Art students from Shrewsbury College will exhibit their work next week at a Shrewsbury town centre exhibition space.

Bill Sample and Rebecca Collins, who are due to complete their Foundation degrees in Contemporary Art Practice, have been working individually on their final creative projects. Their pieces will be on display in the Riverside Shopping Centre’s exhibition room, from Saturday, 9 May until Wednesday, 20 May and members of the public are being encouraged to drop in and view their work for free.

Bill Sample, 61, from Shrewsbury, said: “The current exhibition is a body of work in response to a collection of poems by Ted Hughes: Crow: From the Life and Songs of Crow (1970).

“In earlier projects on the course I developed an interest in local myths and legends and moved to making large-scale work. I made a large scale tiger and Queen Victoria and a replica of Tipu’s tent, as part of our project at Powis Castle.

“On this project I have collaborated with various organisations, particularly Natural England and Natural Resources Wales. Both have been very helpful in allowing me to cut a free supply of willow rods to use in one work – a large (2m high x 4m long) willow crow.”

Rebecca Collins, 43, from Shrewsbury, has linked her exhibition to ‘History Makers’ –  a local project which has been funded by the National Lottery. The project aims to find evidence of what happened to ordinary people during the First World War and to produce a large digital community archive and travelling exhibition.
She said: “I have created a series of paintings, videos, photographs and clay sculptures as a response to my time spent at the Shropshire Regimental Museum.

“My intention with this project has been to focus my interest in examining the extraordinary lives of ‘things’ by looking at a selection of objects from the First World War. My aim is to highlight how current generations relate to and perceive objects from the World War I and to question whether these objects can provoke thought about the lives of people who lived a century ago.”

The exhibition space will be open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm.

For more information about Higher Education and Art courses at Shrewsbury College, please come to the Advice Event on June 4 from 5pm to 7pm, visit www.shrewsbury.ac.uk or call 01743 342411