St Matthews – Visual Poetry Jam – (20 July 2023 & 3 August 2023)

As we were disappointed with the Anzac turn out we didn’t want to leave it at that so we have kept at it and finally got an opportunity to work with one of the local colleges.
With the strikes and overwhelm with continued student and staff illnesses many schools just seem to be struggling to do anything but what is in the curriculum. But luckily we were able to get in through a crack with St.Matthews who had recently changed their curriculum and were working with photography in year 10 and 19 wonderful students. We got two days of Visual Poetry Jams with the students doing the Rainbow Challenge on the first day and teaching lightroom post production skills. On the second day we worked with composition skills.

Monika (Monika Theng was the teacher who invited us) really enjoyed having a different take on photography and visual storytelling shown to her and was so thrilled with their work that she has had it taken to Ara Toi for an exhibition. She spoke with the local group of art teachers and told them all about the work with did with her students which got us an invitation to work with Makoura College in the new year.

Here is a link to the video made on the day ;

Support provided by
Masterton District Council
Masterton Creative Communities
COGS Wairarapa
New Zealand Lotteries