Learning from an Artist

Fulham Cross Girls’ School uses Educational Visit Grant for drawing class with GCSE art students taught by professional artist.

Fulham Cross Girls’ School took two groups to visit Luisa-Maria MacCormack, practising artist, art history and drawing tutor who runs the London Drawing Group and The Big Art Herstory Project. MacCormack worked closely with the students to practice and improve their Life Drawing and Portraiture skills throughout the two sessions.

The school used their Jack Petchey Educational Visit Grant to cover the cost of two classes for their year 10 and year 11 Art GCSE classes, to give them an opportunity to learn new skills and build their confidence with observational drawing. In addition, the grant allowed the students to meet a successful artist, which also acted as a career experience for some students interested in persuing art in the future.

Furthermore, as the founder of The Big Art Herstory Project which was created in response to a growing concern that only the male perspective of the Art-Historical record was being told, the experience was greatly beneficial for the student’s understanding of telling different stories through art.

Madeline, a year 10 student, said: “The workshop taught me new perspectives of learning how to draw faces. It was also cool to see how the model’s movement played into the drawing.”

Ella, also a year 10 student, added: “A few weeks ago, Luisa-Maria McCormack did a workshop with our class. We did lots of fun activities and got to do lots of drawings, using drawings using charcoal, inspired by Luisa’s work. It was a lot of fun and I learnt how to use tones and blending to make a charcoal drawing look realistic.”

An example of a student's work from the day.

Our Educational Visit Grants support schools and youth organisations with the costs of visits to museums, theatres, science shows and much more. These fun and educational experiences help young people to develop a wide range of valuable academic and social skills, as well as providing the chance to learn outisde the classroom.

In order to apply for this opportunity, organisations need to be running our Achievement Award Scheme. They can then apply for two grants per year of up to £10 per head and a maximum of £300 per trip. Click here to find out more and how to apply.