Students canvas their culture for National Water Week
Posted: 29 August 2017
School students across Busselton are being asked by Busselton Water to think about how water is a part of their everyday lives in the National Water Week ‘Canvas your Culture’ art competition.
Class groups from seven primary and five high schools across the region will don their creative caps and complete the art piece over the next four weeks.
Blank canvases and vouchers for art supplies have been delivered to the 12 classes that are entering the competition – including those from Busselton Primary School, West Busselton Primary School, Geographe Primary School, Vasse Primary School, Busselton Senior High School, St Mary MacKillop College, Cape Naturaliste College and Georgiana Molloy Anglican School.
Busselton Water CEO Chris Elliott explained the ‘Canvas your Culture’ art competition is part of the corporation’s celebration of National Water Week (15-21 October 2017).
“Each October, National Water Week provides an opportunity to build community awareness and understanding around water related topics and challenges,” Mr Elliott said.
“National Water Week is particularly important to Busselton Water as it highlights the importance of having access to clean water and what we can do to protect our water environments and resources and use water wisely.”
West Busselton Primary School Year 6 Teacher Leah Reitinger said she was excited to have the opportunity to incorporate science lessons into the project, especially about the importance of water.
“Any opportunity to combine art with learning is really valuable. Art is always engaging with kids and as a teacher finding ways to keep students engaged is priceless,” Ms Reitinger said.
“It also ties in nicely as we’ve already done some work this year on the ocean and pollution. We’ve talked a lot about how we all play a part in not littering and saving water so I’m hoping this project will consolidate the message that we all play a part in conserving our previous resource.”
Each school has been provided with the supplies to create a canvas inspired by the 2017 National Water Week theme ‘Water – the Heart of our Culture’. The theme is designed to encourage young people to explore how water shapes our everyday lives through recreational activities, the natural world and our community values.
Once complete, a photo of each artwork will be uploaded to the Busselton Water Facebook page (@BusseltonWater) where the public will vote for their favourite. The canvases will also be displayed at a local location from 25 September to 20 October.
The winner will be announced during National Water Week.
West Busselton Primary School prepares its canvas (back l-r) Year 6 teacher Leah Reitinger, Busselton Water CEO Chris Elliott and Principal Jamie Adair with (front l-r) Maddison Marshall, Kai Lardi and Lucy Clarke.
