Schools celebrate South Downs built heritage
March 30, 2015
Our Place: Annual Schools Exhibition 2015
The South East’s most popular annual exhibition of art work created by schoolchildren has now opened at Towner, Eastborne. For the first time the exhibition has expanded its reach with artwork also on display at the Flora Twort Gallery, Petersfield, and Worthing Museum and Art Gallery.
Working in partnership with the South Downs National Park, the three galleries have been working with schools across Hampshire, West and East Sussex in a project that draws on the rich resources of the National Park and local museums and galleries.
This year’s theme for the exhibition is Our Place: Celebrating the built heritage of the South Downs and invited students to look at the built heritage of the South Downs – whether ancient or modern, domestic or industrial, places of worship or commemoration.
Works chosen from the collections at the galleries were used to show how different artists have chosen to represent places that have meaning or interest for them.
The exhibition takes the form of small scale buildings made by pupils, whose schools were each issued with a 1m2 ‘plot of land’.
A
manda Elmes, who leads on learning and outreach for the South Downs National Park Authority, said:
“The rolling chalk hills of the South Downs have been lived on and shaped by people from more than 500,000 years. We can trace this history through iron-age forts, Roman palaces, Saxon churches, medieval villages, Norman castles, Elizabethan manors, Georgian mansions, Victorian houses, 20th century war defenses and all the way to modern architecture. It’s exciting to be working with Towner, Worthing Museum and the Flora Twort Gallery to share this story with students from across Sussex and Hampshire.”
Clare Halstead, Head of Learning at Towner, said:
“This year’s Annual Schools Exhibition project is set to be one of the most exciting yet through our partnership with South Downs National Park Authority, Worthing Museum and the Flora Twort Gallery. We are lucky in the South East to have the South Downs on our doorstep, and what better way for school children to explore this rich natural heritage through arts and culture?”
Exhibition dates:
Towner Gallery: Friday 27 March – Sunday 31 May
Flora Twort Gallery: Tuesday 24 March – Sunday 19 April
Worthing Museum and Art Gallery: Saturday 23 May – Saturday 19 September