Did you know (rather worryingly) less and less people, students, children and families are visiting museums and galleries? I know! It’s an awful prospect… But it’s true (there are plenty of articles online about it, such as this one https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2017/feb/02/drop-uk-museum-attendance). This is part of the reason as to why we feel it’s so important to take our students on trips to visit these wonderful (and more often than not FREE) places, to truly appreciate what is right on our collective doorsteps.

Yesterday, the Year 12 & 13 cohort of A-level Art students were taken to Liverpool to encounter the work situated in two fantastic galleries, the Walker, and Tate Liverpool. It really is wonderful to see the students engage with work face to face, and underpins our choice to facilitate these trips; you have to see the work to truly appreciate it.

Part of the reason why I personally believe our galleries and museums are attracting fewer people, is because everything now is simply a click away on a computer or smart phone. Who needs to go see an exhibition of Mucha’s work (for example), when you can see it all in the comfort of your living room? With Corrie on in the background to boot. It’s the easy option, in some cases the sensible or even the only option, but there’s nothing quite like seeing the work in the flesh to bring it home. To see the details within the work, the way the paint has been applied, or the visible fingerprints within the sculptures on display, you can’t get that from a computer screen. One of my favourite reactions from students, that regularly happens, is the look of confusion/surprise at seeing a piece they may have seen many times before on the computer, or in a book, and they realise the size of it in person. See, there’s nothing quite like getting out there and having a look.

The students were great, it was a long trip there, a bit longer back, but to see them taking the time to look, and appreciate the art work on display was truly wonderful. They have seen things that they would never have thought to look at before, that will inspire their work, and inform their choices for the projects ahead, and in some cases, it may even be the first time that they have actually stepped foot in to a gallery.

We are incredibly fortunate to have been able to take our students on this trip, and the impact it will have had on them and their work will be evident, hopefully it will have inspired them to get out and visit some other places a bit closer to home such as the Hepworth, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, or even the Millennium galleries in town.