Introduction to School Prints

The original School Prints was realised through the passion and persistence of Brenda Rawnsley who developed the idea with her late  husband, Derek and Yorkshire-born poet and art critic, Herbert Read. It was set up with the aim of supplying original, high-quality contemporary art to schools so that children, regardless of their background, could experience ‘good’ art.

In 1946 and 1947, lithographic prints were commissioned from British artists including L. S. Lowry, John Nash and John Tunnard specifically for schools. Around 4,000 schools subscribed to the School Prints  scheme and many individuals also purchased them.

Following this success, Rawnsley became even more ambitious, securing commissions by leading European artists including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Henry Moore to contribute to a European Series. Sadly, this series, published in 1949, was not a huge success, with many of the schools finding them too avant-garde. As a result the  School Prints initiative was dissolved, but the legacy of this important education project remains.

Inspired by this  scheme, in 2018 The Hepworth Wakefield launched its own version of School Prints. Initially established as a five-year project, we have now extended the project, with the ambition for every primary school child in Wakefield to grow up with art on their walls.

Every year commissioned artists are provided with the Rawnsley’s original 1940s brief which stated ‘We only ask you if you would be good enough to do something suitable for children  […] as a means of giving school children an understanding of contemporary art.’

The Hepworth Wakefield supports the project with an exciting engagement programme. Each year children from participating schools experience workshops led by artists in school and during visits to the gallery. A CPD programme for teachers  also develops  their confidence to deliver the arts in school.

Sales of the prints supports the cost of the engagement programme.

A special thank you to all the artists for donating artwork to Wakefield District schools since 2018.

In 2018 The Hepworth Wakefield commissioned prints from Martin Creed, Jeremy Deller, Anthea Hamilton, Helen Marten, Haroon Mirza and Rose Wylie.

Five primary schools were given a set of the prints and participated in art workshops in school and visits to the gallery. Selected  Art & Design students from Cathedral Academy also took on the role of ‘Art Ambassadors’, writing interpretation for the artworks and supporting workshops at the primary schools.

With support from Wakefield District Community Foundation, the  art ambassadors continued to work with the gallery to  design their own #ARTSOS Campaign about the importance of arts in education.

Find out more about the  2018 project

For 2019, The Hepworth Wakefield commissioned Fiona Banner, Sir Peter Blake, Francis Upritchard and Richard Wentworth to make contemporary prints.

The gallery worked with 270 year 5 pupils from five primary schools and 100 year 9 pupils, during workshops in school and at The Hepworth Wakefield. Twelve year 9 students were also selected as Art Ambassadors   to support  the primary school workshops.

Find out more about the 2019 project

The Hepworth Wakefield commissioned three artists – Sir Michael Craig-Martin , Laure Prouvost and Linder Sterling to create new prints. These were unveiled with a special display at Phillips auction house in London 16-23 January 2020.

15 Art Ambassadors were chosen from Year 9 pupils at City Fields Academy  and started exploring the  importance of  art. For the first time, we partnered with Turner Contemporary to run a pilot of School Prints in Margate supported with funding by the Art Fund.

The project was paused during the Covid-19 pandemic,  and the schools then took part in the 2023 project.

Find out more about the project in 2020

For this edition of School Prints The Hepworth Wakefield focussed on supporting the teaching of black histories across the curriculum, commissioning six artists  to create new prints:  Hurvin Anderson; Alvaro Barrington; Sir Frank Bowling OBE, RA; Lubaina Himid CBE; Claudette Johnson; and Yinka Shonibare CBE.

Nearly 200 pupils across four local primary schools worked with artists during workshops in school and visits to The Hepworth Wakefield to discover more about the School Prints and engage with themes within the artworks. To celebrate the schools involvement in the project The Hepworth held celebration events for each school community and invited them to the gallery for special family days.

Find out  more about the 2023 engagement project 

For the fifth edition of School Prints, we invited three artists that we have long-standing relationships with to produce new prints – Phyllida Barlow, Veronica Ryan and Ro Robertson.

The engagement project took  with four local primary schools in Featherstone. Nearly 200 pupils worked with artist Rachel Sim during printmaking workshops in school and visits to The Hepworth Wakefield to explore this year’s School Prints.

Find out more about the 2024 project

During the sixth year of the School Prints project we invited British artist duo Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings to create a new print.

The Hepworth Wakefield worked with four primary schools and  engaged 173 pupils during 20 workshops and events. Pupils worked with local artist Rachel Sim during printmaking workshops in school, visits to the gallery and celebration events for each school community.

Find out more about the 2025 project  

The Eridge Trust

Phillips

Art Fund

The Worshipful Company of Stationers  and Newspaper Makers

Leeds Community Foundation #iwill Fund

Wakefield Community Foundation #iwill Fund

Wakefield Council as part of Our Year – Wakefield District 2024

Stuart & Trish Fletcher

Catherine & Derrick Archer