Latest News

Thi and Sian from Year 10 have joined Teen Tours, a training opportunity to help young people deepen their engagement with the Foam Talent photography exhibition at Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall.

Foam Talent is an annual exhibition that brings together innovative image-makers under the age of 35.

Thi and Sian attended a five-day training course to help them develop the confidence and knowledge they need to lead public tours of this popular exhibition. They each prepared a talk focusing on particular aspects of the exhibition that appealed to them or holds personal significance. They also gained a greater insight into photography and its place within contemporary art.

“Engaged and supportive”

“It was nerve-wracking but it was fun at the same time because I was able to do public speaking and meet new people and also learn about different cultures through art which I find fascinating,” said Sian (below left).

Thi (above centre) says she enjoyed the chance to look at art from a critical perspective, basing her talk about pictures that examine how media can manipulate the truth and pressurise people to seek perfection.

“I did four weeks of preparation by visiting the gallery on Saturdays and a day in half term,” she says. “My tour was a unique experience for me because I was expecting the audience to be very negative and critical. However, they were very engaged and supportive. I had a number of deep conversations with the audience inspired by my tour which showed me the audience were actually positive and engaged.”

Confidence

Daisy Mitchell-Rose, Assistant Principal, said: “Sian and Thi spoke with confidence about challenging and complex art work. Their insights, particularly when drawing upon their own personal responses, allowed me to see the artwork in a completely different way.”

Gus Houssein, Creative Resources Manager, said: “As Year 10 Art students, Thi and Sian were keen to put themselves forward for this project in order to gain experience working with the established Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall in such a high-profile event like Foam Talent. They were aware that this would help them to gain confidence in public speaking while immersing themselves in photographic art. I am pleased to say both Thi and Sian have since joined my photography club and will be creating their own works of art!”

Naomi Siderfin, the gallery's artistic director said: "We are so happy to be working again this year with students from HAB and thoroughly appreciate the support that the school has given both their students and our project. It is a real bonus for our gallery visitors to have access to the insights of these teenagers on what is (by any standards) a thought-provoking and sometimes challenging exhibition."

Teen Tours is delivered by Beaconsfield in partnership with the Dutch Museum of Photography and in association with The Photographers Gallery London. The workshops were led by Grace Gelder.

This was definitely a #ProudToBeHAB kind of weekend!