Congratulations to Rachel Kitchen Year 13 Art and Design student who has won the Carson Award for Integration 2015
Rachel Kitchen AS Art Student in New-Bridge Integrated College has been announced the winner of KS 4 Carson Prize 2015. She will be awarded a trophy and £500 for the school in a special Prize Giving and Show Case to take place in Belfast in September. The Carson Awards are named in honour of the legendary Northern Ireland comedian the late Frank Carson and his son Tony. Frank Carson was a passionate supporter of integrated education and that continues through the Carson Awards. Sponsored by his son Tony Carson, the Awards are now in their seventh year.
The aim of the Carson Prize is to encourage integrated education students in the creative fields. The Carson Prize is awarded annually to students who have been judged as submitting an outstanding piece of creative work. We in the art department are delighted that Rachel has won this prestigious award and that her art work will continue.
Rachel has given us an insight into her vision for the project how the project came together.
This coming September my school will be 20 years old, the title of my A Level exam piece was Appearance and I felt like it would be a great opportunity to do something to celebrate our school’s anniversary. I decided to incorporate this idea into my A-level art exam and create a sculpture that would celebrate our school’s ethos of integration. I decided to create a series of clay sculptures based on the four sections of the school badge; the yew trees, the bridge, the dove and the hands. We created a wooden crest shape to put in the school garden which was made of old railway sleepers which we sourced and we are in the process of planting green and purple plants and flowers around the sculptures, which are our schools colours. The sculptures will be glazed white to keep them a neutral colour and to stand out against the plants. While building my project we have been taking pictures every day to create a time lapse to show the creation of it which will also be used to great effect during our celebrations in September. The overall installation measures 2metres by 3 metres and consists of an overall frame made from sleepers, inset with wooden troughs which have been filled with soft white stones. The ceramic relief sculptures are to be placed among planting of herbs, heathers, lilacs and lavender. We aim to attract bees and wildlife with the fragrant flowers but also to share the growing of herbs for use in the canteen so that everyone in the school community can benefit. I hope that this shows a little of how my garden design can harmonise all aspects of our school.
Integration in education means everything to me. I have been through integrated education my whole life, having previously attended Portadown Integrated primary school and now a sixth form student in New-Bridge, I feel it has helped shape who I am. My project demonstrates what integration means to me as it shows bringing all aspects of our school community and our wider community together. We have forged strong links with the local nursing home Bannview House and I have worked with some of the residents there, their ideas have helped shape my design. Mr McGrath, a retired gardener who lives close to the school has been instrumental in guiding me in my planning for this work. I have also had so much help from our school Eco Committee and I think that integrating all these aspects of our school community and beyond have been helped in bringing the project to completion.
Our school badge has four sections; the yew trees representing Newry and the bridge representing Banbridge. There is also the dove signalling peace and the hands shaking demonstrates integration and friendship. It shows how different people from different backgrounds and religions can come together, work together and be friends. Also with this project I am hoping to make the school stand out in the community and celebrate it, to show how much our school has achieved and all the things it does for the community. My project was also influenced by the theme for this year’s integrated education week ‘horizons.’ It shows that hopefully this sculpture will be here for the next 20 years and more that integrated schools can grow and develop in to the future. My sculptures are placed in the school garden so everyone who attends or visits the school can see how people from different religions can come together and change things for the better. This project also demonstrates our school motto ‘A school for all the family’ as though it is my project, many people helped and advised. It just shows that although we are independent we rely on others, especially the wisdom of our older generation, My Harmony Garden also shows that people, pupils, staff and local community from different backgrounds can come together to create something new, fresh and alive!
