Private School News

CELEBRATING THE NEW ART SCHOOL AT LANCING COLLEGE – A special Art Day in the Reeve Art School, one year on

ART AT LANCING
The art tuition at Lancing College, under the direction of Caroline Pringle, is exceptional. This year’s A Level results included 11 A grades. Lancing’s Art Department has an impressive record of producing students who become designers, photographers, architects, art historians and painters. In 2009, five students went on to study architecture, and two to art school Foundation.

The art teaching at Lancing has an emphasis on drawing and painting from observation. The subject may be the model in the studio, or a location, from decaying houseboats along the Adur to elegant Palazzos in Venice. With the new Art School building perched on the edge of the Downs, landscape is becoming another source of inspiration.

Art plays an important part in school life and Caroline Pringle explains: “As Lancing has a flexible time-table, many pupils can carry on with art to A Level, whether they intend to pursue an arts career or not. Many combine art with maths and physics, others with the humanities.” This is important because engineers and geographers are involved in the environmental and aesthetic issues that arise in their professions; surgeons and vets need to be able to recognise, interpret and convey the complexities of anatomy. And, of course, art is also a wonderful recreational activity that many pupils can continue enjoying throughout their lives.

THE AWARD-WINNING REEVE ART SCHOOL: FIRST ANNIVERSARY
In recognition of the outstanding achievements of the Art Department, Lancing College commissioned the highly regarded LCE ARCHITECTS to design a stunning new Art School. As the new building has extensive studio spaces and all artistic disciplines are under one roof, pupils can undertake multidisciplinary projects on a large scale and do not have to put away work in progress. The building has won The Sussex Heritage Trust Architectural Award. It is a contemporary, energy-efficient structure that is in harmony with its unique surroundings – a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

PROGRAMME FOR THE DAY
Work by students will be on display throughout the Art School. This will include an impressive range of paintings in oil, acrylic and water-colour, as well as prints, photographs and sculpture.

Tours will include the major studio/exhibition areas, with floor to ceiling windows, offering unrivalled views over the Downs to the sea, and also the printing studio, sculpture room, photography studio, dark room, library and resources centre, lecture room and technicians’ workshop. Guides will demonstrate how the building complements the school’s original Victorian buildings.

In the morning the Duke of Gloucester, an architect himself, will tour the building.

12 noon. Lunch for VIP guests and senior personnel associated with Lancing College.

1.30 pm. Tour of Art School for press. Work by pupils will be on display and pupils will be around to discuss their work.

Paul Cox, a leading architectural artist, will be working with pupils in the school Chapel and talking about his work in the new Art School. He will give demonstrations and tuition, using the building as his inspiration. Students from Lancing will be joined by pupils from local preparatory schools, who have been offered the experience of working for the afternoon in a leading Art Department.