iServi News | 28 June 2019 | Term 2, Week 9
The Arts
The Arts have been an integral part of our College for many years. They have also been a key feature in the life of the Servite Order for centuries. Born out of Florence Italy in the early 1200s, the Servites supported and celebrated artists across the years and have consequently captured their history and charisms though a rich array of art works.
Our current day students have numerous opportunities to explore their visual and performing talents each day thanks to a very dedicated and talented group of Servite College teachers. We aim to continue to build the Servite Order’s rich association with the Arts by genuinely engaging students and encouraging them to explore their own artistic gifts.
In today’s modern landscape, the Arts are more important than ever. The capacity to be creative, to communicate and to be a critical thinker is emerging as an essential skill set for success. The Arts foster enjoyment and imagination which in turn elicits deeper engagement and learning in students, leading to improved educational outcomes. The Arts build confidence in students. It gives them an authentic audience and timely, formative feedback which they can harness for reflection, growth and development.
The Australian Council of Educational Research (ACER) in an article entitled ‘The Arts and Australian Education: Realising Potential’ suggests that “the Arts can help transform learning processes and practices in schools to ensure that education is inclusive and meaningful for all children”.
They also comment that the Ministerial Council for Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs and the Cultural Ministers Council asserts that “an education rich in creative arts maximises opportunities for learners to engage with innovative thinkers and leaders, and to experience the arts both as audience members and as artists. Such an education is vital to students’ success as individuals and as members of society, emphasising not only creativity and imagination, but also the values of cultural understanding and social harmony that the arts can engender.”
Finally, ACER also make the important comment that “by engaging in the Arts we become more cognisant of the broad spectrum of human experience. Learning horizons and life trajectories are enhanced. The role that the Arts collectively can play in transforming students’ learning more broadly, should also be realised and celebrated.”
It would come as no surprise therefore that our College is heavily invested in providing a rich array of learning opportunities for students in the Arts. We are pleased to be able to offer students a very broad range of Arts subjects and related extracurricular activities from Years 7 to 12. We continue to develop resources at the College to support the Arts, including the most recent refurbishment of the College Theatre which also incorporates an additional dance floor. Our Masterplan also has targeted the development of Visual Arts spaces in future years.
In providing students with an authentic audience and to celebrate their efforts, we organise various in-house Visual and Performing showcases and exhibitions over the year and also connect students to a range of external opportunities.
Last week we ran our first Performing Arts showcase for the year. Congratulations to students from across the years for their performances on the night. We are grateful to the many parents who attended and also to our Performing Arts and IT teams for their work in bringing the night to fruition.
We also look forward to our first Visual Arts exhibition which will open run from Wednesday 3 July to Friday 5 July at the College in the Alexis Research Centre. Given the growth of the Arts and also the chance to provide additional opportunity to present students’ works, we will be presenting two College Visual Arts exhibitions this year.
In other Visual Arts news, we were very excited to hear this week that a number of our senior students have had their work selected to be exhibited at META and St George’s Art Exhibition. This is a very significant achievement and we congratulate Tess Ryan, Mjua Gama, Chloe Laurence and Grace Armstrong for their significant efforts.
The College is again heavily involved in the Performing Arts Festival for Catholic Schools and Colleges this year. The Festival “seeks to provide students with specific ‘performance platforms’ where they have the unique opportunity to give of their very best and perform to a public audience. Open to both primary and secondary school students, the performance categories encompass choral, drama, musical, instrumental, vocal and dance aspects of the performing arts. Approximately 18,000 students enter the festival each year”. We wish all of our students well for their performances in the ensuing weeks.
As part of the Catholic Arts programme we are also again involved in the Angelico Exhibition this year which is a “prestigious annual event on the Catholic school art calendar. The Angelico Exhibition is named after Blessed Fra Angelico, Patron before God of Artists”. We will submit a number of student works for public exhibition alongside works from other Catholic schools at the Forrest Centre Perth City from 19-30 August.
We again recognise our outstanding Visual and Performing Arts staff for their terrific work in ensuring students have a multitude of opportunities to explore and grow important skills that will set them up for future success.
Mr Jeff Allen
Principal