RENOWNED photographer Michael Kenna returned to his old art school to open a £3.4m Creative Arts Centre.

He said he never forgot his training at Banbury School of Arts, now Oxford & Cherwell Valley College.

He spoke as he opened the college’s new centre, home to 400 youngsters aged 14 and over.

He told students: “Despite all this wonderfully impressive new, freshly painted, clean architecture, we have here, let’s not get side-tracked about what an art school is.

“An art school is a functioning power station of live and constantly evolving combustible creativity.”

Mr Kenna – famed for his black and white landscapes – was at the school from 197-73, where he achieved a distinction in a diploma in art and design.

The San Francisco resident said: “The school did exactly what it was supposed to do. It instructed, encouraged, challenged, nurtured, quarrelled, inflamed and wrestled with me.”

He also launched a £500 annual prize for photography students.

The building has been formed from a former art block and has been given an open, modern, airy design, said creative arts curriculum manager Jackie Whitehouse.

She said: “It is very much about light, about reclaiming our carbon footprint and flexible learning.

“We don’t have classrooms as such, we have very open spaces for students to use.”

Ms Whitehouse added: “It is a community, they don’t want to leave the building, they absolutely love it.

“We have lots of students say ‘can’t we stay and help?’ It has really changed the face of what we do.”

Students’ work went on display last week to showcase the disciplines taught by the school, including photography, graphics, textiles, fashion, fine art, illustration and ceramics.

College principal and chief executive Sally Dicketts said: “The summer shows are always spectacular and demonstrate the rich creativity within each of our students.”

The development is part of long-term college plans to move facilities from the north to the south side of Broughton Road.

Its next project – also part-funded by the Skills Funding Agency – will feature a television studio for media students.