Supporters' Update
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Registered charity, no. 1172792 Supporters’ Update August 2020 Soirée at the Palace, The Queen’s Gallery, December 2019 It’s been twelve months since our last supporters’ update – and what a year – however there is lots of Art History Link-Up news to report, and we’re delighted to share that our courses and students continue from strength to strength. Our free Art History A level and EPQ courses for state supported students migrated online in March, when the National Gallery and Wallace Collection closed as a result of the pandemic, and have continued with great success. We had excellent student retention and extraordinary support from the sector, with visitors for virtual ‘Gallery Time’ – in place of the teaching time in the galleries – including Dr Xavier Bray, Director, The Wallace Collection, and Dr Caroline Campbell, Director of Collections and Research, The National Gallery, among many other generous colleagues, who are listed overleaf. As a result of this support and success we are offering entirely online courses from September. We hope to pivot to a hybrid model - government health and gallery regulations allowing - with some students based in the galleries, as in previous years, and others remaining entirely online, although we hope with visits to London galleries on occasion, pandemic permitting. This will allow us to extend our geographical reach and the number of students we are able to offer our opportunities to. Registered charity, no. 1172792 Several of our students have been directly affected by the pandemic, and as a result are unable or unwilling to travel, and so this online format will support existing students as well as new ones. We’ve strong levels of interest and applications already in our 2020-21 courses. As ever, our focus will continue to be on students who are BAME and / or with Widening Participation indicators. Over 100 students from over 50 state supported schools in and around London have studied art history with Art History Link-Up and we look forward to building on this achievement.We’re very proud of all our students, however especially thrilled that all seven who applied to Oxbridge this year were awarded places. We are so grateful to James Allen’s Girls’ School and our exam officer colleagues for ensuring that all our exam candidates were awarded our Centre Assessed Art History A level and EPQ Grades and met their university offers. We are delighted that many students are continuing for another year of study with us and will take the A level Art History exams following two years with AHLU. All our students are given the opportunity to take an Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) with us and these continue to be extraordinarily inventive in range and outcomes, including research on Albanian Socialist Realism, Charles Saatchi’s influence on Brit Art and whether all art should be nationalised. W. e are hugely grateful to the generous volunteer mentors who support our students through this process, listed overleaf,from across the sectors, and for being so understanding of the particular challenges our students faced as a result of the pandemic. The support from our volunteer EPQ mentors is of incalculable value to our students and could not be more appreciated. Registered charity, no. 1172792 Above all, we are so grateful to our supporters, who allow us to continue our work, especially our core funders, the Rothschild Foundation and James Allen’s Girls’ School, and our host galleries, the National Gallery and the Wallace Collection. We receive generous support from a wide range of bodies and organisations, detailed overleaf. We have also recently launched a Supporters and Patrons Scheme for private individuals. Please visit the supporters area of our website to find out more, and email [email protected] to find out ways in which you can become involved. Like everyone, we are unsure what the next year will bring, however we have every confidence in our online / hybrid offer, our outstanding teaching team, and above all our extraordinary students who have demonstrated such resilience, commitment and determination in continuing their studies throughout the pandemic. We could not be more proud of our students and greatly look forward to seeing where art history and life takes them. We believe that art history has the potential to transform our students – they tell us so themselves – and in turn, we believe they have the potential to transform the sector. Hear what some of our students have to say about their time with Art History Link-Up: I wanted to let you know that I got I wanted to say a massive I just wanted to say thank you so my grades and I got A*A*A, with thank you for all the help, and much for Art History Link-Up, it has “ A* in Art History. I also got into opportunities you have provided been by far the highlight of the past Cambridge so I’m very happy! I me with. I am so happy to say two years and infinitely valuable. just wanted to thank you all for I got into my firm university to Largely thanks to the course and being the most amazing teachers study History of Art!! I would not your help I’m going to St. Andrews and mentors. Doing this A Level have been able to achieve an to study Art History this September! has been such a joy these last two A* in both EPQ and Art History I’ll never forget all the amazing years and I’m so thankful to have without the amazing support you opportunities I’ve had and hope to joined AHLU. Wouldn’t change it for all have given me and I will be stay in contact with AHLU :) the world. Thank you again!!! forever thankful for it. ” Registered charity, no. 1172792 Phoebe: Feedback from some of “Art History Link-Up has not only provided me with AHLU’s Class of 2020: extremely interesting lessons but countless opportunities I would not have access to without the course. The Courtauld Summer University, work experience with Avesta: Chocolate Films and the V&A, and putting together a Art History’s greatest impact on my life was its influence tour with the Wallace Collection’s Teen Tour programme, in my degree choice. From the first lesson, my passion and were all only presented to me only via the course. These love for art was unearthed and brought to life, since it experiences were crucial when writing my personal was suppressed during secondary school. The lessons and statement for university in addition to allowing me to gallery time we would have viewing art in person affirmed explore different career options within the cultural sector. that I wanted to study a subject with a focus on the arts I’m now aspiring for a career in arts education, aiming and culture. In particular, I found the lessons on Ancient to help make Art History more accessible (much like the Greek and Roman art particularly fascinating. Our trips to work AHLU carries out!). the British Museum to see Elgin’s marbles and the Roman sculptures caught my interest, and learning about how they were created and their history was perhaps the trigger to me considering Classics as a degree. I can safely say that if it wasn’t for Art History, I would never had even thought of studying Classics. I now hold an offer to study Classics at Cambridge University this October and I couldn’t thank AHLU enough for nurturing this path of mine. Ore: AHLU provided me with some of the most amazing opportunities I never would have expected to have had signing up to the course. I was able to discuss a painting in the Colnaghi Gallery in London with viewers and fellow art lovers, analysing the painting with them, and discussing the wider implications behind the work. I was given such a unique platform on which to share my views and Anjalina: articulate the research I have been doing for the past year, With both incredible teachers and easy access to online as well as being able to speak about art and challenge resources, Art History Link-Up supported me in achieving any preconceptions of it. In fact, I felt the experience was the highest grades possible.. Even during a global pandemic, so valuable that I mentioned in my personal statement the charity was able to successfully move resources and when applying to the University of Oxford - an experience lessons online, whilst still being as exciting as in the gallery. I am certain many other applicants could not boast of. To Learning with a group of passionate individuals has inspired top it off, the soirées at Buckingham Palace were a real me to continue my art history journey to an undergraduate treat, to be able to speak to academics such as Prof. Craig level, and galleries have now become my home…Art Clunas and hear from members of the art world such as History Link-Up has created a network for me to turn to in the Director of the National Portrait Gallery Dr Nicholas the future… I will be forever thankful for this opportunity: Cullinan was so inspiring and gave me a genuine insight it has been the highlight of my college experience, and has into the mechanisms of the art world today. I want to thank made so many unforgettable memories. AHLU dearly for such a wonderful and eye-opening two years in the Wallace Collection and the National Gallery. You have instilled a love of art in me that I will cherish forever.