Alice Leach helps explore the Power of Place with Dartington Hall School's 85th anniversary

Dartington Hall School is celebrating it’s 85th anniversary and artist Alice Leach is curating a series of art events to coincide with the events.

Alice’s work includes a pictorial map of the buildings of Dartington Hall School along with hand-printed limited editions a copy of which is being reproduced with accompanying text and archive photographs for the alumni weekend in September 3-5.

At Dartington’s gallery, there will be an exhibition focussing on the pre-war years of Dartington Hall School, which will include some rarely seen pieces from the Dartington Trust’s Collection.

The collection shows the extraordinary wealth of artists teaching in the early years, such as Cecil Collins and Mark Tobey, Bernard and David Leach and Hein Heckroth, who later went on to win an Oscar for his set designs for The Red Shoes.

Other works to be exhibited will include pieces by the potter Bernie Forrester, Breon O’Casey, Rachel Nicholson, and a unique painting of High Cross House by Lord Young of Dartington painted while at school. A number of these works reside in the hands of ex-Dartingtonians and have never been seen publicly.

A number of unseen photographs documenting the life of the school will be exhibited at Aller Park, which will be open for the first time since the closure of the school in 1987. Another room will hold an audio memory box where people can leave their thoughts.

There will also be a secret postcard show. Artists have been asked to create postcard-sized works of art in any media. They will be exhibited in the Roundhouse Cafe near the Barn Cinema and sold for the sum of £20 each. The twist is that the artist signs the postcard on the back so the buyer doesn’t know whose artwork they have got until they buy the card and then turn it over. All proceeds from the sale will go directly to the costs of the various projects planned.

Alice is also involved with getting a publication printed that aims to be a unique record of the visual arts of ex-Dartingtonians spanning the lifetime of the school from 1926 to 1987. Over 100 pages of images, poems, archive photographs, articles and quotes.

Take a look at the Power of Place site to find out more