Darwen Students get sneak preview of Kevin Spacey's Exclusive Art Installation

Students from The Darwen Aldridge Community Academy (DACA) were among the first in the country to get a sneak preview of Tunnel 228, the eagerly anticipated art installation project produced by Kevin Spacey’s Old Vic Theatre, which is set in the vaults beneath London’s Waterloo Station.

Open officially to the public yesterday (8th May 2009), ten DACA students from Year Ten were invited to the show on Wednesday, following academy sponsor Rod Aldridge’s support of the project through The Old Vic Theatre, and were given the chance to observe the unique project before meeting the Hollywood actor himself! 

The Old Vic Theatre artistic director Kevin Spacey and his team, led by producer Hamish Jenkinson, were initially inspired by street artist Banksy's ‘pop-up’ graffiti exhibition in a nearby Leake Street last summer. Bringing together an extraordinary collection of artists, Tunnel 228 re-invents the art gallery experience. Sponsored by Bloomberg, the event will be free to the public and will run for fifteen days. 

DACA student Brad Harper commented: “From the train journey down onwards, it was a brilliant day out. Even the weather was good! We saw the sights of South London and the exhibition was ace. It was pretty spooky under Waterloo, but I’d definitely want to go again.”  

Katie Duerden, also a DACA student, added: “The sculptures were totally different from what I expected and the old underground tunnel was the perfect setting.  My Mum was really impressed when I told her we had met Kevin Spacey!”
Drawing on the cinematic epic Metropolis, Tunnel 228 takes audiences on a sensory journey through art-installations, sculptures, live performance and vaults of mysterious curiosities. Internationally renowned artists, including Anthony Micallef, Polly Morgan, Paul Fryer, Janet Cardiff, and George Bures Miller, have collaborated with Punchdrunk to immerse the visitor in an underworld of the unknown, making this a truly unique experience for every individual.

Like the city of Metropolis, Tunnel 288 divides the world into two social groups: one of planners or thinkers, who live high above ground and are oblivious to life underground. The other is a world of workers who live in the vaults of Tunnel 228 labouring to sustain the lives of those above ground.  On arrival, visitors are issued with a protective mask, before setting off into the darkness to explore this subterranean world alone.  

DACA opened in September 2008 and specialises in entrepreneurship.  It has its very own entrepreneurship currency, comprising the six DAKAs of creativity, passion, risk taking, determination, problem solving and team work, which are used to reward students for using their entrepreneurial spirit to either improve themselves, their learning, Academy life or the local community.  

Through innovative teaching and personalised learning, DACA aims to become the highest performing, truly inclusive Academy in the country, developing students who are socially aware, well prepared for work and able to contribute positively to society.

Please visit www.daca.uk.com for more information.

ENDS
For further info

rmation, images or interviews, please contact Cerys Wason or  Rebecca Hardy at SASS on 01565 832832 or e-mail  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Notes to Editors 

•    DACA opened in September 2008, specialising in entrepreneurship. Through innovative teaching and personalised learning, it aims to become the highest performing, most truly inclusive Academy in the country. The Academy is a place where everyone will realise their potential by developing an entrepreneurial approach, and is characterised by a positive attitude and a determination to succeed. DACA will develop students who are socially aware, well prepared for work and able to contribute positively to society.

•    With a fully inclusive admissions policy, DACA will provide a wider and more varied educational offer to its future projected population of 1,600 pupils aged 11-19. It will also include, for the first time in 20 years, the return of post-16 provision, where none exist at present - giving local young people the chance to carry on studying in their own town. 

•    DACA is funded directly by the DCSF, with a £2m contribution from social entrepreneur Rod Aldridge, one of the UK’s most well-known philanthropists, through his foundation - The Aldridge Foundation.

•    The Currency of Entrepreneurship is the Academy’s own and exclusive currency of entrepreneurship and comprises the six DAKAs of; creativity, passion, risk taking, determination, problem solving and team work.  Students are awarded DAKAs for using their entrepreneurial currency to improve themselves, their learning, Academy life or the community. 

•    Every term students who have excelled in developing their entrepreneurial currency will be awarded a DAKA badge and the chance to become a DAKA Millionaire by collecting all six badges. The DAKA currency teaches students the additional vocational skills to help maximise opportunities and fulfill their potential.