Browse Sections

• Education
• Special reports

Bear with us... Vivienne’s next model is a teddy

Sue Carr
14/ 7/2005

A FAMOUS fashion designer is 'bear-ing all' to help her old school.

Former Glossopdale pupil Vivienne Westwood has agreed to design an outfit for the college's newest recruit - a battered old teddy bear!

The treasured 'Van Gogh Ted' belongs to Advertiser wildlife expert Sean Wood and is the face of a new arts initiative at the college.

Students will write down projects they would like to do - such as visiting the Edinburgh Fringe Festival or sketching the Angel of the North - then ideas will be drawn out at random and granted through the 'Arts Wish List' which is to be funded by local businesses.

Sean, a behaviour inclusion advisor for Derbyshire Education, said: "The only condition is they have to take Van Gogh Ted with them and draw or take a picture of him there and then tell everyone about it when they come back.

"It's a way to get everyone together and as Glossopdale has just got arts college status I thought it should be based around that.

"I wanted something to catch people's imagination and Van Gogh has certainly done that.

"He will also have his own website with everywhere he has been on it, so I'm hoping that eventually it will become this great bank of information about the arts."

The best-dressed bear will be suited and booted at Vivienne Westwood's studios in London before making his way to Glossop next week.