Luton primary school creates its own art gallery after being inspired by the National Gallery

Luton primary school creates its own art gallery after being inspired by the National Gallery.

Beechwood Primary School invited students to take part in the ‘take-one-picture’ idea by creating artwork based on 'Surprised' by Henri Rousseau.

The National Gallery scheme runs every year, focussing on a different artist and piece of artwork. And despite not submitting their work to the gallery this year, Beechwood chose to follow the same procedure.

Sharon Matear, a teacher at the primary, said: “Following a school wide survey, the children shared with us that many have not experienced the Arts first hand. We provide many trips, including theatre sessions for our children and wanted to give them the opportunity to experience presenting work in art gallery too. Each year group have chosen a style and responded to the pictured 'Surprise!'. They have used techniques such as: lenticular, print, photography, sketching, trompe l'oeil and dance.”

The school opened a gallery for parents to view the artwork on Monday (July 17) and Tuesday (July 18). Amanda Stanton, Assistant Head, added: “The pupils, the staff and the parents have all loved the gallery. It has been a real pleasure to see the smiles on faces and give our school the opportunity to see such a variety of art. It was amazing how many different responses we had to the original piece by Henri Rousseau. Hopefully we have inspired some pupils and their families to go and visit The National Gallery or other art exhibition and we are very keen to take part in the Take One Picture project again next year.”