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Students ‘Takeover’ at Independent Arts

Students ‘Takeover’ at Independent Arts

On Saturday 19 November, seven students from Carisbrooke and Medina College organised and facilitated the most amazing Takeover Day at Independent Arts.

Our determined team rose to the challenge and took on the responsibilities of Hub Manager, Workshop Coordinators, Fundraisers and Hub Coordinators all in response to our incredible Biosphere project. They managed to organise some fantastic workshops, sell a range of merchandise and organise some fabulous live music, courtesy of our wonderful VI Form music students.

They were joined on the day by a group of incredibly talented fashion students, from The Island VI Form, who set up a pop-up shop displaying the most beautiful handmade tote bags.  They were also joined by Island Artist Pete Bradley who very kindly gifted us his time by creating a wonderful window display that members of the public were able to join in with.

The Hub saw 459 people through the door on Saturday, a new record for the local charity! 

We are so very proud of all the students involved and we cannot wait to work with Independent Arts again.

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Photography Winners!

Photography Winners!

Don’t miss out!

Our Biosphere exhibition is in its final two weeks of residency at Independent Arts in Newport town Centre. Make sure you pop down soon to see the incredible work that has been created by students across all three IWEF sites.

Work from the winners of our Biosphere Photography competition is included in the exhibition. You can see the winning photos below. 

1st Place- Riley H

2nd place- Lissy W

3rd place- Bailey S

Keep an eye out for exciting news coming soon relating to our highly anticipated Takeover Day at Independent Arts.

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Biosphere Blog – 24 June 2022

Biosphere Blog – 24 June 2022

We are very excited to announce that we are now at the next stage of our Biosphere Project.

On Tuesday 22 June we took delivery of a rather large piece of stone that will be turned into an incredible sculpture to form the legacy piece of our project. We are hoping that both students and staff across the Federation will have the opportunity to make their mark on this sculpture, working closely with our Artist in Residence to capture elements of the beautiful biosphere reserve in which we all live. 

We would like to extend our thanks to both George Jenkins and Geoff Banks who have very kindly sponsored the outcome of this project. 

Please watch this space for further updates!


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Biosphere Trip to Yaverland and Dinosaur Isle

Biosphere Trip to Yaverland and Dinosaur Isle

Hopefully many of you were able to join us on our recent trip as we completed a student takeover of our social media platforms! However, for those of you who were not able to see these posts, please read on to hear a little more about it.

This week a group of Key Stage Three students bravely battled the wind and rain to capture some amazing viewpoints in our diverse Biosphere.

The day started with us making our way to Dinosaur Isle where we met our Artist in Residence, Trudie Wilson. We are lucky to be working with an artist who is so knowledgeable about our local environment; we were fortunate to hear stories of dinosaur excavations that she has been a part of! We spent time in the museum, drawing, sketching and taking photographs. We were then able to see some fossils up close, creating watercolour studies within our new sketchbooks!

Our studies completed on today’s trip will help to inform the legacy work that is being completed towards the end of this project.

As the rain started to ease, we walked along the coast to explore the beach at Yaverland. It was here that we were able to appreciate the incredible sea views and geographical beauty that our Island has to offer.

A big thank you to Trudie and all the team at Independent Arts for supporting us with this project.

Stay tuned for more Biosphere news soon!




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Biosphere Blog – 11 February 2022

Biosphere Blog – 11 February 2022

‘This week we have had lots of fun exploring mark making using natural materials. All the materials were collected in the biosphere along the old railways of Brading marshes. It is great to be able to introduce the students to different ways of working and using natural materials in their work’.

Trudie Wilson, Artist in Residence

It was a real joy to see so many students engaging with the workshops this week. Classes had the opportunity to explore the ways in which our Biosphere can inspire us and allow us to create beautiful marks. We were all so impressed to see how students worked collaboratively and stepped out of their comfort zone to allow them to respond in a more abstract manner than what they are used to.


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First Marks Exhibition

First Marks Exhibition

On Tuesday 18th January we were able to take students from Year 7 and Year 8 to Independent Arts in Newport to help curate an exciting new exhibition called ‘First Marks’.

The work displayed forms part of the Creative Biosphere Project, which aims to inspire creativity within young  people through the Island’s UNESCO Biosphere status. This year-long  project hopes to foster an appreciation of the young people’s local environment  and heritage, strengthen partnerships, increase awareness of the Island’s  Biosphere designation and increase engagement with the Island’s cultural  organisations.

As part of this partnership, “artist in residence” Island paleo artist and sculptor Trudie Wilson has been running workshops in  school with pupils from years 7, 8 and 9, VI form and Art Foundation students. This exhibition is the first in a series of displays and events that Independent Arts will be undertaking with pupils from the school to celebrate their  exploration and discovery of the Biosphere. 

“This first exhibition shares our initial marks and ideas as we explore the  Creative Biosphere together. All the works are inspired by Isle of Wight  environments, from current life and biodiversity to 125 million years of  prehistoric heritage. Using various media to explore these concepts we  present our early experiments and visual ideas. ” – Trudie Wilson.

We were so impressed with the maturity of all students involved. They managed to show superb creativity and great decision making.

We look forward to all the exciting opportunities that this project will be able to offer to all members of our Federation.

The project is supported using public funding by the National Lottery  through Arts Council England and The Isle of Wight Area of Outstanding  Beauty (IWAONB), and by the two High Street Heritage Action Zones  (Newport and Ryde) and Ventnor Exchange’s #IWILL project.

First Marks will be on display to the public from 18th January – 7th February, 10.00am – 4.30pm, Independent Arts, Newport.





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