St Mary’s Art Week focused on various aspects of the Arts Curriculum and was a great success.  All students enjoyed participating in the activities, and many talents were discovered.  

 In the BAMJC there was a display of masterpieces from every student in the school.  This was the result of our teachers being creative and teaching various art skills in the class, to produce a magnificent schoolwide exhibit.  

We had two visiting Drama teachers; Dee Ellwood and Eunice Driller, who instigated opportunities for each student to be creative and have a lot of fun improvising and truly stepping beyond their comfort zone.

It was wonderful to welcome back Tauranga artist, Rob McGregor, who sure made painting look really easy!  He shared the inspiration behind many of his pieces on display and helped us understand perspective, colour blending and assured us that everyone is an artist - all it takes a creative mind and plenty of practise.

Mrs McIntosh set out on a mission to teach the Year 0-2 students how to ‘Shake It Off’ just like Taylor Swift.  The end result was a well choreographed, energetic display of rhythm, co-ordination and a whole lot of fun.  

Rosie McMahon is a 16 year old film maker who is on her way to becoming extremely famous!  She showed us what to look for when taking amazing photographs, and shared her short film, explaining the role of a director.  Some students were fortunate enough to take part in a workshop, and armed with an iPad were taking extraordinary photos of ordinary things around the school.

In the Junior classes, an army of Sock Puppets were created with Mrs Strange.  What a great way to instigate a dynamic display of impromptu performances! There was much delight amongst the students as their own puppet was brought to life sporting scraggly hair, googly eyes, talking tongues and personality plus.

Thursday evening brought in fabulous support from our St Mary’s community, viewing the school wide art on display in the BAMJC, and enjoying the outstanding performances from some of our extracurricular groups.  Students from the KapaHaka extension group, our own St Mary’s School Band, the Jump Jam teams, Ned Shaw on trumpet, Pilgyu Chang on piano, and Sursum Corda, all put on an amazing display of their passion and talents.  Many thanks to those students involved in this performance, and to our friends and families for supporting this event.

Pip Berquist
Teacher in charge of Art