{"id":9109,"date":"2018-05-08T10:20:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-08T09:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=9109"},"modified":"2018-05-08T10:20:00","modified_gmt":"2018-05-08T09:20:00","slug":"arts-award-exploring-shakespeare-with-soham-village-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/2018\/05\/08\/arts-award-exploring-shakespeare-with-soham-village-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Arts Award: exploring Shakespeare with Soham Village College"},"content":{"rendered":"

Year 8 students from Soham Village College visited the Fitzwilliam Museum throughout the Spring Term, creating art and music, and exploring Shakespeare\u2019s Romeo & Juliet through the collections.<\/h2>\n

From January – March 2018 11 young people from Soham Village College completed their Bronze Arts Award with the Fitzwilliam Museum<\/a> and the University of Cambridge Museums (UCM). The Fitzwilliam Museum has had an ongoing partnership with Soham Village College for ten years, and the relationship allows young people to experience cultural opportunities that they might not otherwise have. The relationship with Soham Village College has evolved over a number of years, spurred on by the enthusiasm and dedication of the teachers.<\/p>\n

2018 was the fourth year that Year 8 students have worked to complete their Bronze Arts Awards with the museums. The sustained relationship and nature of the project demonstrates a true partnership between Soham Village College and the museums. The Year 8 Arts Award project works across eight sessions in the Spring Term, with the aim to raise aspirations of the young people and provide an enriching experience for their study of their set Shakespeare text in English. In addition to the Arts Award project, the Fitzwilliam Museum also facilitated visits from 280 Year 8 students from the school, to provide cultural engagement for those living in rural areas and create inspiring links between the Museum\u2019s collections and subjects such as English, Maths, Art and History.<\/p>\n

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Getting hands-on with armour<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Students worked across art forms to explore Shakespeare\u2019s Romeo and Juliet<\/em>. As part of the project students decorated book boxes, created portrait miniatures, wrote reviews, researched Shakespeare, and created foil-embossed heraldry designs inspired by collections in the Founder’s Library.<\/p>\n

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Creating portrait miniatures inspired by the Museum’s collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For many students, their highlight was working with musicians from the Academy of Ancient Music<\/a> to create their own compositions. On this day students were able to hear live music and learn about the Tudor instruments in the Fitzwilliam gallery spaces, before working closely with the musicians to compose their own lyrics and musical composition. Listen to it here:<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/WYS-chorus-only-15_3_18-copy-1.wav<\/a><\/audio>\n

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The students really enjoyed being part of the project, and we will be welcoming the group back in July to celebrate achieving their Bronze Arts Award. Many students were interested in continuing to complete the Silver Arts Award, and so we will be returning to Soham Village College to support these students, as well as welcoming more Year 8 students for the Arts Award in Autumn 2018.<\/p>\n

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Finding out about the instruments used in Shakespeare’s time<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Widening Participation<\/h3>\n

The project was part of the UCM’s work towards Widening Participation, and as part of the project students visited their link College at the University, St John’s, stating:<\/p>\n