Young Arts Scheme
In past years, HEDFAS has provided grants to the three secondary schools in Harpenden and to St Luke’s in Redbourn. The grants have been used to buy specific items of equipment that would serve a number of future years of students and allow for greater breadth in the teaching of art.
For the academic year 2009 to 2010, the Committee felt that it would like to support specific projects in three of the secondary schools in the town – Sir John Lawes, Roundwood Park and St George’s. The aim would be to enable them to do something that they would not normally be able to do but could undertake given HEDFAS support.
With our encouragement, the heads of art in each school responded positively and all decided to have visiting artists working with their students. The artists would be both demonstrating their expertise and working with students to enable them to develop their own skills. Sir John Lawes and Roundwood Park opted for life drawing classes and involved a specialist artist with this experience. St George’s felt that a three dimensional modeling artist would provide the type of expertise they required.
produced during their days with the visiting artist
All three schools are delighted that they have expanded the range of work their students can do and that there is a greater understanding of the specific techniques involved. The experience gained by students will stand them in good stead whether they go on to study art at higher level or use it as an element of their wider life skills.
St Luke’s works particularly with students having special educational needs. This year, they opted to buy basic silk screening equipment, which they felt would give opportunities for practical work having artistic value. They were also keen to expand the work their students could do in photography and have put the balance of their HEDFAS money to purchase a digital camera.
The committee is sure that the money awarded to all of these schools has again been put to excellent use and that the current students and their successors will gain substantially from the support we have been able to give to the truly inspirational teaching that we have seen during our visits.
