College students help win silver at Chelsea Flower Show

Stoke-on-Trent’s entry into the RHS Chelsea Flower Show has won a silver award.  The Potteries' Transformation Garden, which has seen contributions from students at Newcastle-under-Lyme College, was designed to represent the city's industrial heritage along with the on-going regeneration in the area.

Students studying the Foundation degree (Fd) in Contemporary Art Practice at NULC have been making ceramic flowers as part of the British Ceramics Biennial (BCB).  The first year students worked with Rita Floyd making ceramic flowers which were part of the final installation showcased at yesterday’s Chelsea Flower Show.

The Contemporary Art Practice students have also been using the theme and traditional ceramic technique as the starting point for their project at the College’s University Centre.

Yesterday students from the College travelled to the Chelsea Flower Show where they mingled with celebrities and viewed their work  A number of celebrities toured the gardens including Davina McCall, Ringo Starr, George Lamb, Judith Chalmers, Gary Kemp, Jerry Hall, Ben Fogle, Rob Brydon, Laurence Llewelyn Bowen and Kirstie Allsopp who tweeted from her @KirstieMAllsopp account: "This is the Stoke-on-Trent Garden. Each flower is hand-made in Stoke!”

NULC student Kate Windsor (pictured below), aged 43, of Penkhull, who was involved in the project, said: "I didn't expect to be meeting so many celebrities, it has been amazing. We are all incredibly proud of the finished product."

The College is now calling for members of the public to vote for The Potteries' Transformation Garden in the popular RHS People's Choice competition.  It is the only award at the Chelsea Flower Show that is decided by public vote and people have until 4pm on Friday 24 May to vote by visiting http://www.rhs.org.uk/chelsea.

To find out more about studying the Foundation degree in Contemporary Art Practice at Newcastle-under-Lyme College's University Centre click here or contact the Information Point on 01782 254254 or email info@nulc.ac.uk.