CYAC held a very successful exhibition at Hinchingbrooke School in February 2023.
Volunteering
Why We Do It and What We Do
Why
Art impacts on everyone’s lives. It includes everything we see, hear and touch. Our reactions to these senses affect our mental health, confidence, pleasure and the desire to express ourselves.
Many of our schools are so concentrated on Maths, English and the Sciences that the release of the pleasure of creating or making things more beautiful is being lost.
What
We work closely with Hinchingbrooke Hospital to fill the corridors with art work from children between Early Years and A Level.
An example of the importance of this work on the givers and receivers can be seen in the actual pieces of work that are on the walls these show the imagination and skill of these young people. In ln some cases produced in after school clubs as there is little or no room in the curriculum. Ofsted and the hospital inspectors both praise Work in the Community, of the hospital and schools.
How
If you are interested please e-mail or ring Rosemary Huckle, contact details are on your membership card and she will be happy to talk to you any time and/or see you after one of our lectures.
We ask schools to give us art work once a term for us to fill their corridors these are displayed in glass fronted cabinets that take a maximum of 6/7 A4 pieces of work. These boards are labelled with the name of the school, year group and sometimes a few lines on what prompted the work as well as our Arts Society which gets our name recognised. We return all displayed work after it has been replaced.
CAYAC Cambridgeshire Young Artists Competition
Once a year, usually around Autumn Half Term our volunteers contact schools in our areas, to invite them to enter this competition. Schools are asked to enter 2 pieces of work from every Key Stage. These are judged by independent arts teachers/artists. We organise this event as well as providing the prizes for every key stage these consist of high quality art materials for each Key Stage. Best in Show, these are judged by the visitors to the exhibition, for Primary and Secondary students and consist of an art teacher/artist running a workshop whereby they contact the school and ask them what they would like. We also provide certificates for every child that enters as well as the winners. Certificates are given to every school to display in reception to show they have participated. All the money for these prizes comes from the sale of notelets that are printed from photographs taken of suitable exhibits and was the idea of Ros Neugebauer, a member of The Arts society Huntingdonshire who sadly died in 2018 and from the teas/coffees and biscuits we provide on exhibition days. Many extra volunteers from our branch also help out on the days of the exhibition.
Notelets
A big thank you to the late Ros Neugebauer who came up with the idea to raise money for The Woodland Centre at Hinchingbrooke Hospital and a small amount for Young Arts. It is certainly something that has become a cherished part of our activities. This year we have had printed 10 paintings from the Cambridge Young Artists Competition which are already proving a great success from the way the sales have gone from visitors to the exhibition, for some, a second print run has been necessary as our sales at the signing in desk are going well!
Some examples made into notelets (above)
RBA Royal Society of British Artists
This is in collaboration with the National Arts Society and the RBA. Forty pieces of work are chosen from entries all over the country and are displayed at the Mall Galleries and then at the Royal Overseas League in St James’s for approximately 2/3 weeks at each venue. This is only open to students in their last year of A level. We have been fortunate in previous years of having work from Swavesey, Kimbolton and this year Hinchingbrooke chosen to be exhibited.
The same volunteers as with the hospital and CAYAC also work with the RBA event. All of this day to day work is done by 4 volunteers and many others on the exhibition days. If you would like to join us to spread the load and help us work with more schools, please contact Rosemary Huckle the Arts Volunteering Secretary.
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The Arts Society, Huntingdonshire 