Students from Glenunga International High School are helping the Adelaide Festival Centre celebrate its 50th birthday with student curated art exhibition, Catching Confetti, on display at the Children’s Artspace until April 26. Catching Confetti explores themes of celebration and was created and curated by students from years 7 to 10.
As part of a series of curatorial workshops led by Adelaide Festival Centre’s Exhibition and CentrED team, Glenunga students created artworks that broadly explore the theme of celebration such as collecting and commemorating, celebration as a process or ritual, emotions evoked by celebration, and what we choose to celebrate in our lives.
“Catching Confetti is a celebration of the work of Glenunga International High School Students as artists and curators. The students had the opportunity to learn about the art of curating and devising an exhibition with the support of the Children’s Artspace team, and this exhibition is the product of their creative ideas,” says Adelaide Festival Centre’s CentrED Education Officer, Renee Gibson.
The exhibition title ‘Catching Confetti’ not only refers to theatre audiences collecting and keeping confetti after a performance as a souvenir, but also metaphorically refers to how people often gather memory tokens from achievements and life experiences. Artworks include commemorative plates honouring favourite pets, ceramic party animals, and celebratory busts that poke fun at the notion of celebrities.
Student artists and curators explore themes of celebration, in their own words
“I want the audience to see that we have addressed celebration differently in each of the artworks, and how overall, the theme that we wanted to convey was that everyone can come together to commemorate and celebrate different things in art.”
-Glenunga International High School student Nina Dry
“The term catching confetti represents how we are holding onto all cultures and events that should be celebrated. I want the audience to consider where all the works’ ideas originated from.”
-Jinjin Guo (aged 13)
Visit the Children’s Artspace
- Children’s Artspace presents interactive workshops, performances and creative experiences to inspire children.
- The gallery is open Saturday – Sunday, 10am – 3pm (also open during Dunstan Playhouse and Space Theatre performance times).
- Enter via Festival Plaza or Dunstan Playhouse Foyer.
For more information about Children’s Artspace, visit here.
Further reading:
- Creativity in schools essential to preparing young people for future uncertainty and change
- Creativity: Nature or nurture?
- EduTECH: Disruption, creativity, diversity