Children’s art inspires in Hong Kong

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Children’s art inspires in Hong Kong

THE art program at Inverloch-Kongwak Primary School is so advanced, teacher Sarah Reark thought she would share it with the world.

She recently presented at the 6th conference of the Art in Early Childhood organisation in Hong Kong, discussing an innovative mural exhibition students staged at the Inverloch Community Hub.

“After attending a world congress on visual arts education at the MCG in Melbourne 2014 it was apparent to me that visual arts education here at Inverloch-Kongwak Primary School and across many Victorian primary schools was unique,” Ms Reark said.

“Across much of the country and around the globe, a vast array of primary schools are not as fortunate.”

Art in Early Childhood requested submissions from arts educators and artists around the world to present at the Hong Kong conference, with the theme of “Visual Art: Home, School and Community”.

“Coincidentally it was also at this time that I had been working with the students at Inverloch-Kongwak Primary School on large scale collaborative mural making, whereby all 370 students combined their individual artworks to create large scale pieces to exhibit at the Inverloch Community Hub,” Ms Reark said.

“I could contribute the process of these collaborations and share the ideology linked with the artworks and broader community, so I made a submission.”

She was invited to share this contribution at the conference in Hong Kong and spoke about how making art in groups allows children to work side by side harmoniously and share their personal experiences.

“Children look at what others are doing and respond to it, often gleaning experiential knowledge with each other during the creative process,” Ms Reark said.

“Composing collaboratively is the essence to bringing the community together and giving the individual works strength and purpose.”

The exhibition gave every child the chance to exhibit their work and allowed the school to strengthen ties with the community.

“The exhibition gave students an understanding of how their art created an audience, could become a communication device and an integral link between school and community,” Ms Reark said.

“When the general public purchased their murals the children understood that art could have a personal meaning for people too.”

From the conference, Ms Reark learnt how visual arts education was valued differently in various cultures.

“For us here at Inverloch-Kongwak Primary School we value the critical and creative thinking skills the visual arts facilitates, seeing it as an integral part of early childhood development and beyond,” she said.

It is now mural making time again at Inverloch-Kongwak Primary School as the school prepares for an exhibition at the community hub opening at the beginning of October.

“As we do so, now many more schools around the globe are having a go at doing the same,” Ms Reark said.

Spreading word: Inverloch-Kongwak Primary School teacher Sarah Reark (right) with a delegate at the 6th conference of the Art in Early Childhood interested in implementing the mural making program at her school.

Spreading word: Inverloch-Kongwak Primary School teacher Sarah Reark (right) with a delegate at the 6th conference of the Art in Early Childhood interested in implementing the mural making program at her school.

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Posted by on Jul 21 2015. Filed under Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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