Two of the country’s leading street artists have been communicating with staff and pupils from Nine Maidens Academy in Cornwall after hearing their work had inspired the pupils’ GCSE coursework.

Students at Nine Maidens alternative provision Academy, in Redruth, were introduced to the works of street artists Yuvi and Binty Bint by their Art and Design Technology teachers, Tina Leack and Jules Roche as part of their GCSE Art, Craft and Design curriculum.

Tina said: "Two years ago we visited a gallery in Newbury which was exhibiting work by London based street artist Yuvi and immediately saw the potential for using it to engage our pupils.

"Some of our pupils can lack self confidence in expressing themselves artistically, often feeling that the art they have been exposed to before has not been relevant to them."

Every year, art work from Nine Maidens is exhibited at the St Ives Society of Artists gallery and, in December 2019, Tina entered a full wall of Yuvi-inspired work produced by her pupils which then received enthusiastic feedback from the public.

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"Looking at Yuvi’s work and finding faces they knew opened a world of creativity to them which they felt they could be part of and engage in."

"Yuvi kindly 'liked' the work when we sent him a picture and so I contacted him again this year to show him how their work had developed."

Much to the delight of the teachers and their pupils, Yuvi replied to the message, this time sending them a short 'thank you' video message and asking for photos of their work to put on his social media channels and website.

Another street artist who has inspired the Nine Maiden pupils is Binty Bint, a mother and daughter professional graffiti mural artist team.

After hearing that a year eleven pupil wanted to decorate her classroom bin 'binty' style, the teachers posted a message to the artist on social media providing images of the early stages of the project and thanking her for inspiring young girls in art.

Jules said: "We got an immediate response from the artist saying this had made her so happy and asking us to send additional pictures which we have done.

"Receiving such a positive response from the artists themselves has given a fantastic boost to the pupils at such a challenging time."