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20th January 2020

Critical and Contextual Studies trip to Art Galleries in Birmingham

Form 6 pupils who are studying Critical and Contextual Studies enjoyed an action-packed trip to Birmingham, visiting a number of galleries in the city. 

Director of Art Mrs Elinor Brass tells us more:-

“The aim of the visit was for pupils to get to see how different galleries function, to consider all the works in their collection and how they were displayed.  

The pupils were lucky enough to have an insightful tour of the Barber Institute at the University of Birmingham, giving them lots of interesting information about the running of the space, the curation of the spaces, as well as some of the key artworks. 

Their next stop was at the Research and Collections Centre where they discovered more about how its curators support the care of the art and artefacts that belong to the University as well as how they work with the various academics on how to use things for research and teaching. 

The curators talked to the students about how they had made a career in museums and research collections, which was particularly interesting. 

After lunch at the University, we headed to the Birmingham Museum and Gallery at the heart of the city where Toby Watley, who is Director of Collections kindly gave us a talk and a tour. 

Toby leads on Birmingham Museums’ exhibitions, curatorial, collections management as well as acquisitions, conservation and research programmes and so he was able to give us an insight into how the Gallery and Museum have to continue to evolve in order to relate itself to the diversity of the city.

Our final stop was to the Ikon Gallery, which offered the pupils the chance to see more contemporary work in a beautiful, Victorian building. 

The pupils will bring together their observations, ideas and research together in a project that will be part of their coursework submission.”

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