General News
27 June, 2024
School’s mural sketches connections
A burst of creative collaboration has led to the transformation of a common walkway in the Maryborough Education Centre (MEC) — with an Acknowledgement of Country Art Mural now covering the space. Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander students...
A burst of creative collaboration has led to the transformation of a common walkway in the Maryborough Education Centre (MEC) — with an Acknowledgement of Country Art Mural now covering the space.
Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander students from MEC, alongside their peers, worked together with the Bendigo Art Gallery and artist Wes Franklin to create the expansive artwork.
The school received funding from the Bendigo-based gallery, with the grant intended to be used by educational institutions to empower their students through creative ventures.
“We chose an opportunity for our students to connect with artists to collaborate on a large scale mural — and it was wonderful to see it all unfold,” MEC teacher Abby Hansen said.
“I have seen this project give our students a voice in what is meaningful for them — everyone has had some involvement in the mural, whether it was just the initial brainstorming workshops for the design and writing of the acknowledgement, or the painting itself.
“I have witnessed students being respectful role models, highly collaborative, sometimes painting over, under and around each other.”
In the early stages, students worked with Annie Brigdale from the Bendigo Art Gallery, and together they created mock designs.
Ms Brigdale took these ideas to Mr Franklin, the artist for the project, and the pair collaborated to sketch out the final design.
“They then came out to the school to help us sketch up the designs and paint and express our artistic nature,” Ms Hansen said.
“Students loved being able to put down our designs from the original workshop and seeing it come to life whilst we were painting.”
According to one of the students involved in the project, the mural serves many important purposes.
“This artwork isn’t just a thing for everyone to look at, it’s not just a painting up on a wall,” they said.
“It’s a [source of] connection to the school and it isn’t just for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people either — it brings us together as a community.”
