Creative Learning Partnership

We are excited to announce that Woodmans Hill Secondary College will be welcoming a wonderful artist in residence named Jay Kulbardi later this term through a Creative Learning Partnership. 

Our project titled ‘Active & Connected Citizens’ was sought by Siobhan Finn (STEAM Leader) in collaboration with the artist and is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria. Kulbardi is a visual artist whose areas of specialisation include art commissions, murals, graphic design, video and dynamic content, and management of art website/social media platforms. They have participated in a broad range of high-profile commissions, collaborations and partnerships. Including designing a First Nations Melbourne Art Tram and a National Reconciliation Week painting, accompanied by an artwork process and speech for the Clean Energy Council. They have run workshops with local Indigenous young people (14-17) for Youth Fest 2024 and was a placement worker in the Department of Social and Emotional Wellbeing for the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative (BADAC).  

Our ‘Active & Connected Citizens’ project aims to complement the curriculum and learning experiences of students in our Junior STEAM Program, VCE Art Making & Exhibiting and 12 VCE:VM Literacy subjects. It also seeks to engage and provide a positive role model to our First Nations students and Pride Group participants. Initially, Jay Kulbardi will show and discuss a selection of their works and with the assistance of our participating teachers (Tegan Crosbie, Tammy Jones and Jess Hollands), support students in learning to analyse and interpret these artworks exploring contemporary Indigenous perspectives, themes of identity and connection. 

Kulbardi will then be co-designing a mural with a selection of our students. The mural will explore values related to our schools Positive Behaviour Matrix, specifically respect and inclusivity. Students will be encouraged to consider how these values extend to care for the environment. The mural design will include a combination of suggestions from students (gathered through targeted learning activities and focus groups) and Kulbardi’s own ideas. The learning activities will focus on how visual language can be used to represent and encourage Woodmans Hill Secondary College students to be active citizens that respect one another and their environment. 

We will be holding a launch event to celebrate the final mural and share the participating students’ writing and developmental drawings on Thursday 3rd July. Finer details will be posted closer to the event –stay tuned!