Warrington & Vale Royal College’s art students have work displayed in Warrington Museum and Gallery
As part of their ‘From the Collections’ project, Level 4 Foundation Diploma Art students from Warrington & Vale Royal College took inspiration from current museum collections to produce stunning pieces of artwork. This work has since been collected by Warrington Museum to be displayed alongside the archives.
Some stand out pieces from the collection include those of Kim Thompson and Michelle Weedall who each took a different approach. Kim chose to focus on the ‘Children in the workplace’ collection, creating a series of dresses to represent child labour, particularly in the wire and pin making industries in Warrington.
Michelle focused on printmaking, choosing to look at the African art held in the museum which reflected the looting of these pieces during colonial times. Following the success of the collection, Warrington Museum and Gallery purchased Michelle Weedall’s artwork for permanent display.
Speaking about her work, Michelle said: “My pieces are inspired by the African section of the museum, specifically the Benin Bronzes. They tell a story of how they were looted and held in museums and private collections all outside of Africa. There are lots of African symbols in the prints as well as some symbolism that I created myself. The wall hanging is named “Repatriation” and features traditional African material and Adinkra symbols. The Adinkra symbols represent hope, co-operation, justice and the need for friendliness and cooperation as well as learning from the past.”
