19th January 2010

West Sussex County Council have commissioned Impact Art to carry out a public art programme and consultation to take a school campus beyond the ordinary. The work is part of a £50m scheme to develop the Bognor Regis Community College (BRCC) and primary school under the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families’ BSF programme sets out to reform secondary education, using school buildings to engage and inspire teachers, young people and their local communities for decades to come.

The BRCC project aims to do just that by rebuilding a mixed secondary school, infant and junior schools, while considering an existing sports centre and skills centre. The site location is in an area of some deprivation, so there is an added impetus to provide the best quality learning environment, one that encourages involvement and a sense of regeneration, and stimulates learning for disengaged pupils.

Impact Art's role

Consulting with staff, students and the wider community, Impact Art will nurture local creativity by offering numerous opportunities for cultural contributions.

These include:

  • Establishing an Arts Steering group, involving students as interviewers, creating the project brief, applying for external funding, commissioning a lead artist to work across the campus- appointed sculptor Will Nash.
  • Promoting the creative curriculum, projects such as Year 9 pupils working with appointed artist Will Nash on identity mind maps, architectural modelling and family crest design. Primary students project understanding and developing wayfinding navigation and identity.
  • Project management of main public art commission by Will Nash.
  • Developing a collaborative project with cultural partners Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, curating and gallery management course for Year 6 and 7 students.
  • Creating a community gallery space run by students in both schools exhibiting work from gallery collections alongside students work.

Belinda Holden, Director, Impact Art comments: ‘By integrating creative opportunities into the design and construction of public buildings, we can establish an identity that strongly relates to the community that will use them.

‘Working with West Sussex County Council, architects Stride Treglown and developers Willmott Dixon Group, we are developing the arts project content through a process of artistic participation and dialogue. One that recognises the campus’s past, explores its transition and celebrates its future.’