By Mikayla van Loon
St Mary’s Catholic Primary School students, teachers and parents were excited to celebrate an artistic school year with the annual art show, combined with a performance of Christmas Carols.
Held on Thursday 8 December, artworks were presented in an array of forms and mediums, with various themes and subject matter from all year levels at the school.
Principal Angela Glennie said the artworks are the culmination of a year’s worth of work in different study areas and once again she was amazed at the work of visual arts specialist Eliza Kelly and of course the students.
“It’s a great undertaking and there’s some beautiful pieces. There’s library [work] in there and there’s Italian in there. There’s the religious aspect. There’s all sorts of creative bits in there. So it’s always a thrill,” she said.
“I was blown away. Absolutely blown away. They’ve done it again.”
Originally holding the art show and carols on separate nights, Ms Glennie said prior to the pandemic the school brought the two events together which was a hit with everyone.
“One day we just said why don’t we just combine them and it boosted the numbers for both and everyone just felt like it was worthwhile coming out, to catch up and it’s lovely to see the families on their picnic rugs.
Being the first time in two years St Mary’s has been able to host the two events in person again, Ms Glennie it was such a joy to see parents and families filling up the school grounds again.
“Through Covid we did online Carols, the first one we tried to do live and then we did a movie and so this is obviously one of our major events since coming back.
“We’ve been able to do our school production and our junior showcase, and this is our third event this semester. It’s been a lot but it’s been great to have people back.”
After most people had toured the art space, families and students gathered on the grass to watch as each year level took to the stage to sing some carols.
Over the last few weeks, during performing arts and choir, students were recorded singing to a backing track which was played as a guide on Thursday evening so that students could sing over the top, making it louder and much easier to hear down the back.
“They were all very excited to think they were recording artists over the last few weeks when we did that,” Ms Glennie said.
“It’s just a thrill for the parents to see their kids up there in their glittery bits for a photo opportunity and it’s not necessarily about the singing, it’s just about being together.”
