Orient Museum Visit

Last week we took out year 12 and 13 students to the Museu do Oriente in Alcântara. We spent the day looking at shadow puppets, funerary sculptures and miniature japanese inrôs and netsukes. Our students heard stories about the collections and the cultural traditions and myths behind the artwork and were allowed to make drawings. This was a great experience for all of them and here I present some images of the day.
We want to thank Constança Arouca, our guide and lecturer for such a fascinating day.



 

The making of an Elephant....

Carolina de Pontes has just completed an outstanding stoneware sculpture of an elephant. This was her creative response to the theme "FORCE"

The finalised sculpture

Claudia da Lança

Dear All, It is a very busy time for us and I have not been very good at keeping the posting active. I received an email from a former student recently and I want to share this with all of you:

"It was through the production of my art work for the IB art course that I discovered my interest in the historic past and in particular people's lives. The course gave me the flexibility to develop this interest and ultimately decided my university degree subject for me, Archaeology and Anthropology.

My degree combined a factual study of history as well as an in depth exploration of the way in which people, past and present produce cultural objects. I therefore spent a lot of my time in museums and art galleries studying the way in which art objects and artefacts both fall into the newly developed category in Anthropology, Material Culture, and are significant in defining human being's cultural identities. Material culture has been recently defined as a distinct area of study within Anthropology and I was fortunate enough to study at UCL where the Anthropology department is at the forefront of this newly defined discipline. While studying for my degree I realised how valuable my background in fine art was in providing me with an in depth understanding of the way in which society has evolved through material culture, and the way in which it continues to develop with a focus on aesthetics and visual representation. Having completed the degree I am pleasantly surprised to find that there are actually several career avenues open to me. I am currently looking at masters in curatorship of galleries and museums as well as gaining NGO experience in the hope that this will lead to a career that involves both the preservation of artistic and cultural heritage and the adaptation of heritage to meet the current socio-economic needs of present day society. "


We are so proud of you Claudia, thank you so much for keeping in touch and sharing your experience with us !

One of Claudia's mixed media pieces I found in an old folder in our server.