studies. It sets a high standard of expectation and helps students to visualize potential achievement from the outset. The Foundation for Art and Design course has previously achieved a 100% progression rate to top prestigious destinations, such as Central St. Martins, London Arts Institute, London College of Fashion, and so on as well as our internal foundation degrees in Visual Studies, Integrated Craft and Interior Design.

The College is now seeking further venues which may be interested in housing the exhibition for wider exposure.

If you are interested in housing the exhibition please contact Helen Honnor on 01803 540 622. For more information on Art and Design courses at South Devon College call free on 08000 380123 or visit www.southdevon.ac.uk.

For more information visit http://www.southdevon.ac.uk/