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Art doesn’t
just happen. It is the final expression of much thought and
application of learned skills. My World captures the early
stages in the development of Canterbury’s future artists.
Their growth as artists is nurtured through formal education
programmes that begin as soon as they start pre-school. In our
primary and intermediate schools, this formal teaching is an
essential learning area whose objectives are outlined in the
detailed Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum statement.
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Above
picture: Our Home - Le Bons Bay 2005 Brianna Brown,
Le Bons Bay
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Above
picture: Rugby Rocks 2005 Angus Hawke, Medbury
Preparatory School
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The Education
team at the Gallery sent out letters of invitation to primary
and intermediate schools throughout Canterbury to take part in a
biennial exhibition of the region’s young artists. We said we
wanted the artwork to be the culmination of a planned visual art
unit for the first term, and to be based on the theme ‘My
place, my time – how I see myself and the world around me’.
We hoped the unit would inspire the students to capture the
diversity of life, place and cultural identity in Canterbury and
New Zealand, and also allow them to develop a range of visual
and media
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responses. Fifty-nine schools accepted our invitation,
contributing 135 amazing works that record that diversity of
experience in a range of media.
We also asked
that the works submitted to us for exhibition be selected by the
teachers and their students and meet the following criteria:
that it be a work of merit, show technical skill appropriate to
the level of the class, and show an understanding of the theme
appropriate to the level of the class. We have had work
submitted from new entrants to those who are approaching high
school and can seriously consider art as a career once they have
completed their training.
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Above picture: Home Sweet Home
2005 Claire Everts, Casebrook Intermediate School.
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Claire Everts
from Casebrook Intermediate says her jandel Home Sweet Home “successfully
shows everything that is important to me in my life so far”.
The wall hanging Our Home – Le Bons Bay, made by Thomas
Rutland-Sims and Brianna Brown, includes the country lifestyle
special to them.
There are
delightful dolls from Somerfield School students whose teacher
said she felt like Trelise Cooper as the children sorted fabric
and made clothes right down to the underwear for their
creations. The planning of an artwork by a group of Year 6
students from Thorrington School and their involvement in every
stage of that learning experience is documented in a video
accompanying the exhibition. There are collages, photograms and
digital photographs,
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paintings and colourful crayon and dye
pictures, stone carving, clay work and constructions.
Our thanks to all
the students and teachers who have contributed to this vibrant
exhibition.
JUDITH
HOULT
Judith Hoult is Schools Officer
at the Gallery.
My World is in the
Ravenscar Gallery, Christchurch from 17 June to 7 August 2005.
Thanks to Gallery Magazine for the
words.
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