Mental Health First Aiders: Lockdown Competition Entries
The MHFA (Mental Health First Aiders) Art Competition was conceived and organised by Bo Wood and Mythili Baksaran as a response to the Covid Lockdown. This opportunity to share creative activity can also be extended to music and drama performances and we are actively seeking examples of these.
Inspired by Grayson Perry's "Grayson's Art Club", the idea emerged to dedicate a page on the ACS Lockdown gallery to work that was produced by High School students, staff and parents during lockdown: no given themes or guidelines, just an engagement with any artistic, musical or theatrical experience. Here are the contributions so far:
And the Winners Are...
Congratulations to our winners! The most important aspect of this competition was to encourage members of the community to participate in mindful art-making, but it was originally conceived as a competition and therefore a selection of winning entries was made. Mythili Baksaran and the other 4 judges used four criteria, scoring each out out of 5 points. The points from all the judges were tallied up in each category and the submissions with the most points were narrowed to the shortlists for each category (Student/ Staff/ Parent works). The criteria were:
artwork which has the potential to direct web traffic to the Art gallery and inspires participation.
"eye/ear catching", so that it can be used in posts for ACS social media channels.
work that reflects originality in the medium or art form used by the artist/ performer.
reflected, alluded to or explored the theme of "Mental Health in Lockdown" in some form.
Thank you to everyone that contributed and made this gallery of work so varied and special. It is a wonderful testament to the healing power of the Arts!
Zoe L & Simon C (HS/MS Teachers): Musical interlude-"Berceuse from Debussy's Dolly Suite"
Nick V (HS Student): Installation/ Kinetic Art
Esben L (Student): Photography
Mira O (HS Teacher): Ceramics
Ginger H (HS Teacher): Stained Glass
Julie F. (HS Admin): Photography
Sandrine S. (HS Teacher): Food Art/ Ceramics
Kina A (HS Student): Painting
Clare E (HS Staff): Needle art
Anne M (HS Teacher): Stonework
Max W (Student): Digital images/ animation/ musical compositions
Carolina J (Student): Painting on Found Materials- Coins and Batteries
Sofia S (Student): Drawings and Photography
Charlotte S (Student): Drawing
Jamie W. (Parent): Painting
Emma T (Student): Painting
Mathilde C (Student): Drawing
Simon L (School Admin): Painting
Gergana D (Student): Drawing
Chris H (HS Teacher): Photography
Gerardo CP (Parent): Digital Drawing
Cyrus I (HS Teacher): Stencil based art
Sam W (Student): Original Song
Sam W and Simon W playing guitar solos on the Eagles' "Hotel California"