Orkney pupils set to get creative with Gray's Mobile Art School

The team from Gray’s is travelling to Orkney in the custom-built Mobile Art School van equipped with state-of-the-art creative tools and materials, and will deliver workshops across a range of art and design subject areas to local school pupils

Gray’s recently launched the Mobile Art School, an innovative project which focuses primarily on widening access to creative education and careers for young people.

The Mobile Art School also offers training and mentoring opportunities for students and graduates, helping to develop the next generation of community-engaged artists and designers

Craig Barrowman, Mobile Art School Coordinator at Gray’s, added: “The Mobile Art School is going to give pupils in Orkney a chance to try some of the amazing range of skills and techniques that students at Gray’s learn.

“We will be offering traditional skills, such as drawing and sculpture, and we will also be doing more high-tech workshops, such as sculpting in VR, where people can use VR headsets and cutting edge technology to create forms of infinite scale in a virtual space.

“What I’m really excited about is taking the amazing range of kit that we have and sharing the experience of how amazing it is to be an artist and designer and how much fun it can be.”

The Mobile Art School will also be pitching up at the Pier Arts Centre on Friday, March 20, when members of the public will have the chance to take part in workshops and engage with the team.

Orkney Project Development Manager Elsa Cox said: “We are really excited to bring the Mobile Art School to Orkney. It offers a fun way to engage students of all ages with creative industries and to spark imagination in potential creative careers.

“For secondary students it offers a taste of life at Gray's School of Art without leaving the islands, while providing younger audiences with a range of exciting tools to explore. We are delighted with the local response with the week-long schedule filling up fast. Look out for the pink bus as it travels around the islands.”

Head of Gray’s, Libby Curtis, added: “The mobile art school exists, essentially, to get the word out about the opportunities in the creative industries – it’s a fantastic industry to work in, and I’m not sure everyone understands what those opportunities are. 

“We want to get out there and talk to young individuals, those individuals that are thinking about, or are interested in, art and design, and the Mobile Art School provides us with a great platform to do so.”

The visit is part of wider RGU Orkney activities following the establishment of a base in Stromness to drive and support innovation.

The Gray’s Mobile Art School will be in Orkney from March 16 – 20, when it will visit Stromness Academy, Stromness Primary, St Andrews Primary, Stenness Primary and North Walls Primary schools.