Young Curators

We'll be working with a wider range of parnters in Rother and Hastings:
Bexhill College, Hastings College
Bexhill High School, St Richards Catholic College, Claverham Community College, Robertsbridge Community College, Thomas Peacocke Community College

Young people will once again be given control over the whole process of devising and staging their own exhbitiion, which will be presented at the Pavilion in Spring 2009.

During May 2007 the De La Warr Pavilion dedicated its galleries to exhibitions exploring the creativity, learning and achievement of young people.

In Gallery 1 we presented the culmination of our innovative pilot project - the Young Curators Programme.

Summary:

What is a Curator, and what actually goes into mounting an exhibition? This was the question explored by a group of 16 students from Bexhill, who worked with DLWP staff over a three month period. The group learnt how to curate and present their own show – from initial discussions on themes and concepts to the design of the publicity and the actual hanging of the selected works.

The result was Conflict, an exhibition of current work and new ideas by GCSE and A level art students from Bexhill, curated, installed and promoted by the Young Curators. Using their newly-acquired skills, they selected work that ranged from the conflict of ideologies and creative ideas to personal conflicts within identity, relationships, dreams and emotions. They also pursued the idea of how conflict can exist in art itself, considering the juxtaposition of images and how different qualities of colour, texture, shape and light can affect a work of art or how it is presented.

The exhibition ran from 5 May – 3 June 2007, in the Pavilion‘s main gallery space. The Young Curators provided free exhibition tours on Saturday‘s and also spent time in the gallery talking to members of the public.

The Young Curators Programme represented a serious commitment from both the Pavilion and the students themselves to put on a major exhibition in a nationally-acclaimed gallery. As such, DLWP treated them as they would professional curators, whilst at the same time guiding and supporting the process to ensure that they develop their existing skills, develop new interests and put on a high quality show at the end, that all were proud of.

The Young Curators:

Chelia Batkin, Talia Bingham, Chloe Chandler, Hannah Field, Francesca Halligan, Rebecca Hone, Isaac Howie-Brewerton Hannah Kynoch, Rob Lovis, Finola Maynard, Gemma Maynard, Sinead O'Brien, Alisha Patel, Amy Rademaker, Arianna Schuler-Scot, Tomasz Szulinski.

Partner Schools:

Bexhill High School

St Richards Catholic College

Bexhill College

Many thanks to:

Jodie Symons (Head of Art, Bexhill High)

Chris Halligan (Head of Art, St Richards)

Emma Rawson (Head of Art, Bexhill College)

Sharon Haward (Course Leader)

“For me, a curator was somebody who installed artworks in a gallery space. But now I‘ve experienced this and met all the people involved I can see that curating is a lot more complex. The Young Curators scheme to me has been another experience on the road ahead. It has been an un-missable experience. I have learnt vital skills that will help me in my future career and in later life.”

“Young Curators has been a fantastic experience. My phobia of speaking in public has disappeared and I feel confident talking to people. I have developed a wider understanding of curatorship and what it means to work in a proper organisation. I wasn‘t sure what to expect, but I now know it involves a lot of hard work – I didn‘t realise so much went into it. I will not forget it!”

“My school friends and I took part in the Young Curators programme, and we have really enjoyed it. It has been amazing to become a young curator for a professional exhibition, especially in so well known a place like the De La Warr Pavilion!

I really can‘t forget the session where we explored different contemporary galleries! It was so weird for me to see what the modern artists were creating and performing though their art. I think it is very good to have access to real modern art in Bexhill-on-Sea.”

Since reopening in October 2005, the Pavilion has made young people one of its priority audiences and has worked hard to establish new and positive relationships with young people in Bexhill and across the region. Through our Education and Outreach programme we have been developing innovative and high quality activities and projects, both with and outside of schools, to confirm the Pavilion as a place where young people can realise their creative potential and engage with the best contemporary art – as audience, commentator and participant.

A key aspect of the Education programme is the concept of ownership and giving young people responsibility and control over their creative decision making, and this is at the core of the Young Curators Programme.

The Pavilion is also committed to developing participation in the creative and cultural industries in the region, and raising young people‘s aspirations and knowledge of what opportunities might be available to them.

During our first 18 months a huge variety of activity took place, and we wanted to acknowledge and celebrate the creativity of young people, whilst making a strong statement about the value we place on this aspect of our programme and our commitment to taking it forward. We also hoped that the exhibition would bring new audiences into the building, engaging with the local community and supporting our broader audience development plans.

· To explore with participants the different aspects of the role of the Curator

· To understand the different roles within the gallery that contribute to mounting an exhibition

· To enable participants to take the lead in developing and mounting an exhibition.

· To develop stronger relationships between the DLWP and schools, teachers, students and parents.

Organisational involvement - The Young Curators Programme was an organisation-wide endeavour that involved nearly every department, led by a partnership between the Education and Exhibitions teams, working with artist Sharon Haward.

Valuing the work - As a major regional venue, the organisation made a commitment to hold the exhibition in our main gallery space rather than in a separate ‘education space‘, as is often the case with similar projects.

Ownership and responsibility – as mentioned above, it was central that the young curators felt ownership over the process and outcomes of the programme, and valued it as something they were responsible for and could take pride in.

Professionalism – throughout the programme the young people were treated in a wholly professional way, both in terms of the process they went through to develop their exhibition and in terms of the production values for the final show.

Questioning and reflection – at every point the Young Curators were encouraged to question and reflect on what they were learning, and to understand for themselves the more subjective elements of curating.