Schools
IB Arts Show Highlights Student Talent
The projects at this year's IB Visual Arts Show are as creative, thoughtful and diverse as the students who created them.
Twenty-six talented Upper St. Clair High School seniors were featured recently in the IB Visual Arts Show at the high school.
The students' work reflects a year or more of concentrated study in a variety of styles and mediums: from recycled art to painting, ceramics, jewelry making and more.
Projects were assessed in early April for IB diploma credit and students will anxiously await the results this July; passing scores earn students either an IB Visual Arts Certificate or count towards a student’s full IB diploma. Sixty percent of the score is based on the artwork itself. Forty percent is based on the student’s information work book, a notebook and sketchbook in one where students conduct independent research in 5 categories: historical, cultural, visual, aesthetic and technical experimentation. Students must meet the requirement of filling 90 pages per semester.
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Students select a theme and focus both their creative expression and research around that theme. This year’s themes were creative, personal and wide-ranging. A few examples: religion; African studies; humanitarian work; the symbolism of wings; Eastern culture; philosophy; family relationships; and travel. Each project demonstrated not only the student’s talents and abilities, but also a strong display of knowledge of the topic and exploration of the self.
Art teacher Sue Watts enjoys watching students grow both as artists and as people throughout the project.
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“The students go on a creative journey that often takes them places they never thought they would ever go in their education,” Watts explained. “They leave this class with a stronger sense of self, a new awareness of the visual world, and an understanding that art works are the visual record of the evolution of our species."
“It really is an honor to witness their journey,” Watts said.
The IB Visual Arts curriculum is “designed to foster critical, reflective and informed practice, help students understand the dynamic and changing nature of the arts, explore the diversity of arts across time, place and cultures and express themselves with confidence and competence.”
