The School of Art, Science and Technical Classes

Exhibition

The School of Art, Science and Technical Classes

Camille Henrot | FORT | Meirion Ginsberg
21 May - 17 September 2016

The School of Art, Science & Technical Classes takes as its point of departure the use of MOSTYN’s building as an art gallery and educational establishment from 1903 to 1912.

A variety of exhibitions took place and a range of arts and science-based classes were taught alongside other subjects. Some of the subjects on offer included life drawing, light & shade drawing, brushwork, geometrical drawing, woodcarving, metalwork, dressmaking, elocution, music, French and shorthand.

J. Hanmer Hutchings, who trained at what later became the Royal College of Art, was the head of the school and, together with various artists and academics, led the classes, which were supplemented by lectures on associated subjects. For the exhibition the gallery spaces will be separated into single exhibition spaces. Each of the ‘rooms’ will be based on a particular subject and discipline taught in the original school.

MOSTYN Visual Arts Programme Curator Adam Carr, some 100 years on, curates the new ‘classes’, with solo exhibitions by Camille Henrot, FORT and Meirion Ginsberg.

An additional room, will survey the time of the original art school and its links to the present, along with a history of a number of local schools. The three artists have been chosen for their international relevance and mastery, or emergence and promise, in the respective disciplines of the classes, which are ‘brush drawing’ (Camille Henrot), ‘metalwork’ (FORT) and ‘light and shade’ (Meirion Ginsberg). Each exhibition will present an expanded notion of, and break new ground in, how those disciplines might be today, at the same time speaking of their tradition. The terms are employed in this context with some irony. Arguably the original terms are outdated and have been replaced by new definitions, or have been co-opted by the term ‘Contemporary Art’. Paradoxically, they offer new ways of seeing and interpreting the work – in the same way that the History Series uses the past as a lens through which to reconsider the present. The historical presentation will continue in the spirit of the previous History Series exhibitions in harnessing a rigorous approach to research that creates strong and unexpected links with the local context, celebrates the history of the building and the surrounding area, and establishes new pathways for understanding society today.

About the History Series:
Through a combination of historical texts, objects and images, and works by contemporary artists, each exhibition observes a specific period in the building’s history. The intention is to offer the opportunity for the public to engage with MOSTYN’s past, and for local people to explore their own history, while MOSTYN’s history is presented on a national and international stage. The building’s former uses are taken as starting points from which to explore new avenues for the making and presentation of exhibitions, and for the engagement of audiences. The History Series of exhibitions is funded by The National Lottery through the Arts Council of Wales, and Heritage Lottery Fund. 

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