Arts Centre

SPECIALIST CREATIVE ARTS FACILITIES

The Arts Centre at d’Overbroeck’s was fitted in 2021 and equipped with a range of high-spec equipment to meet the needs of students working with various materials and processes.

The dedicated building is the perfect working space for students considering a higher-level qualification or career in a creative field.

The Arts Centre site is located within 10 minutes’ walk of our main Sixth Form centre in the bustling community of Summertown. Situated in a modern and creative suburb of Oxford, the d’Overbroeck’s Arts Centre is close to the city’s wide variety of world-famous galleries and art museums.

WHICH SUBJECTS USE THE ARTS CENTRE?

Fine Art GCSE (the International School)

The International School’s fine art department features a large central studio space, providing students plenty of room to create ambitious work. The walls offer extensive display boards with each year 11 student given space to display and store work from their ongoing projects. This transforms the space throughout the year in response to each student’s personal journey.

Fine Art A-level

The sixth form art department has 2 spacious rooms. Upper sixth students have their own workspaces, each with a mobile room divider to be able to pin up their work and research materials, allowing them to personalise their studio space.

Textiles A-Level

Individualised workspaces with mobile room dividers give upper sixth students dedicated spaces, able to pin up their work and research to personalise their work areas, with lower sixth using larger communal workspaces. Textiles hosts specialist equipment including a light exposure unit, water washout booth and heat press in addition to sewing machines and embellishers.

Photography A-level

Photography offers a dark room featuring 6 enlargers and a chemical bath to support analogue photographic processes. The main teaching space also contains a set of computers with software such as Adobe Creative Cloud for digital photography as well as digital printing.

SPECIALIST EQUIPMENT

Across the 4 departments, there are many pieces of specialist equipment. While some equipment is based in a particular subject, each department shares its facilities with other areas giving students across all 4 subjects access to specialist resources including:

Kiln: Giving students the opportunity to work with ceramics
Workshop: Band saw, Mitre Saw, Fret Saw, Pillar Drill, Sander, and various hand tools.
Laser Cutter: Giving the options to cut and engrave into wood, plastic, fabrics and metals
Etching Press: Enabling intaglio printing
Dark Room: Access to our photography departments dark room, enabling analogue photography and light sensitive chemical processes with 6 enlargers and a chemical bath.
Computers with Adobe software installed: Photography computers with Adobe Creative Cloud Software including Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro and InDesign.
Large format printer: The photography department printer.
Light Exposure unit: Based in Textiles, the light exposure unit supports silk screen printing, and can be used for other light-based processes such as cyanotypes.
Heat Press: Based in Textiles, the heat press is used for heat-based processes, particularly image transfers.
Water Washout Booth: Water washout area within the Textiles classroom for silk screen cleaning.