Our textile art is inspired by Bisa Butler. She is an artist who creates colourful, quilted portraits of Black people, telling their stories and celebrating their lives using vibrant fabrics.

First, we painted our Kente patterns on with glue. This technique is called Batik. Then, we washed off the glue and painted our fabric. Finally, we carefully chose different fabrics and cut them into different shapes to add to our collage.

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For Black History Month, yellow class have been exploring different types of materials and patterns from Africa. We have focused mainly on Kente cloth, a style of fabric from Ghana. We created our own Kente cloth designs by weaving paper and drawing patterns.

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We learnt about the African American artist Lorna Simpson, whose work uses Black hair as a central theme. We talked about how some people experience hair discrimination and discussed how we identify and describe our own hair.

Using the art technique zentangles, we created collages of ourselves in the style of Lorna Simpson.

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In Orange Class, we explored the lives and achievements of significant figures in Black history. Each student researched and shared inspiring stories about leaders, activists, artists, and trailblazers who shaped history and continue to influence the world today. Our display celebrates their contributions and reminds us of the importance of diversity, resilience, and equality.

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In Burgundy Class, we were inspired by Faith Ringgold’s story quilts. Having read her book, Tar Beach, we followed her themes of freedom and following our dreams, creating masterpieces depicting where we might fly to if we could and what we believe freedom means to us. We then assembled all our patches of quilt together to show all of our wonderful destinations.

Where would you go if you could?

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For Black History Month, Vermilion Class read a book by the author Faith Ringgold called Tar Beach. She was a painter, writer, speaker, activist, mixed media sculptor and performance artist. She was well-known for making quilts. She created a unique way of telling stories; painting using the quilt medium.

First published in 1991, Tar Beach has won over 20 awards and is based on one of her quilts also called ‘Tar Beach’. The themes of the book are about freedom, discrimination and achieving your dreams in the face of adversity. We made our own collages inspired by our dreams of a place that we would like to fly over, if we could.

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Tinga Tinga inspired art work by Red Class.

Tinga Tinga is a painting style that began in Tanzania, East Africa. The style of art was developed by Edward Saidi Tingatinga. The art work often features African animals, and is very bright and colourful.

Click on each picture in the gallery below to see the images in full.

Click on each picture in the gallery below to see the images in full.