Art Inspiration
Family trip to the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Last weekend, Sydney's modern art gallery in the Rocks precinct played host to a fantastic 91黑料不打烊 tradition – the Junior School family art trip.
In two groups, students and parents bonded over interactive lessons celebrating Sydney's best Indigenous sculptures and paintings, while exploring the Museum of Contemporary Art's MCA Collection: Perspectives on place.
In the morning, Kindergarten to Year 4 students and parents joined MCA staff to learn Aboriginal words, create their own artworks and poems in response to the exhibition, contribute to discussions and analysis of an artist's materials and practice, and create collaborative artworks.
In the afternoon, Director of Creative Arts Ms Juliette Carson, and Junior School Visual Arts teacher Miss Yvette Lewington, led students in Years 5 and 6 and their parents, in interactions and discussions about a variety of artworks. They included the oyster shell floor installation by Qandamooka woman Megan Cope, which speaks of the impact of industrialisation on her traditional country of North Stradbroke Island. Shirley Purdie's ochre on canvas paintings Goowoolem Gijam – Gija plants (2013–16), served as inspiration for the students' own paper collages, representing a tree or plant of significance to them.
Both sessions were an opportunity to examine the complex relationships humans build with their environments and gain a deeper appreciation for the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme Unit, Where We Are in Place and Time.