Specialist Schools – The alTURNERtive prize

One Specialist Arts College has its own gallery and now programmes a number of challenging exhibitions. Henry Ward explains.
Central to the delivery of the specialist visual arts status at Welling School is the management of an on-site gallery space, The Berwick Road Gallery. It is run by a team of artist/teachers, the Arts College Director, the Arts Development Officer and students. The gallery itself is branded separately to the whole school and run as closely as possible to a professional gallery.

The programme for the current academic year includes an Arts Council Touring Exhibition of The Disparates (a suite of etchings by Goya), cross-curricular exhibitions, work from partner and local primary schools, and visiting artists work. The exhibitions have a programme of activity attached to them that includes guest speakers, continuing professional development for schools across the borough, resident artists who work with our partner and feeder schools, and the development of our own touring exhibition. The most prestigious event that the gallery holds is The alTURNERtive Prize. The award celebrates the schools unique approach to teaching contemporary arts practice. Work from students in Years 1113 is short-listed and the resulting exhibition is held in the gallery.

The success of the prize has grown over the four years that it has been running and we are proud that it has caught the imagination of acclaimed figures within the arts world. In 2004, the visiting Educational Curator from Tate Modern described it as the best example of contemporary practice (she) had ever seen in a school. This year has seen our most successful prize to date. The students work was of outstanding quality and showed a level of understanding and maturity that surpassed their years. Art critic and writer Michael Archer, who was a 2002 Turner Prize judge, became a part of the judging panel, which also included artist/teacher Darren OConnor, Nicky Field, who was the winner of the award in 2003, and myself. The private view took place the following week and was attended by more than 150 guests. Internationally renowned sculptor Richard Wentworth awarded the prize to the winning student and spoke about the quality of the work in the exhibition, remarking that the breadth of work demonstrated an exceptional maturity in the students.

Our aim is for The Berwick Road Gallery to become an integral part of the fabric of our schools life. We are based in a borough that does not have a professional gallery space, or a large artists community, and the advantage of running such a space lies in giving the local community an incentive to use the school as a resource. There is little doubt that the environment in which we learn can do much to stimulate and excite the learner, and we see the gallery as being the catalyst for change  our ultimate aim being to transform the school into a museum of cultural stimulation, where every space engages and inspires.

Having a gallery on site allows us to promote an understanding of how such spaces work in practice. We are able to give our students the opportunity to try their hand at every aspect of running and operating a contemporary gallery: from curating exhibitions, to promoting them, handling and installing artwork, to organising an exhibition programme and private views.

By encouraging students to consider the way in which art is seen, the way in which context can transform or strengthen a meaning, they are developing an acute understanding and appreciation of contemporary art practice.

Henry Ward is Arts College Director at Welling School.
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