A showcase of artistic talent
The “Just Hanging Around” Art Exhibition, held at Lakehouse Arts Centre, showcased 176 works, by our Senior Visual Arts students and staff. It ran for two weeks, with a community and staff celebration on the afternoon of Sunday 29th July.
Year 11, 12 and 13 NCEA and IB students all submitted at least one piece of work and while there was a range of media, photography, drawing and painting predominated. The exception, was some beautiful ceramic vases and moving image work by the Year 1 and 2 IB students.
Art teacher, Mrs Linda Sew Hoy organised the show with the assistance of the Art department and her husband Philip. It was a mammoth task, taking over two full days to frame most of the pieces, and two more days to curate and hang the artworks; in what is known as a salon style presentation.
This exhibition gave every Senior Visual Arts student the opportunity to experience being part of a real exhibition. To avoid shyness and nerves, there was no selection process; instead students were asked to submit art work they felt proud of. Some of the pieces displayed were the culmination of nearly five years of Art education at school, while other pieces were by students who have only been in the Art department for six months.
Art staff promoted the exhibition to their students by talking to them about the fact that the process of making an artwork can be completed only when it is presented to an audience. One of the purposes of Art is to communicate ideas to others, whereas many of our students only make Art for themselves, their teachers or their examiners. The students and their families had a chance to see their work and that of their peers in a completely different context, as the framing of most of the artworks transformed them into individual "Art pieces", a very different concept to pieces in an examination portfolio.
The Sunday afternoon celebration was extremely well patronised by students, families and staff. It began with speakers: Lakehouse Manager Grae Burton, Principal Mary Nixon and Diana Smallfield, long serving former HOD of the TGS Art department and now an Auckland Art Advisor. Each celebrated our Art students’ achievements and touched on the importance of art-making for well-being, creative expression and possible future vocations.
Most of the artworks on show were for sale and by the time the exhibition was taken down 50 pieces had been sold, including seven works to Arts patron, collector and Wallace Trust director, Sir James Wallace. The exhibition was judged a great success by the manager of the Lakehouse, by the staff and students of the Art Department and all those who visited the show.
IB Diploma Art exhibition
"The exhibition with a plethora of art, created by students studying visual arts in the IB programmeat the school, is here. The collection showcases two years' worth of work. With artworks in all forms, ranging from personal, to cultural and political perspectives, "The Eclectic Collective" has something for everyone.”
The power of public speaking
For the majority, public speaking is not in the cards if we have anything to say about it. Kate Lee, Year 13, now the runner-up in the National Lion’s Young Speechmaker Contest 2018, begs to differ. After placing in our school competition, with a speech titled: KanyeWest: the new Nietzsche, and coming out on top in the Auckland regional final, she earned a ticket to the nationals, held at RangioraHigh School in Canterbury, Christchurch in mid-August.
Not only did she mesmerisethe judging panel in her delivery of “Why KanyeWest is the 21stCentury Nietzsche,” but also with her impromptu speech on the topic of, “I have a dream,” where the challenge lay in the contestants’ ability to speak for two minutes, after only one minute of preparation.
Kate has won a four-week trip to Australia after securing second place out of thirteen contestants, whose range of topics included enclosures equating to animal abuse, an emotional delivery about sexual abuse and an exposition of ‘mana.’
Kate reflected: “The contest was a phenomenal experience beyond what I imagined it to be. It wasn’t just about presenting a speech and hoping to win a place, it also helped me to gain so much more as I made incredible friends from all over NZ, became quite an independent travelleraround the Garden City and had to think on my feet for the impromptu speech!”
By Christine Zhou (Year 13 Journalism student)
