Arboretum offers exhibition inspo to college’s newest student artists

Walsall Arboretum was the inspiration behind an exhibition led by Walsall College’s creative arts students completing their first week of the new academic year.

The Level 2 Art and Design and Level 3 Photography students spent two days capturing their impressions of the arboretum’s trees, grass, birds, wild flowers and plants.  Their sketches, stencil rubbings and fabric prints then formed an art installation in the students’ workshops for everyone in the college to view.

“The exhibition is one of the reasons why college and my college course have gone beyond my expectations,” said art and design student, Leon Covax-Cotterill.  “Even as we were putting everyone’s art pieces together, I never imagined how big an impact these would have.”

Leon continued: “This project was all about collaboration.  I’m not usually a team player, so I got to appreciate what people can do when they’re working on something together that they’re excited about.”

Fellow student, Tyler Price was also happy with the creative outcomes of the project.

“I love how everyone put so much effort into it,” he said.  “When we visited the Arboretum at the start of the project, our lecturers encouraged us to be as creative as we could ‘in the moment’, no matter what was happening around us, if there were issues with light or any other obstructions.  We all enjoyed this.”

Explaining the purpose of the induction exhibition, Lecturer, Anita Zychniewicz said: “From the start of their courses, students are encouraged to think about the creative and collaborative processes involved in producing artwork for display.

“The students are off to an excellent start, particularly as they also gained a mutual understanding of how art and design and photography as two distinct disciplines can express shared ideas.

“It was a great experience all round.”

Find out more about art and design and photography courses here.