College News

Bowes Museum showcases QE artwork

Earlier this year, first year Fine Art students from Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College (QE), Darlington, participated in an exciting online workshop with The Bowes Museum and now their work forms part of an interactive virtual exhibition. The students took part in two sessions and their artwork was transformed into two images by artist, Melanie Kyles, which are now on display on the Museum’s website and social media platforms in an exhibition entitled ‘Who do you worship?’. The workshops were in response to Dieric Bouts the Elder’s painting ‘St Luke Drawing the Virgin and Child’ which returned to the Museum last autumn. Also featured in the virtual tour are pieces by former Art Foundation students, Elizabeth Jatwa and Chloe Myers. Elizabeth uses acrylic paint in ‘Where I felt clean’ whilst Chloe opts for a mixed media collage in ‘Lullabies for Tired Eyes’.

Student, Caitlin Fearns, comments: ‘The project with The Bowes Museum really added some excitement to lockdown. Working with different people opened up new ways of looking at art and I’ve taken a lot from the workshops which I can use within my work in future’. Amy Foster adds: ‘I think it was amazing that even during a lockdown we managed to work as a group to produce a class piece which is now on display in The Bowes Museum. With the help of the internet and the opportunity from the Museum, we were able to come together to make a lovely interpretation of Dieric Bouts the Elder’s painting’. Dr. Carol Sommer, teacher of Fine Art at QE, concludes: ‘The Bouts project gave students a wonderful opportunity to work from home with co-ordinator Jess White from The Bowes Museum and artist, Melanie Kyles. Melanie’s curation of the students’ designs into two fantastic images allowed students to be involved in collaborative working and we hope that we are able to see the exhibition in person as it is on display until June’.

To view the virtual exhibition on display at The Bowes Museum, please visit: https://www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk/Learn/Young-People/Young-Curators#.