Despite the early, cold and wet start to the day on Friday 31st of January, we were all in good spirts and ready for the adventure ahead! As we headed away from the coast to pick up Priestlands the long journey ahead was at the back of our minds, as all egger to get there and begin being arty!

When we finally arrived in North Wales, we refuelled and sprung to action to join our artist for a first session of the weekend workshops. This was where the preparation began; students were painting backgrounds, drawing ravens, building armatures for sculptures and producing artist research - we were all in our element. Students and staff threw themselves into the workshops, working solidly until around 10pm. Then there was time for a well-deserved rest, a bit of social and down time and the opportunity to make some new friends.

Day 2 – All up at the crack of dawn and raring to go, everyone was fully engaged in their individual workshops by 9am, learning new techniques and taking risk was certainly the order of the day! The work produced was of the highest quality and developing at such a and fast pace, the centre was buzzing with creatively and energy. Finally, we had to stop many of the workshops creeping past 10.30pm, to ensure we were ready for our final exhibition of work the following morning. Lights out and we all slept well!

Day 3 – Slightly harder to get up this morning, completely exhausted with all the work we had produced, but once we were awake we all set off again to complete our work. In the last few hours, we indulged in our workshops, not wanting to experience to end, but driven to get everything finished for our exhibition and slide show.

Students and staff were very proud of all our work in the exhibition, it looked fantastic. Then home time arrived and we carefully transported the work to the coach to embark on our long journey back down south to Highcliffe.

‘It was amazing, inspiring and such good fun the opportunity to be creative all weekend was just the best’ 

The ADT department cannot wait to go again with next year!