ARTS MATTERS

NGV PROMO FILM

On Thursday 21 February, ten Year 9 students who are interested in art, made their way to the National Gallery of Victoria. We were there for the day to be filmed by the NGV crew, to create a promotional video for the Education Program at the gallery. Our first stop was the Ian Potter Gallery, where we were greeted by the friendly staff who were to accompany us throughout the day. We went into a large room filled with amazingly juxtaposed contemporary and traditional Aboriginal artworks, and we were split into groups and given the challenge to interpret the different pieces without reading the descriptions.

When we got back together we discussed all of our different ideas and began the first of many complex and interesting discussions about the different works of art. After taking a good look at the incredible artwork in this particular exhibit, we were guided to another section of the gallery, filled with more modern contemporary artworks. Here we met the team that would be filming and editing the promotional video.

We went into the colourful exhibition and saw a few well-known pieces, including Collins St., 5 pm, and The Bar, by John Brack. While we were discussing and admiring the pieces in this gallery, the film crew were collecting footage for their video. After lunch, we walked over to the NGV International, where we went into one of the permanent exhibitions and studied an artwork entitled The Banquet of Cleopatra. This amazing, action-packed piece provides many opportunities to guess what is going on. This enabled us to creatively complete our next task, which was to assume the role of a character in the painting and act out the scene as a group. Our awesome little play was then filmed by the NGV crew, which brought us to the end of what was an incredibly insightful and enjoyable experience. A huge thank you to Ms Kuriata for organising the day!

Louisa D’Ambra

Year 9 Student