News

Over the past month, fine arts has been collecting food donations for Camden Foodbank. They provide three days’ nutritionally balanced emergency food and support to local people who are referred to us in crisis. Our collection table was so overflowing with donations from staff and students, that one load has already been taken to the foodbank, delivered by our Lower School students. It is touching to see how many students have supported the community and those in need with their donations.

Fine Arts staff and students baked and cooked to produce a banquet of dishes for the college lunch sale on Monday. This was to raise money for The Oxford Hospitals Charity & the Hertfordshire Breast Unit Appeal, a charity close to home for a member of our staff. They have supported a friend and family member of one of our staff, and this was a wonderful way to give back to the charity. Our lunch sale managed to raise a total of £415.05!

On Friday 29th March, Fine Arts College took part in Wear a Hat Day and raised money via Just Giving page for Brain Tumour Research. The day was great fun, with many students and staff taking part, and more importantly we have raised a staggering total of £2,476.56. The fundraising was so successful that our JustGiving page was one of the most successful of March. Out of 40266 fundraisers, we were in the top 3%! We are so proud to support such a worthy charity.

On Thursday the 21st of March, my class and I visited the Martin Parr ‘Only Human’ exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Parr is best known for his anthropological, satirical and intimate look at British life. I particularly enjoyed how accessible, fresh and un-pretentious the exhibition was. My favourite room was the pink ‘celebrity’ room, and I loved the Little Britain portrait of David Walliams and Matt Lucas. Overall, this was by far the best exhibition I have ever visited and truly had a great time, I believe anyone could find something they like in this exhibition. Martin Parr has once again done wonders and truly outdone himself. I’m looking forward to exploring more of his work in the future.

Sol Urban, Year 11.

The lower and upper sixth politics students went on a 2 day trip to Edinburgh, the UK’s other great capital. The students visited Scottish Parliament, the National Museum of Scotland, and key sites of the Scottish Enlightenment, the cradle of modern political thought. The trip allowed the students to better understand the devolution settlement and the importance of regionalism in British politics, as well as reflect on nation, nationalism, and the present and future of the United Kingdom.

We are proud to announce that artist and Fine Arts College art tutor Suzanne Holtom is hosting her new art exhibition at the college gallery.

The exhibition is a collection of new paintings and drawings, entitled ‘fortune and folly‘.

“A painting is a sensory time capsule, a visual and tactile container of the past. Times are uncertain, old antagonisms are resurfacing and a painting can condense all this fortune and folly, desire and resentment in a new imaginative space.”

The exhibition runs from 7th February until 5th April, Saturdays 11am-4pm and Wednesday afternoons from 1pm-4pm, or by appointment.

25% of all sales go to charity.

Fine Arts have been collecting for the homeless charity ‘Crisis’ through a JustGiving page and a collection box. Crisis is the national charity for homeless people. They help people directly out of homelessness, and campaign for the changes needed to solve it altogether.

Due to the amazing generosity of parents and staff, the campaign was incredibly successfully and we raised over £2000 to date. Our JustGiving page was one of the most successful of December. Out of 25472 fundraisers, we were in the top 3%!

Christmas truly came to Fine Arts yesterday with our annual Evening of Music and Drama.

The evening kicked off with awards for the Lower School Self-Portrait Competition, and the Vienna Photography Competition. This was followed by a variety of music and drama performances from students of all years. Each year we are blown away by the standard of talent, and it was agreed that this year was one of the most impressive.

Students collaborated to perform a cornucopia of music and drama pieces. Our musically talented students included an enchanting cellist, pianists, singers, and an entire jazz ensemble. Many students performed their own musical compositions. There were some moving and raw drama pieces with incredibly mature deliveries, and light relief was found in a fabulous comedic excerpt from Jim Cartwright’s play ‘Two’.

The evening ended with candlelit Christmas carols in the courtyard, accompanied by a brass band and plenty of mince pies.

It was the perfect way to welcome the Christmas break.

This year’s trip to Vienna included photography students as well as Fine Artists and there was a competition held for the best photographs.

We had the incredible honour of having the entries judged by award winning photographer Michael Birt, one of the UK’s leading portrait photographers, whose work is exhibited widely and held in several major collections.

He has chosen the following three winning photographs which were announced at our annual Evening of Music and Drama. Congratulations to the winners!

1st Place: 

2nd Place: 

3rd Place: