THE STORE TRANSFORMS THE WAY IN WHICH OUR STUDENTS CAN THINK
The Store provides a space to showcase the truly astonishing talents of the senior artists says Mary Jo Doherty
A rt and Design can provide positive experiences of success for all students. It offers them the space and skills to express themselves in and through a range of visual and experiential art forms, to understand themselves, others, and the world around them. It is a fundamental element of a rich and diverse education, and we cannot begin to underestimate the role art and design plays in the human experience; it is what makes us com- plete and healthy and happy human beings. With that in mind, Art created in the classroom should not be confined to the drawers of dusty plan chests or fighting for attention on overcrowded studio walls, but rather installed directly into site-specific locations. Our gallery space, The Store, transforms the way in which many of our students can think and consequently en- hances the ambition and diversity of their work. Students in Years 11, 12 and 13 have been pushed to the limits of creativity and have embraced the opportunity to show not only how to be an artist, but also curator, techni- cian, designer and maker. The exhibition space provides a platform for their individual narratives to take centre stage. It is a hands-on, three-dimensional approach to learning, where cutting-edge conceptual pieces can rub shoulders with beautifully executed sculptures and traditional painting. Events such as these remain central to any artist’s ongoing creative development while providing the vital wider cultural ‘free learning’ that our most ambitious art students crave. Encouraged to take risks in their final coursework sub- missions, the Year 11 students happily broke the rules in the aptly titled exhibition ‘Brink’ during November 2022, where The Store’s ‘rough magic’ gallery environment became a melting pot of ideas. The work was inspiring
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