Following the success of Portrait 2000, the first County Schools Art Show at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire County Council  Learning & Culture Directorate began planning for a new art-based partnership with schools and cultural centres in the county.

Wild Art became a unique year of art and design activity involving pupil workshops, teacher inset opportunities, and artist residencies culminating in a two week long celebration of the visual arts in Oxfordshire schools at the Cotswold Wildlife Park, July 1-12 2002.

As well as the schools, Oxfordshire County Council and The Wildlife Park the creative and cultural partners in this project were Southern Arts, the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, the Oxfordshire University Museum of Natural History, the University Botanic Garden, the University of Oxford Harcourt Arboretum, the Oxfordshire Museum, Cogges Manor Farm Museum and Oxford University Department of Nuclear Physics. Lasting and valuable work was achieved with staff, teachers, artists and education officers at these institutions. Local industry supported Wild Art and we are particularly grateful to BMW, Marketplace, AutoTechnic, Digital Workshop, Seawhite of Brighton and Specialist Crafts in Leicester.

The Wild Art year was launched in July 2001 with an art curriculum pack of ideas for lessons based around the theme of the Natural World. Pupils were stimulated to develop creative visual responses to their investigation of air, plants, earth, movement, water, animals, growth, seasons, issues such as pollution, and the destruction of the environment. They explored the work of contemporary artists who work wtih the natural world and the art of Islam, India, Australia and Africa.

During the year the Wild Art team has worked with 9 professional artists. Each one has been based at a museum, natural site and / or in various schools.

Arthur Penn
Schools Adviser - Art and Design
Wild Art Project Director
Arthur.Penn@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Graham Woodall
Project Manager
gdwoodall@hotmail.com