Meánscoil Gharman students get creative
THE students in Meánscoil Gharman are a very talented group both within and outside of their curricular activities.
The school made a successful application to the Arts Council of Ireland in May, last year, and is now reaping the benefit of being a ‘creative school’.
The school is partnered with Creative Associate, Laura Ní Fhlaibhín, who is an artist who works between her studio in London and her home in Wexford.
The schools art teacher, Danielle Dempsey, spoke to this newspaper about the Creative Schools programme and how Meánscoil Gharman is benefiting from it.
‘It gives students the opportunity to explore creativity right across the arts,’ she said.
‘Before the schools closure back in March, we had plans for a number of different projects that had to be postponed,’ she added.
‘Laura Ní Fhlaibhín and I were keen to keep students active creatively and provide them with top quality and meaningful learning experiences.’
Laura reached out to a number of artists who were willing and enthusiastic about coming onboard to give support to students during the pandemic.
Author and script writer Richie Conroy had just started a Writer in Residence program at the school as the pandemic hit and he was the first to come on board in creating a series of videos and worksheets in creative writing.
Each week students were sent one of Richie’s videos and given a writing task.
‘Richie and I then hosted an online meeting once-a-week with the students to discuss and develop their work,’ said Ms Dempsey.
Nine Arrow illustrator Catherine Geaney also came on board to produce four videos and set tasks to the students.
‘ The students are working on creating illustrations of flowers with the name of the flower drawn as Gaeilge,’ said
Ms Dempsey.
‘Catherine and the students hope to compile a PDF colouring book of these finished pieces to share online and with primary schools,’ she added.
‘Catherine interacts with the students each week via her videos and gives them feedback and advice on how their work could develop.’
Photographer Padraig Grant has also got involved with the school.
He created a series of four tutorial videos based around photography using a smartphone or tablet.
‘Students engage on a weekly basis and submit their works under different themes, such as still life and portraits,’ said Ms Dempsey.
She also commented that Mexican, London-based artist, Tiz Creel, has made a series of digital animation tutorials for the students and they in turn are working on making their own digital stop-motion animation.
Ms Dempsey said being a creative school with the Arts Council has really helped enhance the students’ creativity during the current closure.
‘Students have taken part and kept motivated with the weekly video tutorials,’ she said.
‘I know that our creative students are really enjoying the projects and they are benefiting from the content,’ she added.
‘ Thanks to Laura Ní Fhlaibhín and our four participating artists for making this possible, and of course to our students who have been so willing and eager to take on these projects and to learn new skills.’
Some are doing animation on their iPad, others are doing their art project with Nine Arrow, and others are taking photos for their photography project.