Spirit of ANZAC Public Art Exhibition

Involvement in an arts program has gains in many other subject areas including literacy, numeracy, history, cognitive ability, critical thinking and problem solving. The Arts connect our students to the world and give them a new way of seeing things.  Sirius College has adapted this view in recent years. Prior to 2014, the arts program […]

The ‘Nanjing Window Project’

CHANTELLE PETITH When I was informed that I would be teaching the Year 9 Art elective course in the second semester of 2015, I immediately began brainstorming ways in which I could create a killer unit of work. I wanted to involve students in the creative journey and deliver a quality learning experience. I wanted […]

How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love Boys’ Art

LAURA RUSSELL Last year at parent/teacher interviews, a parent spoke to me about her son’s declining interest in drawing at home. Her son, a very capable student, enjoyed drawing in Art class and at home in the evenings but his interest was declining. As a concerned parent she was looking for advice on how to […]

Installation and Photography Unit Inspired by Andy Goldsworthy

PANAYIOTA GOGOS At Eltham High School we have a rich and diverse Visual Arts program where Art, Studio Arts (Photography), Studio Arts (Art) and VCD are popular and well subscribed subjects, with many students choosing to undertake these when doing their VCE. Teaching students about the design elements and principles is an important step in […]

How can we teach creativity in our art classes?

HILARY SENHANLI Don’t we do that already? Let’s look at what actually happens in the art class and how it could be done differently. Normally, we design an exciting project, find great exemplars to inspire and ask students to come up with some ideas. It’s at this point that they often just want to go […]

Helping a Child Negotiate Difficult Experiences: An Intersection of Education and Therapy through Drawing

ELVIRA KALENJUK Many teachers can relate to the experience of having a student in their care who struggles with an on-going conflict, tension or personal issue that has arisen from what they see as a major disruption in their world. I began to understand this process through an encounter with a six-year-old girl in my […]

Robbie Rowlands

STUART KOOP Seeing a body with holes, the incision so precise, the removal of plasterboard section so clinical, the insides exposed. I guess Rowlands’ work is no less than ‘a flaying’ as one critic put it (while she beat a hasty retreat, the work too abject for her). Indeed, it did put in mind, Rembrandt’s […]

Mornington Island Enterprise Art Project

BEN LANDERS As a non-Indigenous art teacher with experience working in remote communities, I recognise the importance of not making assumptions about what or how young Indigenous people should learn about their culture. This would undermine the principles of self-determination by propagating an outsider’s version of Indigeneity, at its worst furthering the misconception that Indigenous […]

Teaching Art is Easy

MAX DARBY Sadly, for many of us, some people seem to think teaching art is easy. All that is needed are a few skills and techniques, materials, and everything ‘just happens’. Wrong! This article contains lists of the many different teaching methods and different experiences we provide to maintain student interest and enthusiasm. It demonstrates […]

Abstract Sculpture Project at St Catherine’s School

Vicki Marinelli In 2014, Year 8 students visited the NGV to view Inge King’s sculptural work as inspiration for making abstract ceramic sculpture. We spent time in class brainstorming and sharing descriptive language as well as learning art specific language such as maquette, figurative and that one that always confuses students; the difference between abstract, […]