2020 International Arts Education Week

School Website: www.berendale.vic.edu.au

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Berendale

Berendale School is a learning community for young people with intellectual disability. We are located in Melbourne, Australia.

In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we delivered a remote learning program. The Arts are pivotal to our school community, and we were committed to delivering an art education program for all students.

Every week, students accessed a new drawing project. They explored and completed drawings inspired by different ideas and cultures. They drew their family, community, monsters, aliens, food, kimonos, portraits, landscapes and buildings.

Students attended a weekly virtual class to create art with their peers. Many families and staff members participated and learned to draw and create. We presented, discussed and appreciated each other’s artworks, shared much laughter and had many positive interactions.

Students were proud of their achievements. Their artworks were displayed and celebrated in an online exhibition that has been accessed by the school community.

Our art education program provided an opportunity for our students, families and staff members to reconnect with their school community. It was beautiful to experience and acknowledge how our shared creativity and imagination had encouraged each other and ignited our human spirit in this challenging and uncertain time.