ART WEEK 2021

Art is not only valued at Ruyton for its educational purposes, but because of the positive contribution it makes to our lives andoverall happiness. Amongst the challenges of 2021, we celebrated art with our annual ArtWeek early in Term 2. Throughout Art Week in the Junior School, students engaged in a range of colourful, hands-on experiences. A ‘School of Dots’ grew in the Junior School Open Space as each student created a dot inspired by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, ‘the princess of polka dots’. Students collaborated at lunchtime to create cardboard cubby houses inspired by the lines, colours, and shapes of the Australian artist Howard Arkley’s suburban houses, and ‘Worlds and Rivers’ in the Sandpit was inspired by the Argentinian artist Alexandra Kehayoglou’s work Santa Cruz River. With help from our Art Captains Abby Lowe and Stella Wanless, the Art Department was joined by internationally recognised photographic artist Stephanie Rose Wood to present whole year level workshops in the Senior School. Stephanie Rose Wood is an award-winning Melbourne-based commercial and art photographer. Her creative practice is research driven as she creates imagery that tells stories of community and the links we form within them. Working closely with Stephanie to deliver fast-paced and action-packed workshops, the Art staff introduced the Year 7 and 8 students to the historical photographic process of cyanotypes. Students worked in the darkroom and used specialised wet-process photographic chemicals to create unique, nature-driven contact prints. Stephanie also ran intimate workshops for the Year 9, 10 and VCE girls that introduced them to processes and considerations of working in aprofessional creative environment. Working in pairs, students were given a brief, which they then had to plan, photograph, post-produce, and deliver, before receiving individual feedback from Stephanie and the Art Teachers. Finally, the 2021 Art Week saw Ruyton pay homage to the 19th century Paris Salon with the running of the inaugural whole school art prize, The Ruyton Salon, exhibited in the Courtyard Café. With the theme Reflections, we saw over one hundred entries from students in Prep to VCE, with prizes for each year level chosen by our Art Learning Leader Joey Kirkwood and student captains Abby and Stella. Art Week 2021 was a great success. It showcased Ruyton’s love and passion for Art, and underscored how powerful art can be in helping to bring a community together through the act of creation.