After spending many grueling hours in the art room, the IB art students’ exhibition finally came to fruition on April 12. The gallery was overflowing with visitors: family members, friends, and even teachers. On that day, the class collectively let out a sigh of relief: the event was the culmination of two years worth of progress. However, the exhibition only displayed a small portion of the students’ work. Many remain unawares of the amount of work it took for the students to reach that point.
Visual arts is unlike any other IB subject because it doesn’t follow a typical class structure and there is no final exam. The class environment also demonstrates differences as students have the liberty to converse with their peers and listen to music while they work. This creates the false impression that visual arts is an “easy” subject. But contrary to that preconceived notion, the course takes an extraordinary amount of skill and discipline to achieve success.
In the first year, the curriculum demands that students experiment with various mediums, on top of working on their art related research and analysis skills. Then, the majority of 12th grade is dedicated to working on the pieces for the exhibition. At ASB, students have an opportunity to visit another city each year, trips that give the pupils a chance to broaden their artistic horizons and to see how various exhibitions are set up.
For their own exhibition, the 12th grade students have to come up with a theme that would coherently tie together the various mediums they’d be working with. Despite the single 12th grade art class this year, many students were entirely unaware of what their peers were doing throughout the school year. Some were in the art room, others were in the maker space lab, and some even went to the terrace (for spray painting) to work. As a result, many didn’t have an opportunity to learn about their peers’ work until the day the exhibition was set up!
The environment was tense and nerve racking, but these factors heightened the pay off of the final results. One of the main takeaways from the exhibition was how much hard work and dedication the students, Ms. Ana, and her assistants, Ms. Isabel and Ms. María, put into making the course happen. The class may be rigorous and demanding, but it also gives the students the opportunity to grow in many aspects, including improving their technical skills while learning to understand humanity on a deeper level.