Young Artists Create Town Centre Artwork on Climate Change

May 2017

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Students worked with Barrie Ormsby, a professional artist from Bearpark Artists' Co-operative.

A group of 12 students in Years 7, 8 and 9 have been working on an exciting community project designed to raise awareness of climate change through the production of innovative pavement art installations.

The "Climart' project, which was co-ordinated by Durham County Council (DCC), involved students from a number of schools across the county taking part in various workshops to learn about climate change and the issues faced by our modern society.

To launch the project, an informative session with a representative from DCC took place last term to help students develop a deep understanding of the topic. It was also an excellent opportunity for our students to express their opinions on how they feel about our changing climate.

This session was followed by a creative workshop delivered by Barrie Ormsby, pictured here, and John Foker, both professional resident artists from Bearpark Artists' Co-operative near Durham.

The group worked together to first create a large scale creative piece; this helped to stimulate ideas and inspire their final designs. Students then went through a design process to develop individual artwork which was adapted during the session into a stencil to be used on the final product.

Stencils from King James and other participating schools will be used to create innovative artwork which you you will be able to see on the pavement outside of Bishop Ackland Town Hall, although only if the ground is wet!

The technique, in which water-resistant polymer is sprayed onto the stencils, means that the resulting designs are completely invisible when dry. When it rains however, the surrounding wet areas become darker in colour and the stencil design springs to life.