dot-art Schools at the Walker Art Gallery


The dot-art Schools programme began in 2012 with a pilot project which saw 19 schools take part. Since then, the programme has more than doubled in size and has allowed 150 students to have their work displayed in the prestigious Walker Art Gallery. Each school was asked to submit up to 25 works of art from their year 6 or year 9 classes by Christmas 2013. There was no brief set, so it was interesting to see the various themes that emerged. A few schools took different approaches to portraiture, looking at different ways of representing themselves and portraying their personality. There is also some some excellent still life work, looking at composition, line and form. A number of students responded to a visit to a gallery or a trip somewhere as seen in the image below by Thomas Goggin who had previously visited the Walker and had been inspired by 'The Ruins of Holyrood Chapel' by Louis Jacques-Mandé Daguerre.

The winners of the competition were as follows:



I would like to congratulate everyone who took part in the competition, I had a very difficult time choosing the winners. This competition inspires students to think about art and design as a career option, and it's great to see such a variety of art and design in schools using adventurous materials. This is a brilliant opportunity for students to exhibit in the Walker Art Gallery so early in their career.
The standard was very high and I really enjoyed looking at so much diverse art work. Congratulations to all the staff and their students.
A big well done to everyone involved in this competition. One day we will come to our senses and realise you can be a great scientist and a great artist, or a great chemist as well as a great writer (see Primo Levi). Art in schools empowers our young people and is the one subject where not only do the kids have all the right answers but they come up a whole load of new questions.
