Download the Teachers Information Leaflet
dot-art Schools is an interactive, online, inter-school, art competition, taking part on an annual basis and culminating in an exhibition. Open to primary (year 5) and secondary (year 9) schools in the Liverpool City Region and now in Cheshire West & Chester, Cheshire East and Warrington. It is designed to nurture talent, raise ambition, and take art out of the classroom and into the real world. With the current threats to creative subjects on the national curriculum, dot-art Schools offers a way of keeping young people engaged with the arts, allows them to see a creative career path, and encourages them to attend exhibitions and engage with culture, outside of school.
During the Autumn and Spring terms, each school creates and selects 25 pieces of student work which they feel best represent the talents of their students. These art works are submitted to their dot-art Schools page by February Half Term, then put on display to the world via the dot-art Schools website (schools.dot-art.com).
A panel of art experts will select the top 3 artworks from each school. Students from all the schools in the programme, as well as the general public, will then be able to vote for their favourite piece of art from the judge's shortlist. During the Summer term, an exhibition will be held at a gallery showcasing the artwork with the most votes from each participating school. The overall winner and two runners up in both age categories are chosen and announced at the prize giving ceremony.
Overall winner
Runners Up x 2
Overall winner
Runners Up x 2
All winning artists (1 from each partipating school) will also receive a Cass Art goody bag and a Tangle Teezer hairbrush.
All shortlisted artists (3 from each partipating school) will be awarded certificates.
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This annual programme will encourage healthy competition between students and schools, as well as driving traffic to the site and therefore increasing the audience for the students' work and the profile of the school. The final exhibition will provide a wonderful opportunity for the successful students to show their work in a public setting and a fantastic way of celebrating the art work created and the school's commitment to arts education, demonstrating the quality of art produced to parents, families, local authorities and the wider community. Finally the programme can help participating schools meet many of the KS2 and 3 National Curriculum requirements for Art and Design, the criteria outlined in the OFSTED evaluation framework, as well as providing a valuable tool for schools working towards Artsmark status.
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Pupils benefited greatly from the feedback received when their work was shared locally or more widely...
Schools should... build sustained partnerships with art galleries and creative practitioners.
Pupils who met with inspectors reported consistently the motivational impact of seeing their own work displayed professionally and publicly...
The public exhibition of students' work was highly effective in strengthening links between schools and the local community, including diverse community groups, different generations and those living in contrasting socio-economic circumstances.
Extracts from: Ofsted Report - Making a mark: art, craft and design education, 2008/11
Download the Teachers Information Leaflet
dot-art Schools was launched in 2012 and since then over 5000 children have taken part from almost 300 schools. We have held exhibitions at the Domino Gallery, the Walker Art Gallery, St George Hall and the Liverpool School of Art and Design and each year, three children from each participating school have been presented with a certificate by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool. This wonderful prize giving ceremony, attended by families and staff, which for the Liverpool programme now takes place in the LJMU Art School, is where the overall winners and runner up are also announced. In response to feedback from schools, in September 2016 we changed the primary age group from Year 6 to Year 5.
In September 2016, thanks to our new partnership with LJMU, dot-art Schools also launched in Cheshire. Primary and secondary schools in Cheshire West & Chester, Cheshire East and Warrington are currently taking part in the pilot year of our second region.
We are pleased to announce that from February 2018, dot-art Schools is an Artsmark Partner,. Artsmark is the creative quality standard for schools and education settings, awarded by Arts Council England, recognising their commitment to high quality arts and cultural education. dot-art Schools is proud to be supporting schools and education settings on their Artsmark journey, inspiring children and young people to create, experience, and participate in great arts and culture.
Find out more about Artsmark at artsmark.org.uk To find out how we can support your Artsmark journey, contact Carolyn on 0345 0176660.
Please download the document below for more details about how the programme works and the benefits it can bring:
Key Facts 2017-18:
Feedback from exhibition visitors:
Key Dates 2017-18:
The dot-art Schools programme has been developed by dot-art, a Liverpool based arts organisation which has been supporting artists and developing innovative and creative visual arts projects and initiatives since 2005.
We are now using our skills, experience and expertise to give the young people of the region access to an exciting new public platform for their creative output, and a taste of the way the art world works.
dot-art is made up of two arms:
dot-art Ltd was founded in Liverpool in 2005 and specialises in affordable, high quality, locally sourced art. We work with over 100 artists to provide an unrivalled choice of original art and limited edition prints for home or business, as well as offering a range of complementary services including; commissions, art rental, art consultancy, exhibition planning and implementation, bespoke framing, art valuation and restoration and artist sourcing. See: dot-art.com
All our work supports our not-for profit arm dot-art Services CIC, which exists to support North-West based visual artists, both emerging and established, through a range of services and opportunities designed to help them develop their careers and gain exposure and promotion for their work, as well as delivering a programme of adult art classes at a range of venues across Liverpool (see: dot-art.co.uk/art-classes); and dot-art Schools, our innovative inter school art competition, launched in 2012. See: services.dot-art.com.