A Pop Up exhibition created and curated by students studying the Art & Design Foundation Diploma at YorkCollege will explore the ideas of treasure, personal value and hidden memories when it opens at York St Mary’s later this month.

The exhibition entitled, Value of the Find, responds to the current main exhibition at York St Mary’s, Finding the Value, which sees new work being created out of the personal collections of one man, Peter Madsen.

Inspired by the themes of the main exhibition, York College students have set out a brief for interested artists and chosen around 20 works to be put on show, alongside other works by the students themselves.

They have participated in every part of the exhibition process, from curating and creating new works to marketing and logistics. University of York students are also gaining new skills in work placements within the project.

Griselda Goldsborough, Education Co-ordinator, who has run the project on behalf of York Museums Trust says:

“The students have done fantastically well to bring together all the elements needed to put on an exhibition. They have been involved in every aspect, with each taking on a specific role. It has been great to see them grasping the opportunity to be part of the project and seeing it all come together. The works the student curators chose all sit well together and the pieces of art created by the students will look fantastic.”

York College student Alex Morrillon intends to progress to university to study fine art.

He said:

“I have gained an insight into curating, which is a niche area. I knew nothing about the process of putting an exhibition together before I came on this course and it is definitely an area of work I could explore in the future.”

The exhibition will run from October 25 to November 2 and is FREE. York St Mary’s is open from 10am to 4pm, but will stay open to 8pm on Friday October 31 and November 1 as part of Illuminating York. www.yorkstmary’s.org.uk

The project is part of York Museums Trust’s informal learning programme.

The first part of the project for the students saw the co-ordinator post a brief on the website www.curatorspace.com appealing for artists to submit work which looked at the themes of value, memory and hidden treasure.

From those submitted, the students then chose 20 works which most impressed for inclusion in the exhibition. Meanwhile York College students created new works themselves to be put forward for inclusion.

The exhibition compliments the main Exhibition Finding the Value, which also runs until November 2. This showcases the work by five artists that responds to the collection of York man Peter Madsen who bequeathed his estate to York Museums Trust in 2011.

The commissioned  artists, Andrew Bracey, Alison Erika Forde, Yvette Hawkins, Susie MacMurray and Simon Venus, all take different aspects of the collection as the basis for new works. All of the works created consider questions about the inheritance of cultural values and the meaning of value.