Visual Arts Work Showcased at Exhibition

Artists at Solihull Sixth Form College celebrated a year of hard work by showing their artwork at the 2026 Visual Arts Exhibition.

A private view took place in June with friends, family and staff invited to get a first look at the portfolios of work created for our A level and BTEC Art & Design courses. The artwork included paintings, drawings, sculpture, graphics, photography and fashion design pieces.

Curriculum Leader Zoe Maksymiw commented:

"It took three weeks to hang the artwork for the exhibition and we are all delighted with how it has turned out. Our young people have worked incredibly hard this year and produced some fantastic pieces of artwork. I am so proud of them and our staff for their dedication and talent."

Awards were also handed out at the Exhibition, including a Star of the Department prize for the student who has shown the greatest overall attitude and commitment; that award went to Year 13 Photography student Emily Dallaway. Independent Learner prizes were also handed out for each course and these went to Paige Connor (Fine Art), Tasnime Arbi (Graphics & 3D Design), Jaimee Greaves (Photography) and Grace Quinton (BTEC Art & Design Practice).

Each Visual Arts pathway is set a live brief project each year. This is to simulate what it is like to work in the Visual Arts industry, when practitioners are set a brief by a client and have to produce work to a strict deadline. For Fine Art, the live brief was set by Birmingham City University's Illustration department and learners had to create illustrated books. Kirsten Miles, Zara Faysal, Bahishta Ahmed-Atif and Cadey Heaven were given awards for their work in this project and Darcey O’Reilly and Katya Smirnova were highly commended. One student was also selected for the Royal Academy Youth Summer Show and that learner was Ellen Binder .

The live brief for the Graphics & 3D Design course was to create Chemistry Icons posters for the College's Chemistry department and the students given awards for this project were Sadie Lee, Hudhayfah Choudhary, Hedaya Ghadamsi and Alina Fatima. Meanwhile, Photography learners were asked to produce photographs for entry in the Sixth Form Colleges Association's annual Competition and three students were successful in getting their work selected; Tess Dennis, Orla McGarry and Flora Astbury.

19 June 2026