After a marketing consultant’s visit to the first public exhibition in the school, in 2013, he suggested that the image of the school would benefit from a greater awareness of the depth of thinking behind the work. In particular, showing that pupils were aware of social and global issues that were expressed in much of the work that year. This included a very moving piece by a Ukrainian student in response to events in her home country.
In response to this, a marketing director, who joined the school from Valencia’s Institute for Contemporary Art, became involved in increasing the profile of the Summer Exhibition of exam work and I was also asked to arrange a Spring Exhibition to include every pupil from Key Stage 3 (KS3). As this involved over 300 pupils we focused on producing a catalogue to feature the 100 pupils in Year 9. The work last year, shown in the exhibition catalogue (see link below), featured the architecture project included in last year’s Secondary Art Conference.
The catalogue is available as a free PDF download and glossy hard copies are also available to purchase, as well as being displayed for prospective parents visiting the school.
The quality of the large, professionally produced posters and catalogues has done much to inspire pupils when they see their work promoted to the same standard as galleries like Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM) and are aware that their work will be viewed by visiting artists such as Yturralde or gallery directors such as the Tate Modern’s Vincent Todoli.
The following link shows the GCSE and A level exhibition catalogue that was created to promote pupil work in Caxton College, Valencia, and the KS3 catalogue including work by every child in Year 9:
www.caxtoncollege.com/es/catalogos-de-arte.
Work from the exhibition has also been used as the cover design for the school diaries.
Liz Edwards, Art Department Coordinator
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