NAC holds holiday art workshop for students |16 August 2018

Every school holiday, the National Arts Council (NAC) hosts a workshop for primary to post-secondary students interested in the arts.

For this August holidays, secondary students (from both state and private schools) as well as post-secondary students from the Seychelles Institute of Arts and Design (SIAD) are taking part in the one-week workshop.

The aim of the workshop, which began on Monday, is to get students busy and at the same time help them fine-tune their artistic skills in preparation for the art competition ‘Zenn Artis Kreolofonn’ organised as part of the Festival Kreol activities in October.

The NAC’s coordinator for arts development, Vivienne Croisée, said that they scouted for interested participants through letters sent to the Ministry of Education and schools, whereby art teachers mobilised their art students to participate in the activity.

“This activity is done every holiday -- in April for primary students and August for both secondary and post-secondary students,” said Ms Croisée.

“During this workshop, we are preparing students for the Zenn Artis Kreolofonn art competition to be held during the Festival Kreol. The students’ work from both the April workshop and the current one will be displayed and prizes will be awarded to the best ones,” Ms Croisée explained.

“The most interesting thing is that the participants from the previous workshops are art teachers, so they are helping out with the workshops during the holidays,” said Ms Croisée, who also noted that such workshops have been taking place for the past 15 years.

Doris Nourrice, a past workshop participant as well as a winner of the Zenn Artis Kreolofonn competition, is presently an art teacher at the Independent School and is also helping out in facilitating this workshop. 

Ms Nourrice said that the students who are currently attending the workshop are very eager and interested in arts development.

“I came here to help the students to develop as young artists, so that they may express themselves better in using the element of art and to develop their maturity,” said Ms Nourrice.

She explained that at the end of the workshop, she is expecting students to be producing very good art projects.

Another professional artist conducting the workshop, James Auguste, who is an arts teacher at the La Rosière primary school, said that a new art concept is being introduced so as to instill these students with creativity and to help them be resourceful instead of being monotone.

Mr Auguste said the concept is to allow students to not only use paints and paint brushes to produce art but to also use other resources found in their daily lives.

“At the end of this week, I hope to see the new concept coming out in Seychelles art,” expressed Mr Auguste.

A SIAD student, Leanna Richard, said that so far she finds the workshop very helpful and hopes to acquire new skills to put to use at school and in the future.

“I find it interesting to come here for the workshop as you get to see what other schools have to offer as well as a diverse range of talents. I really think this workshop will be helpful as afterwards our works will be on display and the public will be able to admire our hidden talents,” she said.

The workshop ends tomorrow.