News & Press

HRH The Duchess of Cornwall today met young budding designers and attended a very special fashion show at the finale of DesignQuest at Banqueting House.

DesignQuest is a project created by The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts in partnership with independent charity Historic Royal Palaces and supported by the Burberry Foundation to encourage children to explore and learn about costume and design and to inspire them to create their own contemporary fashion designs.

The project launched in November 2010 with 330 children in Years 7, 8 and 9 (aged 11-14) from nine London schools taking part. The students began DesignQuest by visiting the ‘Enchanted Palace’ exhibition at Kensington Palace and viewing items from the palace’s Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection, a unique archive comprising around 10,000 items of clothing worn by British royalty and courtiers dating back to the 18th century. Artefacts including a debutante’s dress, Ambassador’s coatee and various royal garments were displayed to the group to help generate ideas for their own creations.

The children also took part in workshops at Kensington Palace and in their classrooms led by the Education team at Historic Royal Palaces. The Education team aimed to develop creativity, critical thinking and learning skills using cross-curricular links with Art, Design Technology and History. Having sought inspiration from the palace’s archive and exhibition, pupils were encouraged to produce their own fashion designs based on the theme of Court Dress. Students were introduced to the topics of upcycling and recycling through the alteration and embellishment of existing garments. They worked collaboratively to make contemporary versions of clothing worn throughout the ages at the royal court.
A main aim of the project is to give children who might not have the opportunity the chance to learn about design and fashion from arts practitioners and to see a professional exhibition:

“The majority of the children taking part wouldn’t normally have the chance to work with the Education team at Historic Royal Palaces, to have such wonderful access to the collection or  learn new skills and express their creativity in such a unique and fun way,”  said Jeremy Newton, Chief Executive, The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts.

The project culminated in a fantastic finale today at which HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, together with the Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London Sir David Brewer and Lord Mayor of Westminster Cllr Susie Burbridge, watched a very special fashion show of the children’s dress and jacket designs at Banqueting House. Master of Ceremonies for the fashion show was actor and one of the stars of Shrek The Musical, Richard Blackwood. Richard has recently become an ambassador for Children & the Arts.

Before the show began The Duchess attended an exhibition showing the children’s designs, and the creative processes that had gone into making  each of the garments. The Duchess spoke with young designers from each of the schools taking part.

Students from The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art then modelled a selection of the designs on the catwalk. After the show, The Duchess met the models and designers, praising the work that had gone into each of the garments and asking what in particular had inspired the young people’s designs.

Jeremy Newton thanked HRH The Duchess of Cornwall for attending:

“We are thrilled that HRH The Duchess of Cornwall was able to attend our finale and speak to so many of the children. The Duchess’ presence made our celebratory event particularly special.

This has been a very successful pilot project, and we hope to be able to run DesignQuest in future years and give many more children the opportunity to learn about design and use their own imagination and creativity to produce some amazing costumes.”

Ends

Notes to Editors

The schools taking part in DesignQuest are:

Burlington Danes Academy Wood Lane London W12 0HR

Westminster Academy 255 Harrow Road London W2 5EZ

Chelsea Academy Hortensia Road London SW10 0QS

Westminster City School 55 Palace Street London SW1E 5HJ

St Thomas More Language College 42 Cadogon Street Chelsea London SW3 2QS

Holland Park School Airlie Gardens Campden Hill Road London W8 7AF

Cambridge School(SEN) Cambridge Grove London W6 0LB

Sion-Manning RC Girls School 75 St. Charles Square London W10 6EL

The London Oratory School Seagrave Road Fulham London SW6 1RX
For further press enquires contact Carol Stork on 07920 560497

The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts (Children & the Arts) is one of The Prince’s Charities and has HRH The Prince of Wales as its President. There are 20 independent charities in the group, which is the largest multi-cause charitable enterprise in the UK.

Children & the Arts is an educational charity which champions the power of the arts to transform and enrich the lives of disadvantaged children across the UK. Our projects cover all arts forms including visual art, music, drama, film, dance, storytelling and poetry.

We know that early engagement with the arts has a positive impact on young people: raising aspirations, increasing confidence, developing communication skills, and improving academic performance in class. Perhaps most importantly the arts encourage creativity, experimentation and fun, often changing a child’s attitude towards learning forever.

Despite these facts there are still thousands of children who due to financial, social or even geographical barriers leave school having never set foot in an art gallery, watched a performance in a theatre or listened to an orchestra play. Through the work of Children & the Arts children learn that cultural venues are welcoming, accessible and exciting places to visit.

Our education programmes have helped to create long-term partnerships between arts organisations and their local schools. Our two core programmes, Start and Quests both highlight the potential of learning outside the classroom, enabling children to visit their local cultural venue to work with professional artists, and  then developing this experience through class-based projects and activities.

We encourage teachers to use the arts as a learning tool in class, and provide specialist training and materials to empower teachers to bring the inspirational world of the arts alive in the classroom.

We are a strong and committed advocate of arts education and the value it can provide to many disadvantaged children. Since 2006 we have worked with over 100,000 children but in the next few years we intend to triple this figure.

For more information please visit www.childrenandarts.org.uk

Historic Royal Palaces is the independent charity that looks after the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace the Banqueting House and Kew Palace. We help everyone explore the story of how monarchs and people have shaped society, in some of the greatest palaces ever built.
We receive no funding from the Government or the Crown, so we depend on the support of our visitors, members, donors, volunteers and sponsors. These palaces are owned by The Queen on behalf of the nation, and we manage them for the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
We believe in four principles. Guardianship: giving these palaces a future as long and valuable as their past. Discovery: encouraging people to make links with their own lives and today’s world. Showmanship: doing everything with panache. Independence: having our own point of view and finding new ways to do our work. www.hrp.org.uk Registered charity number 1068852