Warrington & Vale Royal College students impress the town by producing an extraordinary Fringe Festival

The Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival is an established event in its twelfth year, but this year marked a fabulous first for the festival. Never before has the festival been a collaborative effort with any college, and Warrington & Vale Royal College is delighted to be the first-ever partner on the student-led ‘Fringe Festival’ project. Art & design students from the college have invested weeks into curating their pieces ready to be displayed in the expressive exhibition and have been gaining valuable industry experience whilst designing and building the foundations for their fantastic pieces of work to be displayed.

An exclusive private viewing of the exhibition was held on Thursday 24^th November where students’ family, friends and VIP guests, including the Mayor of Warrington, had a first look at the amazing artwork on display. The theme for the festival is ‘connections’ and aims to create quality opportunities for Warrington & Vale Royal College students to experience make, design and present work within a public space. Everyone who attended can agree that this was a remarkable opportunity for the students, who produced spellbinding pieces.

Ben Brady, Assistant Director for Creative Arts at Warrington & Vale Royal College, said: “The students have worked incredibly hard and produced some absolutely amazing artwork. They should be very proud of themselves to have produced an exhibition like this during their first term.

The collaboration between the college and Culture Warrington has given students a platform to demonstrate their creative abilities and prepared them with the skills needed for future employment in the industry. I’d like to say a huge thank you to Leah Biddle for allowing us to use the fabulous exhibition space and to all the staff and students at the college for their hard work.”

The festival is located at the New Art Spaces in Warrington, formerly Marks & Spencers on Sankey Street, and is now officially open for the public to enter and explore until Sunday 4^th December.

Warrington & Vale Royal College offer a wide range of creative courses which are taught in its brand-new Advanced Creative & Digital Skills Centre and is taking applications now. To find out more, visit: wvr.ac.uk/acds