Gallery — 33 Photos

 Sarah, Final Year Visual Arts Student

Q: How do you feel about your artwork being shown in such a public place?

Sarah: It’s really exciting! I feel like a true artist now, not just a student doing her work for school but a true artisthaving my art exposed in a real gallery. It’s a really nice gallery as well! It’s not just any old gallery, it’s Palazzo Cusani which is huge!

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your IB journey?

Sarah: Well in general or just arts?

Q: Just art.

Sarah: Well I began last year when my skills were not really that developed because I hadn’t done much art in the past. I feel like I have grown so much in many areas like drawing, painting and sculptures as well which I had never done before and I feel like you can really tell that I have developed through my work.

Q: Last question, will art be part of your future career?

Sarah: I hope so, I don’t know if I’m going to do an art course in university but I am planning to do architecture which still has to do with art so I’m hoping I can still make art part of my future.

Alice, Year 10 student.

Q: What makes this art exhibition different from others?

Alice: Well first of all, the art pieces are all produced by IB students so with these pieces you can see their progress and how they developed their skills and it’s obviously original.

Q: Do you think these students have the potential to become the next great artist of our generation?

Alice: Well from what I’ve seen, yes because it looks really good and they have a lot of talent.

Q: Would you consider coming back to another exhibition next year?

Alice: Yes, because each year it’s going to be different and I like seeing different things and original talents/styles being born.

Ms Shears, Visual Arts Teacher

Q: Was it hard organising such a big event?

Ms Shears: It was very difficult, there were lots of tiny details which are what makes it work, they are important. There were lots of things like co-ordinating, the workers, co-ordinating the students, getting the work ready, getting Paolo to get the van down here and also obviously trying to work within the times of the Palazzo Cusani.

Q: Tell us about the process?

Ms Shears: The process is basically the students all start at the beginning of the IB with basic skills work, like you’ve all done in year 10 to make sure they are all at the same level and they can all do the same things. Then they start to work more independently and much more independently than at IGCSE, they take control of their projects. Really the best lessons are the ones where I’m watching them and listening to them but obviously I’m there to help them and guide them and show them artists and suggest materials. But, they should be the ones coming up with the ideas so they develop their theme gradually, over a period of time and it becomes very personal. It’s got a lot of thinking behind it, it’s not just about all the techniques; they have to be wanting to say something or show something in a particular way. They do work a lot on technique as well, so they have to do working on observation, they have to do painting, cover all the painting skills to show that they’ve got good techniques and also use a wide range of materials; from drawing to etching, to collage, to sculpture, to installations, to animations, to videos, you name it!

Q: Last question, how much preparation did it take?

Ms Shears: The exhibition we started organizing, well actually Mrs Vescovi found the location at the end of last year in about November. Then I started planning the materials we needed, then we contacted the company who helped hang the exhibition because we had professionals to come in and hang it to get everything the right height. Mrs Vescovi’s personal assistant was involved finding all the right equipment, we needed the piano, we needed the room emptied, lots of things. So really from about Christmas we’ve been working on this all the time. But the students work is eighteen months of work!