Lenswood Primary School
Lenswood Primary School is located in the Hills region of South Australia with an enrolment of 81 students in 2007.
The student body includes students from the following cultural and linguistic groups – farmers and orchardists, casual workers in the cold stores and picking fruit, grapes etc, art and craft workers, self-employed ‘tree-changers’ and commuter families.
Lenswood is a Category 7 primary school.
PROJECT COORDINATOR: Sally Putnam
ARTIST: Catherine Hewitt (lead artist), Adele Booth (mentoree)
PROJECT: ‘Seasonal LENSwood’ – a photography/visual arts project
Aims:
- For the children to experience and enjoy documenting their environment using a variety of media;
- For the children to gain an understanding of the processes and technologies connected with digital photography and photo manipulation;
- To be involved in the process of making decisions about their choice of subject and how it can be altered to enhance the emotions and understandings they wish to express;
- For students to gain a deeper understanding of and engagement in learning about their environment;
- To use various art forms to communicate their feelings and emotions when they are in the midst of different environments in different weather and seasonal conditions; and
- To create a multimedia presentation that can be shown to parents and members of the community that would demonstrate the above learning.
The Artist:
Catherine is a visual artist and graphic designer with a Graduate Diploma of Fine Art (University of Tasmania). Catherine has exhibited as part of SALA 2006 and has worked as a Teacher’s Aide, photographer and volunteer.
Adele Booth was engaged through the AIS Mentoree scheme to assist Catherine on this project and worked closely with the artist and the students throughout. These opportunities not only provide support for AIS projects but provide experience in schools for emerging young artists.
The Process:
- Students were given a formal introduction to the project by teachers and Artist Catherine Hewitt in Term 1 – Catherine had prepared a power point slide show for the students, demonstrating what they should be looking for when composing their image.
- The whole school went down to Our Patch – one group of students took photographs, the others all drew and sketched.
- During Term 1, four groups of 10 students photographed and worked on their pictures. This meant the four gardens were all visited and photographed during summer.
- During Term 2, the remaining groups revisited the four gardens and also during these weeks, students were divided into four R–7 groups each developing a dance/drama based on the idea of seasons. They wrote poetry about Autumn in Lenswood – copy of this available. They produced a variety of artwork to support the photography.
- Time was allocated while the school was on camp for Catherine and Adele (mentoree) to work on the sorting and organising of the photographs.
- Teachers and parents assisted Catherine with the set up of the gallery.
- Students were taken through a formal review process of the project and every child wrote a review of the project.
Outcomes:
- All 81 students had a completed photograph displayed.
- All families have received a CD containing the photographs that their children took during this project.
- 3 public exhibitions have been organised of the work the students have produced – one of these was at Carclew’s Odeon Theatre Foyer Gallery.
- All SACSA outcomes have been mapped.
- Students reviewed their learning.
Other outcomes included:
- We have been quite overwhelmed by the standard of the work produced. It looked very professional.
- The amount of one to one, artist to student time there was, which really produced this high level of skills.
- The public response to the work was very positive.
- Opportunities for further display.
- Sally Putnam gave a presentation to teachers/artists at Carclew Youth Arts (AIS Info Night).
- Futures/Enterprise learning – we are investigating the printing of a series of cards that will be sold to raise funds for the Year 7 students Canberra Trip and to defray school costs.
Highlights:
- Seasonal LENSwood Exhibition at the Lobethal Woollen Mills Gallery, in June 2007.
- Exhibition of Seasonal LENSwood at Cleland Wildlife Park for two weeks.
- Exhibition of Seasonal LENSwood at Carclew’s Odeon Theatre Foyer Gallery for 3 weeks in July – August 2007.
‘I think Adele Booth gained a lot from working with Catherine, who was clear in her directions but also modelled how to work with students and teachers.’ Project Coordinator
‘My picture was beautiful…I learned to look for pictures with a camera… I felt very proud of myself… My mum thought my photo was amazing and I liked it too… I have personally learned a lot more about art… the best bite was the food… I have really enjoyed this project very much and feel very privileged to be part of it.’ Students
‘I know that the teachers enjoyed seeing the work that the children did as it progressed. They were impressed with the level of work that the children were achieving and wanted to learn some of the computer skills themselves. I have been given a lovely letter of gratitude from the Principal.’ Artist
‘The program was a valuable experience that taught me how to work with primary school children. I was able to observe the process and find out what was involved in running an AIS program.’ Mentoree
81 students participated in this project
