Advanced higher art and design showcase

On Thursday evening we attended the Advanced Higher art and design exhibition at the Tramway in Glasgow. For those of you not familiar with the Scottish education system, the advanced higher art and design is the final award studied at school if chosen to. It’s ranked slightly higher than A levels by UCAS and many students who study advanced higher art then go on to apply to art college.

Having never attended this event before (it’s been running for 4 years) I was quite excited to be seeing the best of the schools’ talent. Also in a greatly inspiring venue, the Tramway Centre, Glasgow.

Last year’s advanced higher art and design students’ portfolios were marked and then if the markers wanted to include the portfolio in the show a note was left in their portfolio. What a nice surprise – an A at advanced higher AND an invitation to show at one of Scotland’s most contemporary arts center, what a privilege!

The main thing that I took back from the show was how much some students use their research and development. As you probably know if you follow my blog, Facebook, Twitter pages this is something that we bang on about all the time. We even created this visual to remind you!!

I have many students who come to my art classes in Edinburgh and for mentoring and private art lessons who struggle with this part of the portfolio. This is an intrinsic part of the creative process and is essential that you show it.

The best way I can describe what should be happening here is playing with your object/subject with no goal in mind other to explore possibilities. This can mean using different materials to explore your subject, different processes, different viewpoints, etc. etc. It’s only by doing this that you discover creative possibilities.

I was really pleased to see that even the A1 sheets showing development look just like sketchbook pages, only larger.

If you are able to see this show I highly recommend it, opening times below. Also a very small selection of what is on show.

Many thanks to all students, teachers, and the organizers of the show who put so much effort in to open up the whole education and creative process.

Running: until Sun 9 November 3 pm
Opening hours: Tue – Sun 12 noon – 5 pm (6 pm weekend)
Admission Free