UNDERSTANDING THE ARTS AT KAIPARA COLLEGE

UNDERSTAND OUR TAKE ON THE ARTS

Kaipara College celebrates its ability to offer every student a balanced experience where they can enjoy academic, sporting, artistic and cultural success. Although a moderately sized school, we are recognised as a high performer in the arts communities.

Involvement in the arts beyond the classroom creates a sense of ownership, family, encourages innovation, embraces diversity, speaks without words, builds confidence, strives for personal excellence and develops lifelong soundtracks and memories.

Our growth kaupapa is simple, 'move the mountain to the students'. We have made the deliberate choice to focus in on genres that the students are collectively more interested in at this time. We take calculated risks with our production choices and encourage diversity and innovation through our visual arts. As examples of this, our productions are contemporary and address our diverse world, our music is often loud and electric or very personal and our visual art portrays messages to our community.

The arts are directed through student agency with each aspect having their own Captain.

Introducing Our Arts Captains for 2024

Art Faculty Manifesto

Through a Pedagogy of Guidance + Action + Experimentation - students who learn in the Arts Faculty will:

• Have opportunities to engage and experiment with a wide range of artistic expressions and genres in a safe supportive environment.

• Develop a love of the arts as a form of self expression and a leisure activity that supports wellbeing.

• Develop the skills and attitudes needed to gain access to further education and/or employment in the creative industries.

• Understand the role of the arts in the world as a tool for making diverse people/cultures visible and as a tool for social justice.

ARTS UPDATES

Fine Arts

Recent Exhibitions

Our talented Fine Arts teaching team are dedicated to giving our students opportunities to experience exhibiting their work. Recently our Year 12 & 13 photography students were part of an exciting exhibition at the Art Centre where their works were displayed alongside f/30 and other local photographers as part of the annual Auckland Festival of Photography.
The exhibition was an amazing opportunity for students to meet established photographers, gain exposure, and sell prints of their work. Prints from this exhibition will also be available for purchase at the Kaipara College Centenary celebrations on Saturday September 21, 2024.

Student Successes from 2023

Student work selected for Te Papa exhibit

Taira Morehu's photographic work Otakanini Topu Farm was one of 80 student works selected from across the country to show work in the NZQA Ringa Toi Student Exhibition 2023 at Te Papa.

Ringa Toi is an annual exhibition that showcases the artwork of of secondary school students with a focus on Toi Māori and Pacific Arts.

Scholarship in NCEA Painting 2023

Jade Culverwell achieved NCEA scholarship in Painting in 2023

This is a wonderful achievement - only the top 3.15 percent of students taking NCEA Level 3 Painting were awarded a scholarship in this subject in 2023.

Events in 2023

The Senior Visual Art Exhibition in week 10 of Term 3, was nothing short of spectacular, showcasing the incredible talent and creativity of our budding artists. The exhibition featured an impressive array of artworks; students from the Senior Photography, Design, Printmaking and Painting classes had the opportunity to display and sell prints of their work.

The library, which served as the exhibition's venue, was abuzz with energy throughout the event. The event was an overwhelming success, with over 110 artwork prints available for purchase. One of the standout features of the exhibition was the sheer number of prints that were sold, with over $1000 worth of prints sold, with proceeds from each print given back to each student, which was a great recognition for our hard work whilst also a good feeling knowing somebody specifically brought a piece of your artwork for themselves to enjoy.

I would like to thank Michelle Corbett and Frances Gillett who came out for this evening to be our guest judges and spent their time deciding the stand-out prints and awards for the evening.The winner of each category were as follows;

Painting/Drawing: Amelie De Beer
Printmaking: Emily Richards
Design: Ethan Suckling
Photography: Taira Morehu
We also had visitors choose their favorite artwork, for the People’s choice award, which was given to Samantha Newman.

We were very lucky to have National Art Supplies sponsor us in which the winners of the awards received a fantastic prize pack of art supplies to take home with them. I would also like to thank Sam Pilkington and Jo Mears for organising this event and making it such a great night for all of us, we all really appreciate the effort they put into it.

I personally loved being able to have my whanau and friends see my progress and look at my artwork, whilst also seeing what everyone else had been producing over the year. The Senior Art Exhibition exhibition not only showcased the students outstanding artistic abilities, but also served as a testament to the power of creativity and the importance of supporting the arts. I hope Kaipara College will be able to hold more Senior Art Exhibitions in the future, which I look forward to coming back and attending.

Jade Culverwell

Visual Arts Captain (2023)

Music Faculty

Extra-Curricular Opportunities

The music team offer a number of extra-curricular opportunities with a focus on composition, songwriting and performance. As well as Band Factory on Wednesday evenings, the team hold jam sessions at lunchtimes where the music rooms are open to students of specified year levels on given days (e.g. on Thursdays the rooms are open to Yr 9s and 12s), stimulating organic development of tuakana teina (mentoring) relationships to grow students' confidence and skill. Our students are encouraged and supported to enter songwriting and perfomance competitions such as SmokeFree RockQuest and PlayItStrange throughout the year under the academic leadership of Nick Roberts, experienced teacher, musician and co-director of our Academy of Performing Arts.

From 2024 the music team have also put together a choir led by Jess Brown and are planning to further diversify the options available to our students.

Peace Song Finalists 2023

Our Kaipara College finalists (L-R: Isabella Wishart, Manaakitia Gray-Hohepa, Ella Culverwell) won a day's recording at Joel Little's studio, the Big Fan (Joel Little is music producer for the likes of Lorde and Taylor Swift)

For the Peace Song competition, the theme of peace and non-violence may be interpreted broadly from inner personal peace, peace in the home and among families to peace between peoples of the world.

Drama Faculty

Extra-Curricular Opportunities

Each year Kaipara College puts on a production to develop and showcase the drama and stagecraft talent at Kaipara College.

Our 2024 production, Alice's Revenge, was a huge success with 12 award nominations across eight categories of the Auckland Showdown Awards. A special mention goes to the make-up and costume design crew comprising Lillie Welch, Tess Heming [teacher], Jaimi Walters, Greyson Rickards, and Jade Sutherland, who took home the best make-up and costume design award, but we are very proud of our all of our staff and students who put in a lot of hard work to make the show so entertaining and successful.

Below are some photos from our 2023 production, the Agatha Christie classic -- Murder on the Nile. Under the expert guidance of talented drama teacher, actor, and director Stephen Lunt, the production was highly successful and received nominations in nine categories at The Auckland Showdown Awards for school productions Auckland wide. On the night, the team took home Best Director of a Play (Stephen Lunt), Best Performer in a Lead Role (Ellie Kenington), Best Set Design (special thanks to Rawiri Fowler from our tech team who designed and built a moving paddle wheel), and the penultimate award - Outstanding Play. Steve also took home Best Director in 2022 for the school's Dracula production.