Students from three Yorkshire Schools were invited to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park as a prize for winning a sculpture competition within their school...

"The year 8 students took part in a sculpture competition organised by Leeds based, award winning The Cool Drinks Company, who provide healthy drinks vending at 40 schools across Yorkshire. To encourage recycling of plastic bottles, the pupils were tasked with creating sculptures from the empty bottles and lids. A variety of sculptures were created, including spacecraft, animals and vehicles, and the winning students were invited to a celebration and workshop at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

The visit took place on the 17th December and included students from Bruntcliffe High School. The students were given a tour of the YSP grounds to see examples of sculptures at the park to compare with those they had made using the recycled drinks vending bottles. In the afternoon they took part in an artist-led workshop to practice new techniques and design their own sculptures in the YSP grounds.

Tracey Mosley, who led the initiative at Clifton said “We had an excellent response to the recycling collection, and the competition provided a stimulating one-off activity that the students really enjoyed.“

Aaron Prout from The Cool Drinks Company said: “The competition was a great way to encourage recycling at schools. We have organised a number of different education initiatives and visits with schools, and the sculpture competition is always one of the most popular.”

Claire Blundell Jones from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park said, “It has been great to have this recycling competition taking place in local schools and exciting to see the students ‘bottle’ sculptures here at the Park. The workshop has offered the winning students the chance to develop their ideas and knowledge further, and to take inspiration from the Park to create more sculptures from a range of materials”

Well done to colleagues at Bruntcliffe High School.
Chris