“Meet the Artist” is the title of the KREATTIV project that is being held at our school. KREATTIV is an initiative of the Ministry for Tourism, Culture and the Environment. It aims to bring together creative practitioners into schools to work with teachers and students to inspire, learn and create in a collaborative and innovative way.

This is the first such project for the school. It is part of the school’s effort to give the creative subjects their due importance on the curriculum with particular emphasis on extra-curricular projects and activities and the non-formal aspects of education.

“Meet the Artist” is about students experiencing artists at work as they create works of art. It addresses the process that artists go through in creating the work and the different media, as used by the artists involved. The project is important because it will bring works of art closer to the children and the community. It gives the students and the school community at large the opportunity to experience art as an integral part of daily life.

The children will be invited to workshops that will be held on school premises on a Saturday. They will have time to experiment with the media and techniques, actively engage with the artists, research the theme and contribute towards the realisation of the actual works of art. They will need to interact with each other and the artist, moving beyond routine practices, experimenting with media and techniques. They will be encouraged to actively voice their opinion and experiment within the parameters of each workshop, creating their own works of art.  Throughout the workshops, they will be the artist’s assistants and will need the commitment to see the work of art through. The works produced will be installed within the school, giving the children a unique sense of ownership.

This is undoubtedly a unique opportunity for the entire school community. The first of these workshops was held on 30 November 2013 with Maltese artist Dione Borg with more workshops planned for 2014. Here are some photos of the work in progress from the first workshop.