Washingwell School International Arts Week
Pupils’ at Washingwell Primary School put a lot of effort into studying international themes and making links with schools abroad in 2015. This hard work then inspired an exciting arts week programmed by GemArts. During the arts week pupils and teachers learnt even more about art, culutre and traditions from the countries they had studied and took part in an array of arts activity with GemArts’ artists including;
Giant Chinese dragon making and procession – with Lip
African djembe drumming and tribal mask making – with Arts Isiziba
Indian Bollywood dance and Indian Rangoli making – with Suzi and Jayamini
Icelandic storytelling riddles and rhymes – with Pascale
French history re-enactment, crafts and language workshops – with Time Bandits
Indian food demonstrations and tasting – with Cooking4Life
Spanish Gaudi mosaic making – with Emma
Turkish Ebru marbling glass workshops – with Effie
On 12th June 2015 GemArts also organised a special celebration day for Washingwell Primary School, a chance to celebrate the schools mazing art works and to unveil their 40ft Mural. As part of this special day we invited The Kala Chethena Kathakali Company all the way from Kerela, India to visit Washingwell Primary School to deliver workshops during the day and a professional Kathakali performance in the afternoon. Kathakali is a stylised classical Indian dance drama noted for the attractive make-up of characters, elaborate costumes, detailed gestures and well-defined body movements presented in tune with anchor playback music and complementary percussion. Pupils learned about the movement and gestures important to Kathakali storytelling, and also watched professionals create the phenomenal 3D make up and beautiful costumes which see the actors transformed into Kathakali characters.
