Coventry College Art and Design

Art students across levels 1 & 3 have been working with Sandra, our art technician to make a cut out board which will help improve the visibility of the School of Transport. We’re really pleased with the outcome and hope it brings a lot of joy to anyone who gets a photo with it!

Level 3 3D Design have produced some really high quality architectural models recently. Nestled in between trees and mountains, there’s a clear awareness of sustainability and environmentally sensitive design:

Unfortunately the pop up art space in the old Coventry Evening Telegraph building is going to be handed back to developers in the next few months and will no longer be used as an exhibition space. However, this does mean that the 2nd year photography students’ exhibition, ‘Urban Surfaces,’ has been extended, so you can see it for at least another month.

Here’s a taster of what you can see:

by Lewis Hackett

by Kyle Palmer

by Harriet Lewis

by Ashley Lal

Our art department have been on their travels again, this time with photography headed over to Portugal. All of the above images were taken on their trip. Students went to the Jeromy monastery, Berardo Museum and the São Jorge Castle as well seeing the traditional wooden trams and world famous street art along the way. Here’s a picture of the group enjoying the sights...

Our level 3 graphics and art & design courses went to Florence last week and a great time was had by all. Here are a few of the images from the trip, our favourites are the living art recreations!

Well done to Ashleigh Roach (centre) for winning the Mander Hadley Competition on ‘What Coventry Means to Me.’ Ashleigh won a plaque with her work on and was invited, along with the other highly commended entrants (pictured below) to a celebratory awards ceremony and lunch. Well done to Ashleigh and all other entrants!

A belated post celebrating our fantastic photography students’ exhibition ‘Fresh Look,’ which was held at the old Coventry Evening Telegraph building before Christmas. The exhibition formed part of the students’ work experience,  equipping them with valuable skills for the field they hope to go into.

Four Level 3 Graphic Design and  Photography students have won a competition, an exciting 'live' project, a commission as part of Coventry's UK City of Culture 2021 bid. Graphic Design, Photography and 3D/Transport Design students all produced visual work on the theme of "What Coventry means to me".

The commission came from Mander Hadley Solicitors, a member of the 2021 Club – a group of businesses supporting Coventry’s bid to become the UK City of Culture 2021.

Directors judged the images submitted by our students and the final four selected were, From left to right;

Ashleigh Roach (L3 Extended diploma in Photography)  – 'Religious Family' Billy Clarke (L3 Extended Diploma in Graphic Design) – 'Historic Icons' George Millerchip (L3 90 Credit Diploma in Graphic Design) – 'Cathedral Scenes' Jasmine Baguley (L3 Extended diploma in Photography) – 'Godiva'

The winning students' work will be printed on to all-weather display boards and exhibited outside Mander Hadleys office at 1 The Quadrant during November – one painting will be displayed each week of the month. 

Last week our arts and performing arts students collectively worked on transforming an old van into a bright, new masterpiece. Level 3 3D and graphic design students modified the van throughout the week, and on Friday level 3 performing arts students delivered a spectacular dance in front of the van to the rest of the college.

Below is a time lapse of the van being worked on, made with some help from level 3 photography students. 

This week has seen a whole new cohort start at Coventry College Art Department. The new fine art students have already been making waves with their inventive bin bag costumes below...

We are looking forward to the new potential creativity and wish our students a very successful, productive and fun year!

As part of students’ work experience, they have been putting together a show at The Box in FarGo village. Its been a really exciting process and its been great to see everyone across the Art and Design courses come together. Its been a fantastic opportunity for students to be able to exhibit in a local space outside of the college walls and has been a really lovely way to finish off a highly productive and fun year!

Check out our before and after shots below, and if you are interested in joining one of our creative courses apply now as we still have some spaces left for September!

A huge well done to all of our students, who exhibited outstanding creative work this week to parents, guardians, friends and the local community. It was great to see such a huge turnout and the praise for students and their work has been overwhelming. Renowned local photographer Jason Scott Tilley who has previously exhibited at the Herbert, delivered a speech at the opening which gave much acclaim to student’s efforts and the college, calling the facilities here, “world class.”

If you haven’t already, come and see our fantastic shows which are on until tomorrow!

Well done to Cody from Level 3 Graphic Design, whose art work has been selected to publicise two of this years’ end of year shows. We hope you will join us in celebrating the success of all our creative students this year by coming to our Swanswell Street campus between 19th-23rd June for our photography, fine art and 3D showcase or on the 22nd-23rd for our fashion show. All are welcome!

Level 3 Art and Design second have been lucky enough to draw from a live model for the past few weeks which has rapidly increased their portfolios and improved their observational drawing skills. Life drawing is offered at fewer and fewer colleges, but it is vital to an artists’ development as is so wonderfully illustrated in these images. City Colleges’ Art and Design BTEC is proud to have life drawing as an embedded part of it’s curriculum. Follow this link if you would like to take up a place with us in September.

We’re putting together some publicity for our courses this week in preparation for next years’ recruits. Here’s some work from our fashion students that will be used on our publicity, which we are very proud of!

If you would like to see more of what Fashion at City College is like, take a look at their blog