Art work by Cedar Road Primary to be displayed at National Gallery exhibition

Over 300 schools took part in the ‘Take One Picture’ project, submitting work inspired by Henri Rousseau’s ‘Surprised’ of a tiger, painted by the artist in 1891 and one of the Gallery’s most visited paintings. Cedar Road Academy is one of fifty schools whose art was chosen for the exhibition.

Cedar Road’s submission was a selection of large 3-D puppets that are presented in rainforest theatres. The puppets are paper mâché on top of recycled materials including plastic bottles and snack tubes based on the children’s original work creating puppet mouth mechanism. The children wanted to use recycled materials linked to themes in our Year 5 geography curriculum of deforestation, and animals’ loss of habitat. This all resulted in rainforest animals and plants being based on imagery from the rainforest and then in the style of Henri Rousseau reimagined with artistic licence!

There will be a private viewing to open this exhibition and celebrate the children’s work on the 1st August, before the art goes on public display until the 1st of September.

Clair Mills, Principal at Cedar Road Primary Academy said:

“I am immensely proud of our children - this is a huge achievement and we are extremely proud that the children’s creative work will be displayed in the National Gallery.

“The children spent a lot of time planning how they would interpret this picture. Our art lead Mrs Cook did a fantastic job of inspiring our children throughout this project with connected lessons in school, an after-school art club and art workshops at our local library. To their credit, they have been selected as exhibitors.”

Simon Rose, Director of Primary Education at DRET said:

“Many congratulations to Cedar Road Primary Academy pupils whose artistic creations have all been chosen as part of this national exhibition.

“We are thrilled that our pupils are able to experience such a wide range of enrichment by attending our schools and proud that 3 of the schools chosen to exhibit their art are DRET schools.”

Pupils are hoping to visit the exhibition with their families in the summer to see their work on display. This year the exhibition space will be displayed inside the Gallery and outside into Trafalgar Spare, as part of the Free Festival of Art, made by children for children, to create their own art outside the National Gallery to take home.