WELLBEING
The Sevenoaks sculpture trail
Charley Openshaw , Head of Art
As the lesson-time hush on the paths about campus gives way to the chaos of the five minute hubbub of pupils chattily finding their way to the next period , a dozen or so immovable objects stand amid the chatter . Perhaps ignored , possibly used as makeshift bag racks , they nevertheless punctuate the backdrop to life around school - were they not there , they would likely leave a gap like a missing front tooth . These are the sculptures that have gradually been installed on the campus over the last decade . It is worth noting that not all will welcome such interjections into the community . “ Public art ” can have a bad name . Stephen Bayley ( Spectator 2015 ), when announcing the inaugural “ What ’ s That Thing ?” award rages that :
It ’ s rarely edifying . It is that ludicrous , annoying excrescence , reluctantly paid for by a guilty property developer or worried into existence by ambitious arts administrators with unemployed ‘ sculptors ’ or aesthetically inclined welders on their books . It tends towards silly overblown gestures and indulgent nonsense .
I don ’ t plan to try to gauge the value of public art , that which can be stumbled across rather than actively sought in a visit to a gallery . Rather , setting aside the debate , I ’ d like to outline a project that has emerged almost accidentally but I feel has value to the school community more deeply than as a celebration of publicly installed works of art . The Sevenoaks Sculpture Trail has emerged in this messy , organic way . Some of the works have been made by students , some by staff and one has been lent to the school . They are dotted around the place , sometimes responding to their location . This project has emerged to formalise the collection into a sculpture trail . They may be viewed in any order or simply individually . The trail is supported by a website , that is accessed by a QR code link to a web page about each piece . This aspect is key to the concept ; the website can support the sculptures simply by providing factual information about the piece , or perhaps the sculptor or why it came to be installed . However , the longer term aim is to embed resources on the pages of each piece . These resources can be very varied . Initially , they can support simple mindful responses to each piece . Perhaps a very short exercise based on slowly looking at a detail or listening to a short poem . A sequence of mindful exercises around the campus would provide a calm start to the day for a tutor group .
Looking ahead , plans are developing to embed deeper , broader resources . A small group of students have joined a group to identify options and help develop ideas . The casual logic of connecting a trail of sculptures lends itself to hanging a variety of resources on the framework . For example , academic departments could be asked to curate the material connected to a particular sculpture . One of the student-created sculptures inspired the artist ’ s Maths project . Based on a complex construction of metal mesh cubes of diminishing scale contained , Russian doll-like , within themselves , the student used a complex equation to calculate the negative volume of the piece : 3.5011080978 m3 .
The flexibility of the website means that new material can be added so that the trail remains fresh and its ease of access means that visitors to the campus can participate and respond as a novel way of enjoying the experience of seeing the school . Even in his article , Stephen Bayley agrees with the sociologist Herbert Gans , who said in 1974 , that High Art “ uses subtle ideas and requires a degree of interpretation by the viewer .”
Sevenoaks School sculpture trail can be found at : www . sevenoaksschoolsculpturetrail . org
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