Visits

A group of 30 year nine students spent Wednesday at the Winter Gardens in Margate, along with groups of similar age invited from secondary and special school across the Isle of Thanet, where they learned about career opportunities in the arts. The students have recently chosen to study GCSE art, drama or music so they were all keen find out more.

The event, organised and supported by Kent County Council, Thanet District Council and the Turner Contemporary, had a Margate theme.
The day started with all the participants being escorted to the Queen's Hall whisked back to the sixties and seventies where they were treated to the sights and sounds of a very different Margate.

Using archive footage and a documentary made by students at Thanet College, the welcome presentation told the story of Margate from Victorian times to the present. Plans for the future were explained including the development of Dreamland, Margate Old Town, encouraging new local businesses and of course the Turner Contemporary.

A series of three workshops followed:

• The Retro Photo workshop saw our students experiencing the sophisticated equipment of a professional photo studio. They all had an opportunity behind and in front of the cameras.
• The Drum and Samba workshop gave our group the chance to shine as they took their previous percussion experience in music lessons and raced through new skills to fill the Queens Hall with original and well timed rhythms.
• Finally the group met artists from the Turner Contemporary where they each had an opportunity to decorate a tee-shirt or shoulder bag using screen printing and textile appliqué. It was an absorbing and fascinating experience which most students completed. This was all the more impressive considering only 50 minutes was allocated to the workshop.

The day was rounded off with presentations from the Mayor of Margate and the leader of Thaned District Council and a final blast from local band "Scream Don't Whisper" which was particularly popular with the Dane Court girls.