Isle of Wight schools project to combine fine art with classical music

Nearly 100 primary school teachers and participating pupils were at the launch of the second phase of Professor Robin McInnes’s Inspiring Art and Music project.

Comprising a 30-minute interactive video that matches great artworks, each of which tell a story, accompanied by emotive pieces of classical music, pupils have been researching the artists or musicians, painting their own works in the style of Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso and others, writing essays and composing their own music.

This term the project was aimed at primary schools, and pupils from Brighstone, Nine Acres and Summerfields were involved.

Last term’s pilot project brought together the Island Free School and Ryde School.

The intention is to offer the video and its accompanying teacher guide to every primary school on the Island.

The project video was conceived by Prof McInnes and Chloe Stanford-Clark, produced by Will King and introduced by Emily Kelmendi. It was filmed at Martin Beisly Fine Art in London.

The finale of the launch event was a solo performance by Island harpist Bella Brown.