Luke Buchorski a student in his final year at Wingrave and I just want to tell you about a fantastic couple of days our students had at Wingrave on Thursday 11th and Friday 12th of July.
We had a community artist come into our school called Nina Gebauer. Nina is a 3D artist originally from Germany and is responsible for many of the wonderful colourful displays at carnivals such as Notting Hill and festivals and galleries across the world.
Nina had a great warmth about her which made her very approachable and meant the students instantly connected with her. She started by showing our young people some very simple ways to make willow rods and willow circles for the sculptures and it was really important that we observed her carefully so we knew what to do!
We ran the session in such a way that all the people could do as much or as little as they wanted. It was important everyone was happy and we gave every group time slots in the day, but also the option to come back when they liked.
Jack and Joseph loved working on their birds. Jack sat for a long time with Nina who carefully showed him step by step how to create the body of group 1’s bird. Jack soon got the hang of it and had a huge smile on his face for the rest of the day. Joseph came over from Hillside to join in, he helped to glue on the “wet strength paper” of all different colours, shapes and sizes. Like most people in the workshop, he was so focused and proud of the work he had achieved.
The two days were amazing and every student in the school was involved with making the art in some way.
This was a really successful project delivered by Nina and it is a fine example of the quality experiences we have at Wingrave. This will also help everyone here to achieve their first level of the National Arts award.
Nina is off to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil very soon and we want to thank her very much on behalf of everyone at Wingrave for such an inspiring and interactive event.
Luke Buchorski and Kevin Haynes, Senior Teacher
Wingrave