This summer term, over 200 Year 7 students from Bexhill Academy have created individual textile collages exploring the theme “My Community.”
The De La Warr Pavilion’s Learning & Engagement team led in-school workshops with each of the Year 7 art classes, where they reflected on what community means to them. From people and places to memories, traditions, and shared values.
Each collage is created on wood and made using a mix of recycled materials, fabric, felt, and oil pastel. The workshops were inspired by De La Warr Pavilion’s summer exhibitions:
· Stitch for Change: Community is a Superpower – celebrating collective creativity through artworks made with local people
· Allan Weber: My Order – reflecting on life, identity, and resistance in favela communities in Brazil
· Claudia Alarcón & Silat: Tayhin – honouring cultural memory, ancestry, and care through ritual and textile
Together, the students’ collages form a vibrant portrait of how they see and shape their communities today.
This exhibition is part of our ongoing partnership with Bexhill Academy to embed creativity and youth voice at the heart of our local community.