Budding artists from two city schools will showcase their work in a public exhibition at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard  thanks to DfES funding. Pupils from Portsmouth High School and The City of Portsmouth Girls’ School have been working together in artistic collaboration for the last two years as part of the Building Bridges scheme which encourages independent and state school partnerships.

The exhibition, entitled  ‘Building Bridges’,  opened on Thursday 18 October in Boathouse No 7 and highlights two projects carried out by the pupils which focus on photography and artworks inspired by story telling.

Twenty Year 7 girls worked with illustrator Jacqui Mair on the Altered Images project. Over a period of six weeks, the girls from each school produced etchings, wrote poetry, created large scale prints, and made their very own artists’ books.

The photography project, led by artist Bridgid Dolby and carried out by Year 10 pupils focussed on the theme of ‘Identity and Place’ and girls from each school worked in the areas of still life, portrait and landscape. The pupils used their local environment, the seaside and the city’s maritime heritage within their photograph. The photographs tell us about their lives and what is important to them.

Sharon Watt, Head of City of Portsmouth Girls’ School said; “We are very proud of the way in which girls from both schools have worked so well together. As well as celebrating girls in Art via this second exhibition, we hope that the two year project will encourage a greater number of pupils to consider Art as an option for GCSE and A Level. We also hope the project will ensure that all pupils involved will affirm their worth as potential artists who have something to say with powerful tools for self and group expression.”

Amelia Brooks, Head of Art at Portsmouth High School said; “The exhibition shows the girls’ creativity and the enthusiasm, and the work over the course of the two years has been of a very high calibre.. It is a fantastic opportunity for the pupils to see their work as part of a professional exhibition; the pupils have gained so much from working together on the project”