For more than a decade, the Fitzwilliam Museum and Kettle’s Yard have worked in partnership to run an annual project with North Cambridge Academy (NCA), to support Year 8 students in achieving a Bronze Arts Award.
This year all 12 NCA students have passed with flying colours. They took inspiration from the bright and joyful works of Frank Bowling at the Fitzwilliam Museum, and explored artist Harold Offeh’s playful work at Kettle’s Yard, as well as creating a video for the Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today exhibition.
Why Arts Award?
An Arts Award is a unique nationally recognised qualification that supports young people to grow as artists and art leaders. It inspires them to connect with and take part in the wider arts world through tackling art-based challenges.
There are four parts to the Bronze Arts Award. To pass, all students must take part in an art activity, share a skill they have learnt, demonstrate how they are inspired by an artwork or artist and review an exhibition.
This project aimed to improve selected students’ cultural capital and their confidence in taking on new challenges, to encourage them to feel at home in our collections, and to improve their soft skills such as working with their peers.
What did the Arts Ambassadors create?
This year, the Arts Ambassadors began their Arts Award at Kettle’s Yard to complete Part A; Explore the arts as a participant, and Part B; Explore the arts as an audience member.
They spent time in the Kettle’s Yard house, looking at flower paintings by artists Christopher Wood and Winifred Nicholson. An artist-led workshop was run by local artist Amy Wormald, inviting the students to loosen up, and get big and bold with their painted flower designs.
Alongside completing their Arts Award, the NCA students created a video to help other young people explore the Handpicked exhibition. You can watch the video on YouTube or on Bloomberg Connects.
At the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Arts Ambassadors completed Part C; Arts Inspiration and Part D; Arts skills share – passing on arts skills to others. The students visited the Made in Ancient Egypt exhibition to review and gain inspiration from artefacts.
They tried their hand at mono-printing, inspired by artists Paul Nash and C.R.W. Nevinson in the exhibition War Craft, and learnt how to create an abstract pour painting inspired by the current exhibition Frank Bowling: Seeking the Sublime. They then had the daunting task of sharing the skills learnt back to Susi Sahmland and Ben Bowling from the Frank Bowling Foundation.
Come and see the Arts Ambassadors’ artwork
The final three collaborative artworks are on display in the school’s lunchroom at the Fitzwilliam Museum until December 2026.
They will then be presented back to the group along with their certificates at a greatly anticipated awards ceremony held in Gallery 3 at the Fitzwilliam Museum in autumn.
