COLLEGE students and school pupils showed a stroke of genius by joining forces to create a stunning exhibition of work.

Additional support needs students at Greenock’s West College Scotland (WCS) campus teamed up with children from St Mary’s Primary to create an amazing array of artwork which went on display at the Beacon.

They recently hosted a hugely-successful opening night at the waterfront venue attended by 150 people.

It was the culmination of a year of learning about many and varied art techniques.

The college students involved are part of an enterprising events group and, led by art lecturer Nicola Young. They wanted to end the academic year with a bang and drew up plans for an exhibition.

Nicola said: “They are a group with limited ability both physically and emotionally but have really worked hard to overcome these issues over the last few months and tapped into their abilities in order to make this event happen.

“After Christmas, they decided they would like to take the project to the local community in some way and after some discussion, we invited a group of pupils from St Mary’s Primary to be involved. They subsequently got on board through visits back and forth between the school and Finnart campus and we all worked together as a team.

“The result has been fantastic! We have really built bridges between the school and college; broken down barriers between our supported learners and the more able school kids and really lovely friendships have developed as a result.

“We have been asked by the school to continue the project into the next academic year due to its success.” Whilst learning about art and producing some quality pieces, the young people in the enterprising events group, along with their peers, have planned and staged various fundraising events to ultimately fund this venture — the cost of mounting and framing work.

They have not only learned about art but also about working in partnership with another group and being enterprising.

Nicola said: “It’s a huge achievement for such a group of young people.

“We had a little opening night where around 150 people attended.

“We sold 10 artworks straight away, which is such a confidence boost for the students.”