ADFAS gave a grant of £300 to Hertfordshire Young Carers to help fund art-related activities in school holidays, with one session for 10-12-year-olds and one for 13-18-year-olds.

We were delighted to receive the attached picture of art work on the school fence for everybody to enjoy. This was made possible by one of this year's ADFAS donations. 

Local Art Competition for Primary Schools reaches highest standard yet 

Children from 14 schools across Dacorum came together to celebrate their artistic achievements this weekend, at an award ceremony for the Dacorum Young Artists competition. 

The children and their families attended the event at Open Door Berkhamsted, where their shortlisted art works are on display in the gallery. 

Now in its sixth year, the annual competition for local school children (years 4 & 5) aims to foster art in the face of pressure from mainstream subjects. This year the competition had to take place online due to Covid restrictions, but the panel of judges, led by leading local artists Mary Casserley, still had over 240 entries to choose from.  

Awarded Best Overall was Laurence Blythe of Potten End School, 2nd placed was Poppy Rogers of The Thomas Coram School and 3rd was Archie Thompson of Long Marston School. These students were awarded trophies and vouchers to spend on art materials at Berkhamsted Arts & Crafts. The Overall winner, Laurence, had his name engraved on the competition Cup which will take pride of place for a year at his school. 

Mary Casserley spoke at the event and offered inspiration to the young people, describing her journey from talented child artist growing up in Berkhamsted, to her present day career as artist and illustrator. She commented, “The entries to this year's competition were of a higher standard than ever and it was a very tough choice to pick the winners. All of you should be very proud of your work!”  

Berkhamsted Mayor, Cllr Stephen Claughton was guest of honour at the ceremony, which was also attended by the President of Berkhamsted Rotary, John Whiteley and representatives of the competition's backers. Dacorum Young Artists is promoted and supported by the Rotary Clubs of Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead, The Arts Society Gade Valley and Ashridge Decorative & Fine Arts Society. 

“It’s been a fantastic morning meeting all these talented young artists,” said Joan Fisher, Manager of Open Door “We learnt first-hand how beneficial the competition has been for some children who have struggled over the past year, giving them a creative goal to focus on has really boosted their wellbeing.” 

The competition to find the  Dacorum Young Artists of 2022 has been launched this month, with the theme of ‘What should Your World look like in 2050?' berkorotary.org

The Dacorum Young Artists exhibition can be viewed in the gallery at Open Door until Saturday 2nd October from 9.30am – 3.30pm. 

As part of the feedback the Committee received from those past and present members attending the ADFAS 50th Anniversary Party in March 8th 2017 at the Boxmoor Lodge Hotel, there was praise for both the short presentation by Nicola Collins, the impressive Head of Art and Design at J F Kennedy School in Hemel Hempstead, and for the display of some of their work. You will recall that we had used some of the funds provided through reclaiming Gift Aid on your membership fees to pay for a small printing press for this school.  

Photographs of the evening, including those of Nicola and the work produced by her pupils, are in the earlier announcement on this website. 

Here are her words from that evening.

Good evening everyone.

First of all I would like to thank you all for inviting me to help celebrate your 50th anniversary celebrations. I hope you are all having a lovely evening. I am honoured to be up here speaking to you all tonight about how ADFAS has been generously supporting the creative development of our students at John F Kennedy School.

When I took on the role as head of art and design almost three years ago, one of my primary goals was to extend the curriculum opportunities for our students to include both sculptural and printmaking media. The sculptural aspect was pretty straight forward. Collect a ton of recycled materials, throw in a bit of artistic inspiration and away you go. Within a year our students were exhibiting, not only some lovely drawings and paintings at our annual show, but also a gigantic polar bear with wings, a seven foot fridge sculpture and an artful armchair made out chicken wire and an old car door. Kids are nothing if not resourceful!

The challenge we faced was how to introduce professional standard printmaking into the art curriculum at a time when all state school budgets are being squeezed across the country and many school are having to cut creative subjects out of the curriculum entirely, because of the running costs they incur.

This is where your ADFAS group came to the rescue. With your generous donation, we have been able to invest in a professional standard printing press and supporting equipment to be able offer our students the experience of creating work with this versatile art form.

Just to clarify, a printmaking press is not the same machine you have at home that’s attached to your computer. A fine art printing press ranges from £500 to £10,000 in price, is monumentally heavy and, if kept in good nick, can work for several hundred years. Hopefully, I won’t be teaching as long as our press lasts, before the government say I can qualify for my pension!

Specifically, we have acquired an etching press. It consists of two hard rollers that are in contact with a flat hard bed. These rollers are pushed toward one another, squeezing the bed between them. One of the rollers is turned by a hand crank, which propels the bed from one end to the other. The pressure is used to push dampened paper into the recesses of the etched plate. The paper pulls the ink out of the recesses, and voilá, a print is born.

The different printmaking methods we can now introduce to our students with this press include drypoint etching, collographs, monoprinting, lino cut and wood cut.    Examples of these along with some of the students' own work is at the back of the room, if you would like to have a look.

The benefits of teaching printmaking at secondary level are huge. It is an intellectual and manual process that is hugely engaging, physically hard work and at times, extremely messy. The immediacy and range of results that can be created in just a few hours appeals to students of all abilities. The secret of teaching intaglio seems to consist of a minimum of explanation on the part of the teacher and a maximum of experimentation and discovery on the part of the student. Students often discover ways of working that the teacher has completely overlooked. The potential for artistic discovery with this new printing press is extremely exciting and we are hugely grateful for your support.