Burberry Cultural Runway - The Hepworth Wakefield

During the summer term of 2022, I worked with students from Co-op Academy Leeds and The Ruth Gorse Academy to create large-scale sculptures for the Cultural Runway event at Leeds Playhouse, a grand finale showcase for the 4 year Burberry Inspire Programme.

Inspired by Barbara Hepworth’s Family of Man sculptures and the theme ‘inspired people’, the students expressed emotions tied to significant people, places, and objects through patterns, shapes and sculpture through a series of in-school workshops.

At Co-op Academy, students translated their ideas into large-scale sculptures, designing and carving shapes for live assembly on stage. They animated their creations with light, projecting colours and patterns onto them.

Students at The Ruth Gorse Academy designed abstract shapes and prototype sculptures, which were produced in brightly coloured Perspex by Duke Makes, a local digital fabrication agency. During the Cultural Runway, these shapes were arranged into sculptures on stage, with dynamic lighting creating playful shadows and colourful projections.