The project is funded by:
The Australia Council, Australian Government. The Department of Culture and the Arts. Department of Education, Government of Western Australia, Artsedge.
The project is supported by:
Beverley Station Arts, Beverley Agricultural Society, The Shire of Beverley.
The Artists:
Charlotte O'Shea:
Charlotte works as a community artist with schools, local government and state government organisations.
She was 2013 Artsedge Artist-in-Residence at PMH School of Special Educational Needs.
Charlotte's arts practice includes acrylic painting, drawing, small sculpture with up-cycled and discarded materials and digital art.
Jenny Broun:
Jenny is President of Beverley Station Arts and an accomplished local artist with strong connections to the community.
The project involves the entire school population from pre-primary to year 10. A total of approx 188 students.
Projects have been designed to meet the skill levels and development of each year group.
Students and staff have been encouraged to collect a variety of materials for the projects ranging from cardboard boxes, plastic bottles and containers and any other items which may be deemed suitable. The message being: 'if you're not sure if we can use it bring it anyway'.
In the beginning:
Our first task is to engage each year group in an element of sustainability appropriate to their educational and skill levels.
We also need the students and staff to bring along recycled materials for the project:
- Plastic bottles and cartons
- Cardboard cartons
- Egg boxes
- Computer parts etc.
Year 1 will be exploring worms and bees and how important they are for the environment.
Year 2 will be exploring good and bad bugs.
Year 3/4 are looking at the value of fruit and vegetables. Do they need to be perfect? When should we eat them? In season? Locally grown? Cost of transportation to the environment?
Year 4/5 are planning to look at housing, building with recycled materials, sustainable energy, water harvesting and reuse, etc.
Year 6 are investigating the value of trees to sustainability
Year 7 have a number of ideas and are planning a 'Methane Station' making some re-cycled fashion, designing a house from recycled materials.
Year 8 are looking at animals, native and introduced and trees and their effects on the environment and sustainability.
Their artworks will be freestanding.
Year 9/10 are more challenging the boys are planning to build model robots which would be solar powered. The girls have a number of projects, recycled fashion, letter art made from rubbish, and several other projects.
Pre-Primary Project:
What I do for the Environment:
Finding out what everyone does to make our world sustainable.
Objectives:
- Learning about colour selection: contrasting shades and colours.
- Use of discarded cardboard as an art material.
- Using collage to make artworks
Materials:
- Cardboard back board
- Cardboard packaging
- Posca acrylic pens
- Colored paper
- Polystyrene shapes
- Newspapers and magazines
- PVA glue
- Pipe cleaners
Method:
- A small piece of cardboard was covered with strips of coloured paper:
- The next stage was for everyone to make a model of themselves from paper cut into shapes of t-shirts and shorts arms and legs, polystyrene shapes and pipe cleaners were used for the head and the features drawn with Posca art pens:
- These were mounted on the cardboard:
- The backboard was covered with newspaper and magazine strips:
- Once this stage was completed the backboard was coloured with a diluted wash of food colouring. The individual artworks were then relief mounted onto the backboard:
- The final stage was to add words in the form of thought bubbles describing what each participant does for the environment e.g. 'I turn the tap off when I brush my teeth', 'I feed my food scraps to the chooks':
- The resulting artwork is bright and colourful with a strong sustainability message.
Year 1 Project:
Worms and Bees
Exploring the value of bees and worms to our environment.
Good things about Worms: enrich our soils and keep them healthy, they break down organic matter in the soil into compost. Worms also break down food scraps into compost. They are also a food source for birds and small animals.
Bad things about worms: some worms are pests and eat fruit and vegetables that we need. they can also cause diseases.
Good things about Bees: pollinate our crops providing us with food. Honey bees make food.
Bad things about Bees: Many bees sting.
Objectives:
- Learning about colour selection: contrasting shades and colours.
- Use of discarded cardboard as an art material.
- Learning to work together to create a cohesive artwork
Materials:
- Cardboard back board
- Cardboard boxes
- Paint
- Colored paper
- Polystyrene shapes
Process:
- Initial workshop focusses on drawing worms in their environment and discussing our project
- Worms are cut out of discarded cardboard and these are primed ready for colouring. Students are encouraged to make their worms colourful and interesting.
- The backboard is painted and the worms attached.
- Small cardboard shapes are collaged with green and blue paper to add texture to the sky and ground. The rest of the background is painted.
- Two tree shapes are cut out from discarded cardboard boxes, these are collaged with brown and grey paper. Paper flowers are glued onto the backboard as are the trees and the blue and green shapes.
- Bees are made out of polystyrene half egg shapes and iridescent paper. Students are encouraged to use their imaginations as to colour selection for the bees.
- The artwork is completed with the addition of paper leaves. Boards will also be prepared to describe the artwork.
- The students were asked how they felt about the artwork once it was completed. They were all happy with it, when asked if it should stay in it's current form as a complete work all replied a resounding YES!
Year 2:
The Amazing World of Bugs
Learning about good and bad bugs and how they affect our environment.
Good Bugs: pollinate plants, decompose dead plants and animals and keep the soil healthy and aerated. They are a food source for other animals. Water bugs can also indicate if water is polluted.
Bad Bugs: damage food crops, spread diseases, bite and sting, damage property.
Objectives:
- Learning about colour selection: contrasting shades and colours.
- Use of discarded cardboard, newspaper, magazines and polystyrene shapes as art materials.
- Learning to work together to create a cohesive artwork
- Using the imagination to create a colourful bug... would it be a good bug or a bad bug?
Materials:
- Cardboard back board
- Cardboard boxes
- Paint
- Colored paper
- Polystyrene shapes
- newspaper and magazines
Process:
- A variety of polystyrene shapes are mounted onto small cardboard pieces and each student is given one to work with.
- Each student will design their own bug.
- The first task is to collage the background with coloured art paper
- In the second workshop the bugs are coloured with Posca acrylic paint pens. Details are added with iridescent paper and pipe cleaners. The resulting artworks are unique and imaginative.
- The bugs are given names: these are interesting and varied! Sparkle, Rainbow, Uniworm, Dragry, Mike aka Skull Smasher hoping this one is smashing bug skulls!! And many more.
- The next stage is to begin work on the background board.
- Several large shapes are cut out of cardboard boxes to represent fields in the foreground of the artwork. These are then collaged with newspaper and magazines.
- In the following workshop the shapes are attached to the backboard and further collage is added to the top to form the sky.
- The back board was stained with a wash of food dye and the bugs attached. Letters were then added to describe good and bad bugs.
Year 3/4:
Food sustainability: focussing on fruit and vegetables
Examining the value of fruit and vegetables regardless of their shape and appearance (what does perfect taste like?)
Eating in season, growing your own and eating and buying locally produced food.
Understanding that eating local produce in season reduces transport cost and environmental pollution.
Objectives:
- Learning about colour selection: contrasting shades and colours.
- Use of discarded cardboard, newspaper, magazines and polystyrene packaging as art materials.
- Learning to work collaboratively to construct small artworks.
- Developing construction skills
Process:
- The students are asked to draw a series of weird shaped fruit and vegetables.
- In the second session the students work in pairs to create their chosen weird fruit or vegetable. They select oddly shaped pieces cut from polystyrene packaging to create their artworks:
- The next step is to build on their artwork with newspaper and glue:
- The completed pieces are then primed and painted:
- The students come up with lots of interesting names for their fruit and veg! Groovy Grapes, Bonkers Broccoli, Wacky Watermelon to name but a few!
- The backboard is painted and the letters 'What Does Perfect Taste Like' added:
- Small pieces of cardboard are collaged with magazines. These will be used to cut out letters for the message of the artwork:
The finished work:
Year 4/5:
Sustainable housing:
This is the largest class group hence this project has three elements:
- Under and above the ground: geothermal heating, water harvesting, aquaculture solar and wind power, composting etc
- The building exterior, reusing materials to build etc
- The building interior water usage, power usage etc
Objectives:
- Use of discarded cardboard, newspaper, magazines and polystyrene packaging and other items as art materials.
- Learning to work collaboratively to create large artworks
- Developing construction skills
Process:
- Each group will create a 3D relief model of their element of the project:
Initial construction involved the selection of appropriate cardboard containers etc to develop the structures.
Work continued building and developing each piece:
The final stage was to add information about the various features of the houses and land.
Year 6:
Trees:
Two groups one will construct and demonstrate the value of trees to the environment.
The second group will construct and demonstrate what happens when too many trees are removed.
Objectives:
Trees:
Two groups one will construct and demonstrate the value of trees to the environment.
The second group will construct and demonstrate what happens when too many trees are removed.
Objectives:
- Learning to work collaboratively
- Using a range of reuse-able materials, mainly cardboard to construct a 3d relief artwork which tells a story
- Preparing a graphic information piece to describe the project
Materials:
- Cardboard backboard
- Newspaper
- Plaster bandage
- Cardboard boxes
- Egg cartons
- Paint
- cardboard tubing
- PVA glue
- Iridescent cellophane
The Healthy Tree:
The trunk and branches of the tree were formed from cardboard tubing of various sizes and bores sliced in half and attached to the backboard with strips of newspaper and PVA glue.
Layers of cardboard were added to the bottom to begin forming the background landscape. This was then coated with a layer of plaster bandage.
Next a layer of newspaper was added to the background and coloured with a dilute wash. The tree and base were then painted.
Next a layer of newspaper was added to the background and coloured with a dilute wash. The tree and base were then painted.
Egg cartons coloured with food dye were used for the folliage, Painting can be an entertaining activity!
The finished tree:
The finished work is vibrant, interesting and innovative:
Once completed the work was primed then painted:
The resulting artwork is colourful and vibrant and a good representation of salinity affected trees.
Year 7:
Three Projects:
The chair came from a roadside collection. Miss Beverley is made from cardboard boxes, plastic tubing, newspaper, fabric scraps and yarn.
The chair has been decorated with remnant strips of fabric.
'Miss Beverley' under construction.
A well covered chair!
Miss Beverley in her beautiful satin dress
Recycled Fashion:
Numerous materials and garbage bags were used to create this amazing ball gown!
The Big 'R':
One of the year 10 students created the Big 'R' from discarded food packaging, most of which is unnecessary outer double packaging:
A thought provoking artwork!
A few details were added:
Salt Affected Tree:
The trunk and branches of the tree were formed from cardboard tubing of various sizes and bores sliced in half and attached to the backboard with strips of newspaper and PVA glue.
Once the painting was completed egg boxes were added to represent the salt leaching some birds were added and iridescent cellophane was added to represent water.
Year 7:
Three Projects:
- The Moo Methane Station
- The Renewable House
- Recycled Fashion
Objectives:
- Learning to work collaboratively
- Using a range of reuse-able materials, mainly cardboard to construct a 3d relief artwork which tells a story
- Preparing a graphic information piece to describe the project
Materials:
The dress was constructed from Chicken wire covered with carrier bags and other materials:
The face was painted and jewellery and other decorative items added:
A kangaroo, emu, rabbit and fox were also constructed.
A wolf spider was made from plastic cartons.
The tree was constructed from plastic bottles then leaves were added.
Initial construction with cardboard boxes, plastic tubing, plastic containers.
The body was then covered with Newspaper and PVA glue
- Numerous recycled / re-used materials
- MDF
- Cardboard
- Polystyrene
- Paper
- Fabric
- Plaster bandage
- Chicken wire
- Etc
1. The Moo Methane Station:
A model of a proposed collection station for methane produced by cattle. This is then collected and used to power gas powered vehicles...
The model consists of a 'dome' for collection of the gas. A shed for housing the cattle.
A large mode of a cow is placed on the top of the dome along with an advertising sign. Small vehicles made from polystyrene are queuing up to fill up!
2. The Renewable House:
Model of a house made from recycled materials.. reclaimed bricks, timber windows etc.
The house runs on solar power and rainwater.
3.Recycled Fashion:
A relief model was constructed on an MDF board from newspaper, plaster bandage, chicken wire.
The model was developed with layers of newspaper and glued to the board:
This was then covered with a layer of plaster bandage:
The model was then painted and hair and clothing added:
The dress was constructed from Chicken wire covered with carrier bags and other materials:
The face was painted and jewellery and other decorative items added:
Lady Garbagina!
Year 8:
Two Projects:
3D construction of tree re-generation after a bush fire
Animals: native and feral
Objectives:
- Producing a series of 3d sculptures
- Working individually and in pairs
- Developing construction skills
- Sourcing and selecting appropriate materials
Materials:
- Plastic soft drinks bottles
- Plastic cartons
- Cardboard tubing
- Plaster bandage
- Paint
- etc
Process:
The students selected materials to create the foundations of their artworks. Plastic bottles, cardboard tubing egg boxes etc were used.
The echidna was made from egg boxes, then covered with plaster bandage.
A kangaroo, emu, rabbit and fox were also constructed.
The pieces were painted the displayed at the Beverley Agricultural Show.
Year 9/10:
3D artworks made from recycled materials:
'Miss Beverley in a Chair'
Recycled Robots
Recycled wearable fashion
The Big 'R'
Objectives:
- To produce a series of 3D artworks using recycled materials
- Working collaboratively
- Developing creative skills
- Sourcing appropriate materials
Materials:
- Cardboard containers
- PVA glue
- Newspaper
- Plastic piping
- Cardboard tubing
- Cardboard boxes
- Recycled chair
- fabric
- yarn
Robots:
The body was then covered with Newspaper and PVA glue
The smaller robot was covered with aluminium foil.
'Miss Beverley' in Her Chair:
The chair came from a roadside collection. Miss Beverley is made from cardboard boxes, plastic tubing, newspaper, fabric scraps and yarn.
Miss Beverley in her beautiful satin dress
Recycled Fashion:
Numerous materials and garbage bags were used to create this amazing ball gown!
The Big 'R':
One of the year 10 students created the Big 'R' from discarded food packaging, most of which is unnecessary outer double packaging:
A thought provoking artwork!
