The Hepworth Wakefield announces artists taking part in School Prints 2020
16 Jan 2020
In 2018 The Hepworth Wakefield launched School Prints – an ambitious five-year project to engage every primary school child in its local area with contemporary art. Each year, the participating schools are gifted a set of limited edition prints by leading contemporary artists for display in school and are supported with an in-depth engagement programme led by artists to encourage creativity across the curriculum.
For 2020 Sir Michael Craig-Martin (b. 1941), Laure Prouvost (b. 1978) and Linder Sterling (b. 1954) have been commissioned by The Hepworth Wakefield to create new works for the project. The prints will go on public display at Phillips auction house in Berkeley Square, London from 16 to 23 January 2020. The prints are available to buy in editions of 40 at £500 each with all funds generated by purchases supporting the costs of the engagement programme. In an exciting development for 2020, The Hepworth Wakefield has partnered with Turner Contemporary, with support from the Art Fund, to extend the School Prints programme to schools in Margate.
Simon Wallis, Director of The Hepworth Wakefield, said:
‘We are so delighted to be working with Turner Contemporary on School Prints 2020 to enable more primary school children to experience and be inspired by contemporary art. Over the last two years it has been incredibly rewarding to see the skills development and confidence growth of the participating young people, especially our Year 9 art ambassadors. Many of these children had never visited an art gallery or thought art was something meaningful for them, but they have now become regular visitors to the gallery with their families. We conceived the project as one that could be extended across the UK with partner galleries, so it is exciting to take the first step towards that ambition with Turner Contemporary who are such an inspiring and successful partner. We are very grateful to all the artists who have donated their time and talent to make this project such a success.’
Linder Sterling said:
‘It is so important that all children get to experience art and have the opportunity to express themselves creatively. With the focus in schools being on more academic subjects it is wonderful that The Hepworth Wakefield has established this programme to help teachers incorporate creativity across the curriculum and that is why I was delighted to take part.’
School Prints is inspired by a ground-breaking scheme set up in the 1940s by Brenda Rawnsley where artists, including Henri Matisse, Henry Moore and Pablo Picasso, were commissioned to create prints specifically for schools to allow children to have direct access to high-quality art. Artists who have taken part in The Hepworth Wakefield’s revival of the scheme include Fiona Banner, Sir Peter Blake, Martin Creed, Jeremy Deller, Anthea Hamilton, Helen Marten, Haroon Mirza, Francis Upritchard, Richard Wentworth and Rose Wylie. All of the prints are available to buy in our online shop.
School Prints 2020 is kindly supported by The Eridge Trust and Phillips. View a short film of the first two years of School Prints, including interviews with Sir Peter Blake and Jeremy Deller here.
