KS pupils create an NFT portrait of the Queen to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee – Independent Education Today

Posted: 31st May 2022

Knightsbridge School pupils create an NFT portrait of the Queen to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee

The NFT-style portrait of the Queen will be auctioned off to raise funds for charity

Inspired by Beeple’s Everyday NFT digital mosaic which sold at Christies last year for $69 million, teachers, pupils and parents at Knightsbridge School (KS) have created their own digitalised portrait of Her Majesty, ‘An Everyday Queen’. This will be auctioned off to raise money for the school’s three chosen charities: Place2Be; The Royal Hospital Chelsea; and The Knightsbridge School Education Foundation (KSEF).

KS head of art Alice McGilligan worked with pupils who each created individual portraits of Her Majesty from any period of her life in a range of mediums such as watercolour, graffiti and paint. These images were then digitalised and arranged in the style of an NFT portrait which is being auctioned online. The auction is currently live and bids close on Sunday 29 May. The Parents’ Association is also gifting a framed canvas of the NFT to Her Majesty, along with a signed card from the staff, pupils and parents at KS.

Alice McGilligan said: “This was such an exciting endeavour for the Knightsbridge School community to embark on. It involved all of us, including our students, our staff and our parents, to create Knightsbridge School’s first-ever NFT. It’s been wonderful to work with the students on this project during our art lessons and see their excitement, reacting to the final digital collage. This project takes Knightsbridge School forward into the ever-evolving digital age of Art.”

Nora Lee Notzon Derhalli, a parent and member of Knightsbridge School Parent Association, said: “In honour of our extraordinary Queen, the KSPA created a unique NFT digital artwork portrait as a tribute to her enduring legacy of collaboration and innovation over her 70-year reign. The KS kids painted a portrait of the Queen in the style of Warhol, Rankin, Annigoni and many others, and the KSPA created a digital mosaic with the kids’ original works. This has been such an innovative way to memorialise the Queen and all the change she has witnessed in her 70 years.”

Shona Colaco, head of Knightsbridge School, said: “It has been a real joy seeing the children’s enthusiasm and imagination captured in this wonderful piece of art and jubilee tribute to Her Majesty.”

Magoo Giles, principal and founder of KS, said: “Wow, what a triumph. All of our KS pupils have had a go at portrait painting our Queen in celebration of her Platinum milestone this summer. All those portraits were put together by a KS parent, Mrs Nora Lee Notzon Derhalli, and our KS teacher extraordinaire, Miss Alice McGilligan.”