Beaconsfield exists to resource a broad spectrum of activity within contemporary visual art and for that reason its exhibitions and events are wide ranging in form and content (you can get a sense of the scope of Beaconsfield’s projects here).
The majority of our exhibitions and events represent new work and generally include a lengthy relationship with the exhibiting artist. This presents opportunities for direct contact between artists and students.
Exposure to the processes of art-making can contribute to raising an awareness of alternative ways of approaching the world and of living and working, which, in turn, can open up new horizons and career paths. We believe that experiential benefits are key to our contribution to the educational landscape.
Beaconsfield and the Wild Escape, 2023
Beaconsfield is part of The Wild Escape, a major new project uniting hundreds of museums and galleries with schools and families to connect to the natural world in their local habitats. We will be working with local families and school children, ceramic artist Phoebe Collings-James and Rachael Nilssen of Mud Gang Pottery Studio, to contribute to re-wilding Kennington/Vauxhall while thinking about the role that earth or clay plays in our ecologies. These themes will be expanded in a public talk with Professor Kathryn Yusoff, author of A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None (2019).
Public talks and events
Interpretative gallery events are curated on a project to project basis. Contact Beaconsfield during exhibitions for details.
Higher Education
Over the years, BGV has developed nation-wide links with Universities, Colleges and Art Schools. Group visits may be arranged throughout the year. Curators and Artists can be available to make presentations to students by arrangement. Contact us if you’d like to arrange a visit or presentation.
Schools
Located in Vauxhall, Beaconsfield has been as concerned to speak to its immediate community as to its broader national and international audience. For this reason we have established links with the schools in our neighbourhood. These links have enabled local children to benefit from contemporary art exhibitions that are more often attended by an adult audience.
As a small organisation we can provide special opportunity for these local visits to be customised to the needs of specific classes and the individuals with each class. Our stance as an organisation which develops a large amount of sound art, performance art and digital art projects, and our support of artists from all backgrounds gives an insight into the diversity visual art can represent.
Over the years, we have found that any one of our exhibitions can be usefully related to curriculum needs such as: Art, English, (literacy, speaking and listening, interpretation, discussion, qualitative assessment), Movement/ Dance/ Drama, Technology, Geography, Local and General History, Confidence building.
Perhaps this last benefit is the most significant. At BGV we know that we will have made a long-term achievement if we can provide the opportunities for children and young people to become confident about using public space usually privileged for art.
For further information or to book a visit contact Naomi Siderfin on 020 7582 6465 or email us admin@beaconsfield.ltd.uk.