South Tyneside College students have collaborated with South Shields Museum & Art Gallery on a unique exhibition project inspired by artist John Peace and his retrospective exhibition Tyne & Tide, which is currently on display in the museum.
In response to Peace’s featured landscapes, seascapes and interiors, the students created artworks of their own – depicting the places that to them symbolise ‘My Patch’. The project has culminated in an exhibition at the museum, providing the students with the opportunity to gain essential real-life work experience as exhibiting artists within a museum and gallery setting.
Leslie Palanker-Jermyn, Assistant Learning Officer, said: “An important aspect of the project is that it provides work-based learning to give students an experience of presenting work in a professional context. As well as the artistic challenges presented to them, they have had to consider the interpretation and presentation of their work in a real exhibition setting.”
Philip Lewis Robinson, Level 2 Art and Design student, said: "This project was so interesting. I have explored unknown areas and learned a lot, not only that but my work is going to be exhibited in a gallery for the first time."
Both the student exhibition My Patch and Tyne & Tide: John Peace - selected North East paintings are on display at South Shields Museum & Art Gallery until 7 May 2022.
John Peace studied at the South Shields School of Art from 1949-51, then at Leeds before gaining a place at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. He had a lifelong career in painting, as well as teaching art, and produced hundreds of paintings; many of which captured the landscape and aspects of social life in the changing region around him. It was a career deeply influenced and shaped by his time in South Shields.
Tyne & Tide showcases around 80 works all drawn and painted throughout the North-East and spanning more than six decades of Peace’s life.
For full details of opening times, events, and facilities available, please visit the website southshieldsmuseum.org.uk