On the evening of Wednesday, 16 October 2019 four students: Jada Halls, Charlotte Cornett, Christian Patricio (Year 6) and Angelisa D’Costa (Year 5) journeyed with Mrs Huxley, Mrs Clancy and their families to the Wollongong Art Gallery to attend the “Wollongong Diocese Christmas Art Competition and Exhibition”. The students have worked tirelessly over five weeks to produce an artwork celebrating and exploring their creative, artistic and reflective ability to express their understanding of the Christmas Story, which enabled them entry into the Christmas Art competition.

The night was a beautiful celebration congratulating the 56 students who had been given the honour of entering artworks into the competition, these were chosen from over 170 artworks from schools within our Diocese.

On arrival at the Art Gallery everyone was given the opportunity to admire the students artworks and the atmosphere was electric, filled with conversation and praise for every artwork, each artist posing for photos, accepting congratulations and passionately sharing their artistic journey. Following this we made our way to the auditorium for the official opening of the Exhibition and to wait nervously for the awards to be presented. Each of the official speakers acknowledged the importance of the competition and how students are given the opportunity to express themselves artistically while being offered encouragement, support and guidance from their school community and families. They also congratulated all the children on their amazing talent, creativity, perseverance and wonderful ability to respond to the Christmas Story in such mature and reflective written responses. They encouraged all the children to be extremely proud of their achievements and for gaining entry into the competition. Then it was time to announce the 17 award recipients – all the students were very humble in their acceptance and congratulated each other enthusiastically!

All four of our students received an award! They also gained entry into the Sydney Christmas Art Competition and Exhibition, which will take place in December at the Notre Dame University, Sydney. They will be competing against students from the Archdiocese of Sydney, Diocese of Bathurst and Catholic students in State schools.

We are extremely proud of Jada, Christian, Charlotte and Angelisa and their outstanding commitment, passion and dedication throughout the whole process and we look forward to attending and supporting them on the next stage of their Christmas Art Journey! We would also especially like to thank:

•     Mr Reardon for supporting and encouraging this wonderful opportunity within our school community. 
•     Mr John Charadia for his commitment, dedication, support and guidance during the Christmas Art Competition process.
•     The Year 5 and 6 teachers and students for their implementation, support and dedication
•     The parents and families for their support and encouragement.

The exhibition will be on display from the 5th October through to the 23rd October at the Wollongong Art Gallery, it is a wonderful opportunity to experience outstanding student creativity!