QUAD’s Schools in Residence programme enables pupils in formal education settings, particularly those experiencing systemic inequality or disadvantage, to thrive through engagement with high quality, arts-based learning.  Through this programme, funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, our three partner schools have completed exciting projects for FORMAT23 with children and young people aged 8-18.

Working with artists and photographers, students from Pear Tree Community Junior School, St Martins School & Horizons Sixth Form and Derby Moor Academy explored themes such as heritage, migration, surrealism, and nature vs manmade using both traditional and digital photography as well as mixed media techniques.

Derby Moor Academy: Nature vs Manmade with Thomas Wynne  

Nature vs Manmade has been created collaboratively by students from Year 10 Art at Derby Moor Academy who are working to the same theme for their GCSE portfolios. After learning about the technical processes of DSLR cameras from photographic artist and educator Thomas Wynne, students created a collection of photographs using DSLR cameras of both urban and natural areas of Derby City Centre. These were then developed into digital collages using Photoshop.

Thomas Wynne has produced this piece by combining the individual work created by the students which portrays an image of Derby, reclaimed by nature, in an imagined future where humans are not present.

Pear Tree Community Junior School: Heritage and Migration with Anand Chhabra  

In partnership with Derby Museums, Derby Libraries and The National Trust, this project focuses on celebrating heritage with students from Years 4 and 5 at Pear Tree Community Junior School, a school with an incredibly diverse community of cultures and languages.

The students worked with visual artist and photographer Anand Chhabra to learn about heritage, exploring both the topic itself and their own background and family journeys.  After learning about the importance of sharing their stories, the students have been photographed by Anand Chhabra using clothing and objects to create a collection of portraits showcasing their own heritage.

Horizons Sixth Form: Surreal Derby 

Led by QUAD Education Curator, Daisy Lloyd, Surreal Derby is a collection of mixed media collages created by twelve students from Horizons Sixth Form who attend QUAD weekly, engaging in a variety of creative mediums and themes.  Kindly loaned by Lomography, the group used analogue Lomo cameras such as La Sardinas, the Sprocket Rocket and Diana F+ to experiment with multiple exposures, angles and framing as they photographed key landmarks and interesting aspects of Derby city centre.

Working with the theme of surrealism and using mixed media and collage techniques, the students have created a collection of surrealist work depicting Derby from new perspectives.

QUAD Young Advocates

QUAD Young Advocates released an open call for submissions from children and young people aged 25 and under, responding to the theme of redefining a landscape or portrait.

Thinking about the overall theme of FORMAT23, what photography can be, the Young Advocates encouraged the public to think creatively and push the limits of what they’ve done before in photography.

Submissions came from photographers as young as six years old. Featuring experimental portraits, fantasy landscapes and combinations of the theme, this exhibition celebrates the imagination and creativity of young people everywhere through the medium of photography.

QUAD Young Creatives

QUAD Young Creatives (aged 14-19) explored what photography can be with dynamic photo-montages reimagining the landscape of Derby town centre.

CYAN-CITY is a fictional cityscape created using the cyanotype process. Photographic collages were made from images taken on black and white film whilst the group discovered different parts of the local area together.

This work is made in collaboration with photographic artist and educator Thomas Wynne, specialising in analogue photography with focus on fictional narrative and exploration of future society.