About this day
For A-level, IB, Foundation, GCSE and BTEC Level 3 Art and Design students
We return this year with another exciting day of Art & Design in London this autumn! This unmissable and unique event is suitable for all KS5 and Foundation students as well as enthusiastic year 11 students. In this visually stimulating and interactive programme, students will meet and learn from FIVE established contemporary artists working in different areas, to get a taste of what inspires them, how they convey ideas and meanings, the different ways they work within their own artistic area and how they make their living as artists. Topics will include photography, portrait painting, fashion design and textiles, fine art and an interactive drawing session!
Come armed with a question and see how ideas become art! Students will gain a greater understanding of the creative process within the different artistic areas and are guaranteed to leave inspired and brimming with ideas for their own work! One more exciting speaker to be announced!
Book now to secure your places!
“Fantastic day! Inspirational, eye-opening, mind-broadening!”
— Highlands School, Autumn 2024 —
“The day was perfect – I can’t think of an improvement!”
— Student, Autumn 2025 —
Programme & speakers
Fire up your creativity Grayson Perry CBE RA, Artist
Turner Prize winner Sir Grayson Perry will fire up students’ creative juices with a lively session exploring the art world, being original and how to follow your own artistic vision. This inspiring session will include plenty of opportunity for questions. (Image credit: Portrait of Grayson Perry © Chris McAndrew, courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro)
About Sir Grayson Perry CBE RA
Turner Prize-winner Sir Grayson Perry’s work is original and provocative. He uses traditional forms such as ceramics and tapestries in unconventional ways to comment on society’s injustices and hypocrisies. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 2011 and knighted in the 2023 New Year Honours. (Image credit: Natalie Gibson)
Fashion design: icon and inspiration Zandra Rhodes DBE, Fashion Designer
Zandra Rhodes is a British fashion and textile designer renowned for her bold and colourful hand-drawn prints and unmistakable personal style. She has designed for clients including Diana, Princess of Wales, Jackie Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor and Freddie Mercury. She was one of the new wave of designers who put London at the cutting edge of international fashion five decades ago, and her dramatic, glamorous and extrovert designs have inspired the fashion world ever since. Join her for a talk on her life in fashion and her advice on how to remain original in an ever-changing creative landscape. (Image credit: Ray Okudzeto)
About Dame Zandra Rhodes DBE
Dame Zandra Rhodes DBE is a British Fashion Designer at the forefront of fashion since the 1970’s. Having graduated from the Royal College of Art with a masters in Printed Textiles in 1964, Rhodes went on to revolutionize the fashion industry as a trailblazer in fusing the craft of screen-printing and fashion design. Her designs are housed in prestigious museums globally and her use of colour, pattern and shape have provided inspiration to others. She continues to work from her London studio, focusing on both archiving her life’s output and designing new collaborations with leading fashion and lifestyle brands. (Image credit: Ray Okudzeto)
Painting, sculpture, film and more Stuart Pearson Wright, Artist
In a superbly entertaining and insightful session, Stuart Pearson Wright will explore his work and his methods. Students will learn about the techniques, processes and inspiration behind his paintings and will be able to ask their own questions. (Image credit: The artist)
About Stuart Pearson Wright
Stuart Pearson Wright is one of the UK’s leading portrait artists although his work extends to include narrative paintings, sculpture, film, etchings and music. He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and won first prize in the BP Portrait Awards for his painting ‘Gallus gallus with Still Life and Presidents’. The National Portrait Gallery subsequently acquired his portraits of John Hurt, Adam Cooper and J K Rowling and since then his artwork has been exhibited across the globe. (Image credit: The artist)
Untitled Hannah Starkey, Photographer
Hannah Starkey will discuss her work and career, and reveal how detail, depth and intricately constructed compositions form the basis for her realistic, reflective and often ambiguous images.
About Hannah Starkey
Hannah Starkey is a British photographer who specialises in staged settings of women in urban environments. She describes her work as ‘explorations of everyday experiences and observations of inner-city life from a female perspective’. She draws inspiration from her experiences during her early teenage years and the airless, confused sensibilities of youths with nothing to do and too much on their minds. She trained at the Royal College of Art and has exhibited internationally.
The Art of Drawing Fraser Scarfe, The Royal Drawing School
In an exciting interactive session, Fraser will give students the chance to try out their drawing skills and share some useful and fascinating insights into his work. He will reveal the important role of drawing in the broader creative industries and show how a drawing practice can enrich so many aspects of art and design and lead to different outcomes and career pathways.
About Fraser Scarfe
Fraser Scarfe is an award-winning artist and painter who often works on location as a response to the landscape around him, with a focus on drawing as well as painting. He was Royal Artist at the Coronation in 2023 and more recently during the royal visit to Italy. He has exhibited across the UK and in the US, with some of his works also in private collections in the UK, Europe and the US. He is Drawing Year Senior Manager at the Royal Drawing School and has been a guest judge on the BBC’s Big Painting Challenge.