THE ARTISTS’ ANGLE - ART DEPARTMENT UPDATE

Architects in School Programme 2023

Working with our architect Claire Chawke students focused on the theme of ‘Spaces for Learning’ issued by the IFA Architects in School programme. Our design journey started with a detailed look at an enlarged map of our 1960’s school building where students were tasked with locating a suitable internal or external space to re-design. With the students of St. Paul’s at the heart of the design brief, twenty Transition Years explored the school site on foot, to capture on camera a space they could best utilise.

Students presented their initial design ideas, sketching their proposals for a group discussion. Some fantastic ideas were developed; a full re-design of the school music room, with individual pods to listen to music, an upgrade of the staff gardens, a repurposed boiler house that would transform into a student learning hub, the removal of wall and doors to expand our home economics room to include a garden where herbs and vegetables could be grown for use in the classroom. After ideas were exchanged students began to create 3D models of their new ‘Spaces for Learning’ designs.

Last month, St. Paul’s were one of 12 schools from around the country that travelled to Dun Laoghaire Lexicon Library & Cultural Centre to deliver a presentation about our project to several member of the IFA association and three other participating schools. Thank you to Alaine Aby for representing St. Paul’s so well at this event.

NAPD Creative Engagement 2023

The new specification for Visual Art, introduced September 2021, encourages art students to link their areas of practice with that of a contemporary artist. When students are exposed to practicing artists, it enhances their own creative journey as they explore who they are as artists. For this reason, we invited Visual Artist Declan O’Meara to host a workshop with 14 5th year art students. Over the course of a full day workshop, students explored portraiture through oil pastels. We chose this area of practice as we wanted to build upon our school’s creative strengths and engage with new art forms not yet explored. With Declan’s knowledge and skill, we worked closely with him to design a personal and reflective portrait project. Our aim was that student’s engagement would be process driven, focusing on the importance of researching, creating and responding. This work will be on display in September at our annual Open Day.

School Musical - ‘The Sound of Music’

On behalf of Ms. Colleton and Ms. Gough we would like to say a huge thank you to the TY students that worked on the set over the past few months. It is a massive task to paint a set of this size, we had a group of very hard working students that worked tirelessly, always willing to help out and offer their time. We greatly appreciate it!

Art Competitions

Last month the whole school community was invited to participate in an internal art competition to design the cover of their school journal. Congratulations to Signe Taguba 5th year who’s design will feature on the front and Lilia Prudnecionok 2nd year will be printed on the back.

Congratulations to 1st year art students Katie Leonard and Sophie O’Connor who placed 1st and 3rd in the Dublin County Comhaltas Ceoltori Art Competition, with over 200 entries this was an amazing achievement! Well done ladies!