Visual Art students have had a highly productive and eventful Term 3. 

Their weekly engagement with contemporary art has seen them visit influential exhibitions at spaces including NGV, MUMA, Buxton Contemporary and ACCA. 

During the Arts Intensive fortnight, we continued this across state lines, traveling to Sydney to see the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prize exhibitions, as well as key First Nations exhibitions, Yolŋu Power and a solo exhibition by Warraba Weatherall.The Kolarik Gallery at VCASS became a hive of collaboration, with Year 11 students curating and installing group exhibitions of works they had created in their own time. 

These exhibitions were followed by an impressive class exhibition of ceramic works developed with visiting artist Georgia Morgan, who introduced students to her maiolica glazing technique inspired by the Hindu ritual of ‘puja’. Year 11 students also embarked on an adventure in embroidery with visiting artist Aaron Billings, the outcome of which will be a collaborative class quilt exploring themes of labour and contemporary textiles. 

Most recently, these students were also visited in Cinema Studies by Tina Stefanou, alumni of the VCASS Music program-turned-performance artist and filmmaker. Stefanou shared insights into her process of developing deep connections with her collaborators and her solo exhibition at ACCA, “You can’t see speed” and conversed with the students about their own individual film projects.

Meanwhile, Term 3 for Year 12 was characterised by a focus on refining artworks for final VCE assessment. These works will be displayed in the forthcoming graduate exhibition at VCA Artspace, opening on the 14th of October. Additionally, the Year 12s undertook life drawing classes with VCASS alumni Elsie Preston, analogue colour printing workshops at Melbourne’s only public-access colour darkroom, WetLab, as well as a contemporary jewellery making workshop with local artist Claire McArdle. Their final full term at VCASS has also seen them visit local universities and explore a range of possible post-school pathways.