Bush Studio
Students in Years 7 to 10 are invited to participate in a suite of immersive visual arts programs at Gibberagong Environmental Education Centre. Opportunities to observe, interpret and respond to their immediate environment will inform students’ artmaking practice across a variety of mediums.
The following visual arts opportunities are available:
Years 7 and 8 visual arts camp
- Dates: Thursday 6 – Friday 7 November 2025 (Term 4 Week 4)
- Venue: Gibberagong Environmental Education Centre
- Cost: $200 per student
- Registrations through The Arts Unit open Term 1, 2025
Bush Studio: visual arts camp provides an opportunity for public school students in Year 7 and 8 to be involved in an engaging, challenging and stimulating visual arts program led by an experienced visual arts teacher.
The camp aims to provide students with an opportunity to observe, interpret and respond to their immediate environment at Ku-ring-gai National Park, Bobbin Head. Students will learn strategies to explore their immediate experience of the landscape to create preliminary works as departure points for resolved studio-based artworks.
Bushwalking in the Ku-ring-gai National Park will provide exciting opportunities for students to directly observe and visually document the subtle nuances of the natural environment using drawing and mixed media. Students will investigate ways to create sculptural works using natural found objects and use these sculptures to facilitate the making of drawings and monoprints. The program will culminate in an exhibition for families, friends and teachers.
Years 9 and 10 artist in residence
- Date: Thursday 27 – Friday 28 November 2024 (Term 4 Week 7)
- Venue: Gibberagong Environmental Education Centre
- Cost: $200 per student
- Registrations through The Arts Unit open Term 1, 2025
Bush Studio: artist in residence is a visual arts camp for students in Year 9 and 10, especially those considering further studies in visual arts. Students are given the opportunity to work alongside a carefully selected artist to observe, interpret and respond to their immediate environment at Ku-ring-gai National Park, Bobbin Head. Previous artists in residence include illustrator Patrick Shirvington (2023) and abstract, process-based artist Emily Besser (2024).
2025 artist-in-residence Nicole Barakat is a Kfarsghabi, Lebanese artist living on the lands and waters of the Gadigal People. Nicole’s creative practice is rooted in remembering and re-gathering her ancestral knowing. She works with deep listening and intuitive processes with intentions to transform the conditions of everyday life. Her artwork engages unconventional approaches to art-making, creating intricate works that embody the love and patience characteristic of traditional textile practices. Her works include hand-stitched and hand-cut cloth and paper drawings, sculptural forms made with her own hair, cloth and plant materials as well as live work where she uses her voice as a material.
Years 3 to 6 visual arts enrichment program
- Date: Term 3 Week 6, 2025 (TBC)
- Time: 9:30 am – 2 pm
- Venue: Field of Mars Environmental Education Centre
- Cost: $50 per student
- Registration through Field of Mars Environmental Education Centre
Bush Studio: Visual Arts Enrichment is an invitation to students in year 3 to 6 to spend the day immersed in, and be inspired by, the unique urban bushland setting of the Field of Mars Reserve and to experiment with a range of mediums to make engaging and interesting artworks.
Students will be introduced to a variety of work by Australian contemporary artists, including First Nations artists, and begin to consider the wide range of perspectives and processes contemporary artists use when making their work. Students will be encouraged to work collaboratively at times, to rethink what drawing can be and do, and to play with the idea of permanence and ephemerality in their artwork. An online gallery at the end of the program provides a platform for students to showcase their artworks and artmaking process. Media used may include drawing, writing, painting, collage, clay and stop-animation.
This one-day workshop is designed to extend participants' skills and artmaking experiences beyond the classroom. Teachers are encouraged to extend this opportunity to students who display a higher level of engagement in visual arts.
Photo gallery – Artist in residence, Gibberagong
2023 artist in residence, Patrick Shirvington, is an accomplished children’s book illustrator and artist. Shirvington’s work investigates his relationship to the natural world through drawing, believing the practice of drawing is fundamental to the cognitive process and to opening doors to the unseen. Working with a variety of mediums, his artmaking looks at the natural world surrounding us, firstly bringing attention to the picture surface, followed by a deeper revelation.