With the year coming to an end, Bow Arts is celebrating some of our most memorable projects across more than 70 schools in 2023-24.
From murals and puppets to animation and fashion design, we continue to be inspired by the possibilities nurtured by our dedicated team of Bow Arts artist educators and appreciate the hard work of our Learning team behind the scenes.
It has been a year full of creative, inspiring and collaborative projects that have brought students, teachers and artist educators together, in schools across London. For more insight into Bow Arts’ programmes, projects, and areas of activity read our full report at the bottom of this page.
We hope you enjoy these key highlights from our busy and exciting year…
Topic-based workshops at Osmani Primary School
- 98% of students enjoyed the project
- 93% of students learned something new
Throughout the academic year, we worked with Osmani Primary to provide full day artist-led workshops for all classes from Year 1 to 6.
Our artists developed accessible and engaging workshops in response to class-topics across the curriculum, including history and science – and successfully encouraged children to experiment with new materials, develop useful hands-on skills, and reinforce their knowledge through creative expression.
Taking inspiration from the World War II ‘Make Do and Mend’ campaign, prompting people to re-use and adapt old clothing to save resources, artist Heather Keller led interactive sessions for children to create their own finger puppets with scrap fabric and materials. Pupils learnt about the importance of sustainability, and gained practical design experience – from sketching, to planning and sewing.
‘I enjoyed this project because I loved making puppets and characters’
Pupil
After-school club at Sarah Bonnell School
Groups of Year 10 and Year 11 spent eight weeks learning about career pathways in the fashion industry with professional designer and artist educator Hernán Guardamagna.
- 100% of students enjoyed the project
- 100% of students learnt something new
- 85% of students have a better understanding of creative pathways and skills needed for the creative industries
As an introduction to fashion and textiles, Hernan guided the students through a range of skills and processes including working to a brief, dyeing fabrics, hand sewing and machine sewing. All students got the opportunity to plan and create their own unique textile product.
‘This project helped me do something I wouldn’t do in a lesson’ Student
Supported by Bow Arts’ Access to Creative Careers programme, this project aimed to support young people to understand the different paths a creative career can take, and steps they can take for a future in the industry, if they wish to pursue it.
‘Students were able to use what they made as part of their GCSE projects. It has given them more confidence on the sewing machines and they were keen to come to after school sessions to work on their pieces some more even after the sessions with the artist had ended.’
Class Teacher
Mural at William Davies Primary School
For their bespoke project as part of the Sarah Bonnell Consortium, William Davies Primary welcomed Will Redgrove to work with classes of Year 2 and 3 children to design a colourful mural for their playground, inspired by school’s core values.
Over a few free-flow sessions, pupils experimented with creative ways to represent these values visually. Now painted, the mural has transformed the playground into an enhanced & values-driven outdoor space for the entire school community to enjoy.
‘I just had a lovely experience with the Year 3 and Year 4s of William Davies Primary School who all joined me on the wall and helped me paint. Having worked with them in several workshops prior, I felt confident that we had enough of a rapport. The students had such a great time and left feeling that they had been a part of something huge – figuratively and literally! It is great to see them take such care in a collaborative piece of art and they all go away feeling that the work is their own.’
Will Redgrove, Artist Educator
Celebration for Barking & Dagenham Consortium
Students from four schools in Barking & Dagenham all had the opportunity to view & celebrate the art work they created throughout the year – including outdoor wire sculptures, photography and recycled shoe designs – in a week long exhibition in their local area.
Each school had the chance to participate in participatory workshops, exploring creative skill building through animation, drawing and collage.
Southwood Primary and Beam County Primary achieved dynamic stop-motion animations with artist Reza Ben Gajra, in an astonishing two hours! The session prompted pupils to experiment with drawing, motion & storytelling. Reza had worked with some of the students earlier in the year.
Trinity School enjoyed a session of collective-making, drawing and collage with artist Liane Harris, on the theme of abstract identity building. Liane tailored the workshop to students’ learning and physical needs, ensuring inclusivity and engagement for all participants.
The children produced lovely abstract drawings as a warm-up, followed by designing their own bugs to decorate the flower they built together.
‘[I learnt that] your imagination can do anything it want’
Pupil
Lewisham Celebration at Lewisham Arthouse
To mark the 5th year of the Lewisham Consortium, artist Tom Berry curated a celebration exhibition at the Lewisham Arthouse in Deptford.
The showcase featured a year’s worth of incredible work, giving an insight into the artistic achievement & learning both of students and teachers in the four consortium schools.
Featured artworks included teacher works from CPD sessions on various topics including how to make links between art techniques such as print making and the rest of the curriculum. Young people also got to see their artwork produced in a shared Arts Award programme earlier in the year.
‘[Through the CPD] Teachers learnt three different printmaking techniques – most were unfamiliar with them and everyone learnt something new.’
Artist Educator
As part of the celebration, we also hosted two further workshops – a clay sculpting session with artist Lily German, and a drawing & portrait-making collage workshop with photographer Liane Harris.
- 100% of students enjoyed the project
- 84% of students learnt something new
‘Best part was doing fun sculptures and exploring different kinds of art projects’
Student
What’s next?
As we celebrate this year’s successes, we look forward to continuing working hard to bring inspiring creative learning to children and young people across London.
Coming up, we are looking forward to…
- Our first Educators’ Conference for Artists and Teachers in February 2025
- Updates on our Teacher Residency at Shaftesbury Avenue
Read our 2023-24 Impact Report below
For more a comprehensive overview of programme highlights and impact, you can find the full 2023-2024 Learning Impact report below.