A fabulous celebration of the expressive arts at Bishop’s.
On Wednesday 10th July, Bishop’s Expressive Arts Faculty showcased all of the wonderful talent on offer amongst its students. Art, Graphics, Drama and Music all came together to present an art exhibition, concert and play which were enjoyed by a full-capacity audience.
When visitors arrived they began the evening by perusing the impressive array of work within the exhibition which had been created by our GCSE Art, Craft, Design and GCSE Graphic Communication students. This included a range of portraiture, mixed media art work and still life from the Art students, and packaging design, book covers, posters and merchandise from our Graphics students. The level of talent on display was exceptional. The exhibition remained open for the next couple of days allowing the rest of the school to visit and appreciate the fantastic work on display- a real inspiration to some of our younger students wishing to choose these subjects for GCSE.
After they had enjoyed the exhibition our audience moved up to the school hall to take their seats for our concert. The concert showcased a real variety of material including a wide array of items from our Music department, a play performed by the Bishop’s Acting Troupe (BATs) and two numbers performed by the Musical Theatre Club.
Musical offerings included two beautiful pieces by our keyboard group, which opened the concert, accompanying Eva M as our singer. Orchestra performed two pieces with commitment and assurance, one of which was an arrangement by Em W in Year 10, which she conducted in the performance. Our ukulele ensemble gave a lovely rendition of A Whole New World, from Aladdin, and the Bishop’s Choir closed the concert with an energetic delivery of two songs, bringing the house down with their rendition of High Hopes. It was also wonderful to hear a range of accomplished solo performances from seven girls from year 8 to year 12, performing on a range of instruments including voice, clarinet, violin, trumpet and piano.
Performing either side of the interval was the Bishop’s Acting Troupe who performed Find a Partner! by Miriam Battye. The students from years 7 to 10 performed with real energy and vigour to produce an engaging portrayal of finding love in today’s world of reality TV. BATs meet weekly for an after school rehearsal and have been working on this performance since September 2023.
An exciting performance of Ex-Wives, from Six, and I know it’s Today from Shrek the Musical were delivered by our Musical Theatre Club. It was a perfect opportunity for the girls to be able to showcase their talents which they did with both commitment and enthusiasm. Mrs James was very proud of their performance on the night.
Congratulations to all the girls involved in the Expressive Arts Showcase 2024 who should be rightly proud of their achievements. It was fantastic to see so many students, over 180, involved in this event, showing what a vibrant and busy faculty the Expressive Arts Faculty is. Thanks also to all the members of staff who contributed to the event and without whom it would not have been possible.
