HNC’s Year 13 A Level Textile Design students have recently returned from Venice where the group took part in an immersive cultural experience exploring one of Italy’s most famous cities, experiencing a wide range of landmarks and museums to develop their creative ideas to inform their final year creative pieces.
Famous for its unique geography, Venice – which is built on 126 islands within a shallow lagoon – is known for its floating buildings and waterways. The city has played an important role in the arts throughout history, and due to its impressive architecture and contribution to artistic movements such as the renaissance period, UNESCO designated the historic parts of the city as a world heritage site.
During the trip, the group were able to explore this famously beautiful city and enjoyed a guided tour around the Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo, known for its external spiral staircase and impressive views, trips to the islands of Murano and Burano, famous for their glass and lace production and a trip to St Mark’s Basilica, Venice’s Cathedral which is well known for its impressive architecture. As well as exploring Venice’s best-known landmarks, the groups also explored a range of museums, drawing influence from the exhibitions at the Guggenheim, Palazzo Ducale and Ca’ Pesaro galleries. The group also enjoyed some authentic Italian cuisine, including sampling the famous Italian dessert, tiramisu!
Vicky Close, Faculty Lead Enrich, comments “Our annual trip to Venice for our final Year Textile Design students is an important part of their creative journey. The city is well known for its contribution to art and design throughout history, and the impressive architecture, history and culture never fails to inspire our students. I know that they will take the experience and use it to inform their future creative projects. I am incredibly proud of our students, who genuinely embodied our College values and have used this opportunity to help them to become their best selves”.
Following the trip, we were contacted by a parent whose positive feedback was passed on to the teacher who organised the experience: “I wanted to express our heartfelt thanks for all of the time, effort, care and love that you put into the Venice trip. She had the best time and now wants us to go as a family so that she can show us everything she saw… It is teachers like you who have a huge, positive impact on our children by giving up so much of your own time to give them such an amazing opportunity.”
You can enjoy a gallery of the trip below.