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“Truly inspired” student artwork to grace Paxton HQ

27 January 2012

Foundation Degree Fine Art students from City College Brighton and Hove have been digging deep into their creative imaginations for Paxton, the Brighton-based access control company which employs over 160 staff and invests heavily in their local workforce of skilled experts, as well as training hundreds of installers up and down the country.

Paxton provided the students with a brief to produce artwork to be shown in their Brighton premises. Following site visits and presentations from the company, nine students developed proposals which were influenced by Paxton’s products, manufacturing processes and materials. Paxton were particularly keen for their circuit boards to be a key influence in the work produced. The students presented a diverse range of work to a panel of Paxton staff who, after long deliberation, chose art work by Alice Gough as the winning concept. Alice, a second year student, created a wall piece which was made from circuit boards cast in plaster. The panel was impressed by the fact that the casts, although derived from their own products, had the naturalistic look of fossils - in stark contrast to their modern, high technology surroundings. Alice will now have the opportunity to make two large panels which will be on permanent display at Paxton.

Paul Rawlinson, Joint Managing Director at Paxton, said: 'All of the contenders produced high quality concepts that I’m confident would be suitable for various locations around our premises but the one that stood out in terms of a contrast to the clean, tidy, high-tech and organised environment that our engineers work in every day was Alice’s clay, fossil-like models of our circuit boards. Her idea was truly inspired.'

'It was quite daunting for the students to make a professional presentation to a senior panel that included Paxton’s Managing Director but they really communicated their ideas brilliantly', said Chris Hill, Curriculum Team Leader for HE Arts Courses at City College. 'It’s rare that students are given the opportunity to be involved in all aspects of the art commissioning process so for them to get high-level feedback on their work in a professional context was a great learning experience and one that will be invaluable to them in their future careers.'

For further information on City College’s Higher Education Art courses, call 01273 667759, email info@ccb.ac.uk or see www.ccb.ac.uk

For City College media enquiries, please call Brian Bell, Marketing Communications Officer, on 01273 667788 Ext. 488 or email bb1@ccb.ac.uk website www.ccb.ac.uk

For Paxton media enquiries please contact Ella O’Donnell, Marketing Co-ordinator on: Ella.ODonnell@paxton.co.uk

Notes to Editors:

Paxton Access Ltd: Paxton is the UK designer and manufacturer of market leading electronic access control. Established in 1985, based in Brighton, Paxton manufacture all products locally. We aim for engineering excellence, which means creating intelligent and innovative products that are fit to meet the challenges and trends of the access control industry. We pay exceptional attention to the development of high quality products, customer care and support. Paxton has become a market leader through our constant efforts to exceed the expectations of our customer base and continues to enjoy significant international expansion. For more information please visit www.paxton.co.uk

About City College Brighton and Hove: Situated in the heart of Brighton and graded ‘Outstanding’ in key areas by Ofsted in its June 2011 report, City College Brighton and Hove is an international centre of vocational excellence and one of the top performing Further Education Colleges in the country. Every year, 2,000 full-time, 7,000 part time, 400 Higher Education and 400 14-16 year old students as well as many international and European students choose City College as their place of further and higher education training. In addition, the College provides training to over 2,000 businesses via its ‘City Business Skills’ department which focuses on employer training needs. Offering over 700 courses from basic level right through to business and postgraduate training, City College is working with its partners to develop the workforce of the future.