Students at Harcourt Valley Primary School are exited to have had the opportunity to work on a unique arts project thanks to the support of a Creative Learning Partnerships grant through Creative Victoria.
Over the past eight weeks two groups of grade four students have been working on an engaging and evolving arts project titled ‘Shifting Perspectives’ led by visual arts teacher Kellie Maddaford and Ballan artist in residence Glynis Angell.
The project has seen the children explore a wide range of art mediums around their connection with the school and moving from seeing the school as a space to a ‘place’.
The project encouraging the children to use immersive performance and multimedia to investigate perspectives of self, peers and space.
To kickstart the project, the students journeyed to Melbourne to the Australian Centre of Contemporary Art to view an inspiring installation by Tina Stefanou ‘You Can’t See Speed’.
“This installation by a Greek-Australian artist who works with experimental forms of performance, film, sound-music, sculpture and really inspired the children and acted as a springboard to get them thinking about their own work,” Kellie said.
In the first session the Harcourt Valley students were encouraged to find a space within the school grounds that spoke to them.
The two groups each settled on a site and have since enjoyed a deep dive into investigating the space and their place within it.
First the students were encouraged to select a stone or rock and paint it to represent themselves. Then students used materials and textiles to create symbols around feelings their space might evoke such as feeling lost, alone, connected, together, safe, frustrated or happy.
They followed this up by taking textiles out into the space and using wool to create intricate grids and patterns to map the outdoor spaces. The final result was some stunning cobweb like structures throughout the spaces.
The students then recorded sounds to create soundscape and then incorporated elements of video production and finally performing arts.
“This was the first time our students have had the opportunity to study drama, which was fantastic,” Kellie said.
The students were scheduled to present their final multi-layered art piece, which combined all six arts elements, to their families as part of a special performance this week.
Artist in residence Glynis Angell said the final result would be very layered and quite sophisticated.
“It has been a really deep and meaningful creative process and I have been impressed with the way these young artists have approached each step,” Glynis said.
Kellie said they had been blown away with what the students had created.
“They have really immersed themselves within the experience and it has very much opened them up to the world of visual arts and what’s possible. We can’t wait to share their works with their families and a Q&A will be held afterwards so children can share their creative process,” she said.
