2026 Girton ArtsFest
Industrial Lines 2026: A celebration of creativity across our school
Last week, our school community came together to celebrate one of the true highlights of the year: the opening of our annual ArtsFest exhibition, with this year's theme Industrial Lines 2026. Over four days, an empty store on 132 High Street was transformed into a gallery showcasing the imagination, skill and hard work of every Girton student from Prep to Year 12.
The exhibition opened on Thursday evening to a crowd of over 150 guests, with the wonderful Anna Gowers of Art Matters officially opening the night. Anna spoke about the importance of creativity in education, and the value of nurturing the whole student, not just academic achievement, but curiosity, expression and confidence.
Four days, thousands of visitors
The exhibition was a huge success, drawing an estimated 2,350 visitors across the four days! All of our Junior School students visited on Friday, many bringing along a special friend, contributing to a total of approximately 1,500 visitors that day alone. Saturday saw an estimated 500 visitors through the doors. A steady stream of around 200 people visited on Sunday.
We were delighted to welcome visitors from well beyond our school gates too, with guests travelling from Castlemaine, Harcourt and Kyneton, as well as curious passersby and several prospective families exploring our school for the first time.
The work on display
The scale of creativity on show this year was extraordinary. Our Junior School exhibited 1,879 individual pieces of artwork. Every Prep to Year 6 student also contributed to a stunning large-scale collaborative ceramic sculpture.
Our Senior School students brought equal ambition to this year's theme, with each art student having a framed piece on display. Alongside other installations, visitors enjoyed:
- 2 interactive artworks inviting guests to contribute their own creative touch
- Striking photography from our media students
- 4 original music videos
- 15 student-made short films
- 10 collaborative installations
- 25 Senior School sculptures
- 32 music performances
- The flutists on opening night.
The breadth of mediums was a wonderful reminder that art at Girton extends far beyond the canvas!
A community effort
An exhibition of this scale simply doesn't happen without an enormous amount of dedication behind the scenes. Special thanks go to our Junior School Art team, our Senior School Visual Art staff led by our Head of Visual Art, and our Head of Arts for their continued support and steady leadership throughout the year.
We're equally grateful to our Principal and leadership team for their genuine, ongoing support of the Arts, to our Community Relations team for helping share this exhibition with the wider community, and to our Maintenance team, whose calm, creative and enthusiastic work made set-up feel effortless.
Parent volunteers are also appreciated and thanked for their work before, during and after the exhibition. This year we say farewell to Phil Crosby who has helped with the Art Show for the last 13 years. His help with great arty ‘engineering’ feats has been amazing and appreciated. We will miss him.
Why we do this
Exhibitions like ArtsFest remind us why the Arts matter so deeply in a young person's education. They build confidence, resilience, problem-solving and self-expression, which are skills that extend well beyond the art room. Watching students from Prep to Year 12 proudly showing family and friends their work is a highlight of our school year.
Art matters, and this year's exhibition proved it once again!
Thank you to every student, staff member, family and community member who made ArtsFest, Industrial Lines 2026 possible.
Mrs Nic James
Junior School Teacher of Arts