Creating Art: A Multifaceted Learning Experience
Independent Schools Victoria is pleased to present our Annual Student Art Exhibition for 2014, the ninth since we began celebrating student achievement through art in 2005.
The artworks once again represent a vast array of ideas and approaches, but more importantly, this exhibition shows student learning outcomes that are being achieved. Not only do we enjoy the works as they appear in the gallery, but we can also appreciate the deep learning each student has experienced in the creation of the work.
Every artwork in this exhibition began with an idea, and this idea has prompted student thinking that comes from diverse personal starting points and travels in a multitude of directions. Through their artwork, the student could be exploring personal, social, local or global issues and learning about other times in history or other places and events.
They might be studying a technique to boost their fine and gross motor skills, improve cognitive development through applying a pattern, understanding about light and colour or learning collaboration as part of a group project. They might be mastering technology, understanding aesthetics or learning about chemical processes involved in photography and ceramics, for example.
In producing and evaluating their own artworks, students will have also stopped to appreciate work in their classroom created by their peers, further broadening their learning experience. They will have developed a vocabulary unique to the arts so that they can communicate fluently the purpose and meaning of their work.
The arts provide a multitude of diverse personalised learning experiences for students. By creating artworks, students understand not just what is unique and special about the arts but they also learn about other disciplines and domains, knowledge that will contribute to achieving their artistic outcomes.
Anne Smith
Arts Executive
Independent Schools Victoria