Wellington College Celebrates 3rd Annual Arts Festival

From 13-17 March, Wellington College International Shanghai celebrated all the art forms through a dedicated week of workshops, talks, performances and productions. Wellington’s guest artists, who brought the festival to life with their unique knowledge and experience, ranged from professional actors and storytellers, to stand-up comedians, photographers and even film directors. The festival’s coordinator, Dr Steve Jacobi, explained that this year’s theme of film was chosen because of the rising influence that images have on today’s highly digitised society and the importance of pupils being able to understand and interpret images in film and other art forms. He highlighted the need for pupils to meet artists from all manner of professional backgrounds in order to learn from their unique perspectives: “The Arts Festival represents a vital opportunity to allow our pupils to explore a wide range of art forms in ways they may have never even considered before. As with previous years, we hope that the activities put on by our guest artists will encourage pupils to consider the arts with new interest: this week could be the start of a lifelong passion or even an artistic career.” In every workshop and interactive talk session, pupils were encouraged to overcome any nerves or reservations and learn how to present their creative side with confidence and self-belief. For example, professional comedy author and stand-up comedian Logan Murray had pupils mimicking and mirroring one another’s behaviour in comedic situations, in order to explore the importance of not holding back or second-guessing yourself: “I loved the exercise where I had to try to convince my partner to not fire me by saying her own words back to her but in a ridiculously positive way. It showed us how to improvise quickly and work with our partners own ideas without over-thinking it.” – Hamin, Year 9 Film director Kirk Jones set pupils a fun yet difficult task of preparing a “movie pitch”. Pupils were challenged to come up with their own original concept for a film and then pitch it to Kirk and the assembled audience. Dozens of fantastic ideas were pitched, as pupils delivered their film’s plot and key “hook” – the exciting twist or element that leaves audiences wanting to know more – in roughly under a minute. “It’s really vital that pupils understand the importance of expressing an idea with enthusiasm and clarity. It doesn’t matter what they go on to do, eventually they will have an idea that they will need to present in a short, focused and engaging way. Equally important is the concept that in the film industry – or any other art form – it’s not a simple equation of being right or wrong, your ideas are open to criticism and praise, so pupils should have confidence and belief in their own creativity.” – Kirk Jones Wellington is dedicated to encouraging pupils to get outside their comfort zone in order to discover new activities which may inspire them. By introducing them to lots of different artistic ideas and disciplines from professionals flown in from all over the world, the hope is that the Arts Festival Week will spark off plenty of creative inspiration and possibly even lead pupils to take that first step on a path towards a lifelong artistic passion.