Hurunui College
Region: Canterbury/Chatham Islands
Art form: Community Arts
Project name: School Mural
Creative name:
Project Information:
The aim of this project is to engage students with practising creatives, to explore the processes of conceptualising in order to create a public work of art. The piece of art will connect Hurunui College to its wider community, environment and history, as well as allowing the creatives to explore/discover new directions, building upon their own style.
This idea is compelling because we have chosen to collaborate with local Cantabrian artists who have an understanding of the localities, its characteristics and the community demographics. They can provide an artistic experience that will blend with the community's values. Their artistic style is also individualistic and recognisable to them, which will be exciting to incorporate within the newly redecorated school environment. It will allow students of all ages to discover, experience and actively be involved with many types of creative and design ideas, brought to them by art professionals.
The creative outcome will be a large-scale outdoor mural, along the side and on the rear entrance to the community/public whare pukapuka. There will also be mini-creative projects accomplished along the way by individual classes and student groups that will contribute to the overall design process and inspiration for the Creatives.
The educational aim is for students to have the opportunity to find out about their community, its history, and its cultural narrative. Many school families have a rich colonial/farming history; our aim is for our students to dig deeper and find out more about our pre-colonial history/Māori influences. Being a rural school, we want students to gain an understanding about the local environment, fauna and flora. We will be encouraging students to explore their surroundings to establish a clear link between themselves and others, and enabling them to see how they fit into the wider community.
There will be historical storytelling workshops to further students' understanding around the significance and influence of different cultures within the local area, and where appropriate, cultural advisory figures would be included to ensure the mural’s themes and iconography are authentic. Once completed, the creative will collate everything and weave into an overall design for the mural, developed in partnership with the Lead Teacher. Once approved, the creatives will begin the creation of the mural, with some elements of the painting able to be completed by students.
Project starting: April 2023
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