Visual Arts

from Loreto Normanhurst Yearbook 2021

Sport Profiles

How do you teach Visual Arts through a screen and with no materials? Well, let me tell you... it takes a village. Teaching a practical subject through a screen has been a very challenging experience for the students and staff in Visual Arts. The prospect of teaching Visual Arts on a screen with no materials was even more challenging. While we can look at artworks on screens and tour museums in a virtual space, this is really only satisfactory when the artwork is completed. For the work in process, however, it is more difficult.

It was via contactless collection that we were to get the material to the girls. Parents came and picked up the bags of materials from the Slip Road, so lovingly for their daughters. 10 kilogram bags of clay, utensils, and clay boards were distributed for Year 11, 6 kg bags of clay for Year 9, 1 metre wide painting boards for Year 10 and canvases in a calico bag filled with paint sets and brushes. This was all coordinated by the great Visual Arts team. We changed the programs, collected the materials, and the girls had the most wonderful response to what we offered. They showed their grit, creativity, and intelligence, but most importantly their perseverance;

“Visual Arts has been a fabulous opportunity for me to step back from my other subjects, providing a creative release. Visual Arts is constantly challenging me in the way I see the world and has helped me to grow so much as a person. The ideas and unique creative thinking encompassed in this subject have underpinned the way I approach my other subjects. During COVID, I was faced with numerous challenges, having to adapt to working creatively outside our normal art space, with limited materials and without immediate feedback. However, it was this experience which made me reflect on how I value the subject, as it was through doing art in lockdown that I escaped from being on my laptop and immersed myself in creative thinking, so much so that I would completely lose track of time! This subject has always meant such a great deal to me and after watching so many girls over the years complete their Year 12 Bodies of Work, I am so thrilled for it to be my turn.”

“In their makeshift home studios, our students tried everything, worked it out and found their practice, producing incredible artworks as a result.”

the quality that makes someone keep trying and stay with it even when they can’t quite get the process or see on the screen what the surface is meant to look like. In their makeshift home studios, our students tried everything, worked it out and found their practice, producing incredible artworks as a result.

The art teachers Ms Kozakiewicz and Mrs Langley both did an extraordinary job of teaching the girls, presenting the knowledge the girls could access to build their skills. Our Visual Arts Assistant Olivia Arnold was magnificent as the only VA staff member on site to manage things during lockdown. I am so incredibly grateful for the contributions from everyone.