Saturday Art Club
for seriously creative 13-18 year olds
*Part of the National Saturday Club scheme*
Saturday Art Club is a weekly afternoon art workshop for local 13-16 year olds with a passion for art led by professional artist Donna Campbell with support from Student Mentors aged 17-18 from local secondary schools.
In the sessions the young people are guided by pros to make and create impressive pieces of art, while building up their creative portfolios, honing specialist skills and speaking to professionals throughout the industry to inspire their future career.
The Saturday Art Club experience includes a Masterclass with an artist at the top of their game as well as having artwork exhibited at Somerset House in London - a massive opportunity!
ART CLUB 2024
Saturday Art Club 2024 is now complete! 16 young people, including three student mentors aged between 17-18, joined us for six months of excellent creative workshops led by Donna Campbell. We are so proud of this years’ Saturday Art Club cohort, who really pushed themselves outside their comfort zones to make some truly excellent art.
The first project that the young people undertook was creating a self-portrait. After building skills in mark making, drawing, printing, colour mixing and watercolour techniques, they each chose the medium they were most comfortable creating in to make their self portraits. We were so impressed with what they created.
Alongside this, as part of the National Saturday Club programme, our young people took part in an excellent masterclass with Amy Williams, where they built impressive flower sculptures from paper. These wonderful photos of our group were taken by Sharon Hughes.
This year, for their final piece, our club chose to explore carnival art and lantern making. The themes for this piece were change, peace, poetry & protest, a carnival of connection, the architecture of acceptance and the geometry of joy. These themes arrived via group discussions. The sculpture included what the young people would like to see MORE of and also what they would like to experience LESS of and how to achieve this. The final ideas were developed in carnival and lantern experimental making techniques, which explored the qualities of sustainable and recycled materials. Our 3D installation with 2D elements engaged the audience with our themes.
In mid-July Saturday Art Club travelled to London to see their artwork exhibited at Somerset House and attend their graduation ceremony, which was the culmination and highlight of this brilliant programme. We had a wonderful time and are so proud of our talented cohort!
They also are part of the National Saturday Club online exhibition. You can see their page by clicking here.
The programme is crucially important to our rural young people’s career pathways into the Creative industries, which are often city based - there are so few opportunities for this kind in our local area that it makes us very proud to be able to make it happen.
This year the club has been supported by Westmorland & Furness 0-19 Fund, The Hadfield Trust and Cumbria Community Foundation through the Ullswater Community Trust Fund, Printer’s Inc Social Mobility Fund and Holehird Trust Fund.
ART CLUB 2023
Art Club 2023 is now complete! We had a brilliant group of 15 young people aged between 12-18 join us for 6 months of engaging creative sessions working with community artist Donna Campbell.
Our students this year have experimented with mark making, line, tone and expression in drawing, mono printing, 3D design with clay and glass, exploring colour with paint and ink plus working with textiles, developing new skills in every area. We’re so proud of them!
Saturday Art Club 2023 was made possible by Eden Arts and Culture Development Fund as well as Cumbria Community Foundation through the Holehird Trust Fund and Rowan Community First Fund.
The first project we worked on was Self Portraits to go in the National Saturday Club Gallery.
Our Saturday Art Club attended a brilliant Masterclass at Eden Stained Glass. They all made their own fused glass pieces, which look incredible! We had such a positive and inspiring experience (and enjoyed playing in the snow too!)
Here are some of the finished fused glass pieces.
We then worked on a piece of collaborative textile art will be exhibited at Somerset House. The title is ‘Our Head and Heart’ and explores the internal tensions created by the wants and needs of our head compared to our heart. The wallhanging was created using fabric paints, silk painting and embellishment techniques.
Here are some photos, taken by volunteer Colombe Delon, of our work in progress…
The group took a day trip to London on 15th July to see their piece exhibited at Somerset House and attend their programme graduation ceremony at King’s College London. It was amazing to join clubs from around the country to celebrate our students’ achievements.
They have also been featured in a National Virtual Exhibition, which can be viewed online indefinitely.
Photo Credit: Magnus Andersson
Donna Campbell, who leads the group, said:
“Being involved with the arts and creative young people keeps me positive about the future of our world. The members at our Saturday Art Club are talented, self-motivated, conscientious and full of inspiring ideas. They all have a future in the arts if they choose, and the arts can change the world! It has been an absolute pleasure to spend my Saturdays with this inspiring group of young people.”
Art Club 2022
Saturday Art Club 2022 ran from January to June with a fantastically talented group of 15 students from Ullswater Community College, QEGS and Appleby Grammar School.
The sessions this year focused on developing skills in mark making, line and tonal drawing, painting, printing and 3D design.
The first project the Saturday Art Club did together involved making six large willow lantern mice, which were featured as part of Light Up Morland in mid-February 2022. We were incredibly impressed by the quality of the students’ work and their innovative mouse designs.
Our Saturday Art Club went on a trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in April 2022 for a Masterclass. We joined another Saturday Art Club from York and went on a tour of the park and its exhibitions. After collecting naturally occurring pigments in the environment around us, including dandelions and tree bark, we created our own sculptures using reclaimed wood and the natural pigments sourced along the sculpture trail. It was a delight!
The young people decided to work together on a collaborative artwork for their final project, which was exhibited at Somerset House in London from 4th-12th June 2022. Their piece was called “IN CHARACTER” and was split into 6 sections (Mythical & Surreal, Global Issues, Future Tech, Abstract, Digital & Apocalyptic). It was very well received by attendees and organisers alike.
They have also been featured in a National Virtual Exhibition, which can be viewed online indefinitely.
The group took a day trip to London on 11th June to see their piece exhibited and attend their programme graduation ceremony at the nearby Institution of Engineering and Technology. It was amazing to join clubs from around the country to celebrate our students’ achievements.
Kate Brundrett, Director of The Studio Morland, reflected:
“Our incredibly talented students worked so hard and brilliantly together at their Saturday Art Club to make some outstanding, exhibition-quality work. The ideas and concepts, as well as the way they brought the pieces together, was so mature in thinking and the pieces were advanced in their messaging and surrealist presentation - I am beyond thrilled with their work”
Saturday Art Club 2022 was made possible by Cumbria Community Foundation through Westmorland Arts Trust Fund and Holehird Trust Fund. Also supported by Cumbria Youth Alliance’s Dreamscheme Fund and Arnold Clark Community Fund.
