Imaginative and stimulating art in "Planet Future" Exhibition

The theme of the annual art exhibition for sixth form colleges is "Planet Future"

This is the national art exhibition for sixth form college students. It contains a lot of very thoughtful imaginative and creative art from students at various sixth form colleges in the UK.

I was impressed by the diversity of media used, topics tackled and different approaches used to portraying messages about sustainability and the current and future risks to planet earth.

"The sustainability agenda has never been more important and the exhibition highlights students' hopes and fears about the future, while also showcasing their enormous creativity and innovation,"
Alex Burghart, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education - who launched the exhibition.

As I began to look at the art it struck me that there's a bit of a gulf beginning to open up between art created by younger people - who are focused on things which matter a lot to them - and artwork by much older people in other exhibitions where the artwork seems to be more traditional and very often demonstrates little interest in topical issues.

 

My favourites included the following. 

• Click the links in the title to see a much larger image online. 
• I've also included links to the students where I could find them online.

Hope for the future by Ruby Currie (Woodhouse College) 

I particularly liked the use of the textile art and its use of various messages addressing many different aspects of contemporary life and issues of concern and the designs she used to catch attention. 

Young Artists Summer Show at the Royal Academy of Arts

Did you know that the Royal Academy of Arts has a Summer Show for young people?

No? Neither did I! 

Find out more about the show below and on the RA website https://youngartists.royalacademy.org.uk/

What's the purpose of the Young Artists' Summer Show?

Taking inspiration from the annual Summer Exhibition, the Young Artists’ Summer Show is an opportunity for young artists aged 5 - 19 years to exhibit their work online and on-site at the Royal Academy.

The project is generously supported by Robin Hambro, a passionate advocate for the importance of access to art, and the benefits of encouraging the arts, for children and young people.

Are there any prizes?

There are prizes each year (Take a look at the 2020 prize winning artworks)

• for two inspiring artworks 
• from each key stage

Award winners are chosen by the President of the Royal Academy.

The public can also vote for their favourite artwork in our annual People’s Choice Award. 

some of the artwork in the RA Young Artists Summer Show 2020

How to enter

Who can enter?

• children and young people aged 5 - 19 studying in the UK and British schools overseas.
• collaborative artwork entries are welcome - and and there is no limit to the number of students involved.

What can I enter?

• Each student can submit up to three artworks of any type e.g. a painting, sculpture, photograph, installation or video piece. 
• Your artwork can be made of any materials. 
• There is no theme so artworks can be of any subject.

What does it cost to enter?

• The competition is completely free.

How do I enter?

The entry process works as follows:

• entry is online - you cannot submit artwork by post.
• a teacher first needs to register your school
• once that is done, artwork can be submitted 
• by a teacher or parent/guardian if you are under 12
• by the student if you are aged 13 or over

What do I need to submit?

You need to upload images of your artwork - with some text.

Images need to be 

• files are 5MB or less
• one of the following formats: JPG, PNG, GIF.
• If you want to submit a file that is not a JPG, PNG or GIF, you can use a file converter website to change your file so it will upload.

You need to describe your artwork as follows:

• title of the artwork
• a description of what the work is about and why you made it

How selection works

Each artwork will be seen by a panel of judges - made up of panel of artists and art professionals. 

Everyone who submits artworks will hear from the RA by the end of May.

There are two sets of judges

• one for artworks made by primary students and 
• one for artworks made by secondary school students. 

When the judges make their selections, they choose where the artwork will be seen i.e.

• which artworks will be shown online and 
• which will be shown at the Royal Academy.