Parents & Friends

2021 Artist in Residence Program (AiR)

After a delay due to the Term 3 lockdown, it is pleasing to announce that the 2021 AiR Program will be held from Monday 15 to Friday 19 November. It is with thanks to the College’s Parents and Friends Association and their award of a 2021 Learning Grant, that the Visual Arts Faculty can partner with contemporary ceramist, Ebony Russell. The opportunity provided by an artist in residence program is invaluable to students as it breaks down the boundaries of the classroom and makes real the practices of artists. 

Throughout the week, Ebony will visit visual arts classes and provide mentorship to students in their artmaking. Our senior students will engage with her in an artist profile lesson learning the intricacies of what it is like for an artist to make a living in the contemporary artworld/market. Coinciding with this, Ebony will produce an artwork, set to be gifted to the College at the conclusion of the residency. The artwork will reflect a key aspect of College life and when finished, join previous AiR works as part of the College’s growing art collection.  

Ebony holds a Master of Fine Arts (Ceramics), is a sessional lecturer at the National Art School, a former Visual Arts high school teacher and an exciting studio-based practitioner. Her recent inclusion in the Powerhouse Museum's 50-year retrospective of Australian ceramics, Clay Dynasty, sits her name alongside Australian greats and marks her as an artist to watch. Ebony operates between both the functional and aesthetic realms of the artworld. Her utilitarian pieces are produced and sold through her Piped Dream Studio business. While her art objects, gifted with a sense of nostalgia and opulence, are exhibited with representation by Artereal gallery.

Nick Phillipson

Visual Arts Faculty Leader