Original ceramic tiles, supporting collage work and posters created by our National Art & Design Saturday Club Members was exhibited at the National Saturday Club‘s Summer Show at Somerset House, London 12-18 June 2017.
Cove Park’s National Art & Design Saturday Club (NADSC) offers young people from Argyll & Bute the unique opportunity to explore, expand and enhance their creative skills at free regular Saturday sessions. Inspiration for the sessions and their content are drawn from our setting and the creative work and practice developed by professional artists currently and formerly resident at Cove Park.
The Summer Show is the pinnacle of the NADSC year, taking seriously the creative work of the 1,000+ Members of the 53 Clubs in the UK network coordinated by the National Saturday Club. Work by Members of Cove Park’s NADSC, the first Club in Scotland, was exhibited alongside their contemporaries in the prestigious central London venue, offering them an invaluable opportunity to reflect on their achievements and commitment to furthering their creativity.
On Saturday 17 June, nine of our Club Members attended an exclusive private view to see their exhibition and be presented with certificates of achievement and Yearbooks.
It was truly a tremendous finale to a wonderfully creative year led by Tutor and professional artist Alex McEwan. Our Club Members, their parents, siblings and grandparents, plus our Founders Peter and Eileen Jacobs shared a huge amount of joy and pride on the day. Our Members took the opportunity to exhibit more of their own creative work by wearing the T-shirts they created for the awards ceremony, which were swiftly replaced with the National Saturday Club hoodies and t-shirts, which were worn with pride for the rest of the weekend!
As we had gone all that way, we took in some of the sights, St Paul’s Cathedral, Big Ben, Palace of Westminster, the Tower of London, plus many more from a Thames boat trip. This was a particular highlight for three Club Members who had never been to London before.
We even fitted in a visit to Tate Modern, seeing new work by Ai Wei Wei, pieces in the Louise Bourgeois Artist Rooms gallery and discovered the work of former resident Abraham Cruzvillegas in the digital Timeline of Modern Art.
The National Saturday Club’s short film of the Summer Show 2017 can be viewed here. Our Club Members’ response, created on their return train journey, to the London trip was:
Since November 2016, our ten Club Members, aged 11 –14 from the Rosneath Peninsula and Helensburgh area, have experimented with new media including sound and experimented with techniques, scale and concepts previously unfamiliar to them. The regular NADSC sessions, complementing Members’ schoolwork, nurture their artistic and design development and talent, providing them with the space and time to enjoy what inspires and engages them. Members have demonstrated considerable development in their creative confidence, technical ability and conceptual thinking at a critical time when they are considering future study options.
‘This Club gives me a great focus to have and I look forward to it every week. I count down the days! This Club lets me express my artwork.’
Cove Park NADSC Member
‘Our daughter has an increased confidence in her own creativity which has had a knock-on effect in other aspects of her life, e.g. more confident in putting forward her own ideas.’
Cove Park NADSC Member’s parent
NADSC is part of Hands-On Cove Park, a programme of educational and participatory creative events and activities that increases opportunities for people in the region to access and participate in the arts by providing the space, time and freedom for them to learn and develop in and through the arts and creativity. The Club Members’ trip to London was possible due to the support of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and The Robertson Trust, funders of Hands-On, plus generous support from The The Bridge Awards, The Bute Family Charitable Trust and the Babcock Community Investment Group.
