Grammar Gazette- Issue 1, 2023

MR ANDREW PENNAY DIRECTOR OF CREATIVE ARTS

Eight

D A YS a WEEK:

THE TIMELESS RELEVANCE OF THE CREATIVE ARTS

‘IT’S 9 O’CLOCK ON A SATURDAY’ T here is no debate—arts are integral to society. The regular crowd shuffles into Billy Joel’s piano bar seeking both entertainment and to ‘forget about life for a while’. Tonight, the piano man serves a vital role in their lives as a silent confidant, a modern jester, a provocateur, and a human jukebox. There is debate, though, around the role that the arts might play in schools: Aesthetic engagement? Discipline? Spirituality? Maths enhancement? Old fashioned fun? Something to balance against our tautological ‘academic studies’? Beyond this, federally, there is debate about the role that the arts might play in advancing Australia (fairly). Despite recent arts policy announcements, some arts practitioners remain vigilant: no national shifts in arts and culture approaches have ever survived a change in government (Anatolitis, 2021). This all begs the question: Why study the Creative Arts as part of a broad, liberal Girls Grammar education? ‘EASY LIKE SUNDAY MORNING’ Things that seem natural are always worth unpacking. Although it would be tempting to let the Commodores’ hit Easy wash over us, a more careful listen is revealing. The band employs beguiling and exquisite artisanship to draw the listener in. Lionel Richie’s rhyme scheme is central to the experience, relying on a classic tweak: ensuring the titular ‘easy’ doesn’t rhyme with surrounding phrases. Such mechanical tricks—along with myriad aesthetic and dynamic moves performed by the band—bring us into that time and place, reminding us of the nuance and sophistication that artists employ. What expert collaboration! A break-up song? The juxtaposition is so powerful that you need to listen again to be sure.

There is magnificent pleasure to be found in performing such repertoire, but just as much sustainable pleasure to be found in tearing the work apart, reinterpreting it, using it as the foundation for a post-modern sound collage, acting as a narrative intervention, or flipping Sunday mo(u)rning on its head through cardboard sculpture. To be plain, the arts offer us serious fun, serious endeavour, and a serious interrogation of what it is to be human. ‘JUST ANOTHER MANIC MONDAY’ So, what role do the arts play in setting up our girls for a life of (hopefully not so manic) work? As students get closer to the end of their time at Girls Grammar and start to plan for their post-schooling lives, subject selection for Year 11 and Year 12 can throw curveballs. Although the mantra at Girls Grammar has always been to study what you are good at— and to study what you enjoy—a cursory glance at the graduate destinations of our 2021 cohort can help reveal the usefulness of our arts curriculum offerings at a more concrete level: • Girls who studied Visual Art went on to pursue studies in a wide range of subjects including Design, Law, Health Science, Pharmacy, Psychology, Architecture, Nursing, Film, Paramedicine, and Journalism to name but a few. • Students who studied Drama in their final years pursued all the courses listed above—from Law to Architecture— along with Physiotherapy, Agricultural Science, International Business, and Communications. • Music students went on to study Medicine, Optometry, Exercise and Nutrition, Engineering and Biomed in their post-schooling lives.

One needs to remember that all subjects—Music, Physics, Ancient History, Visual Art, French are ‘academic’ in the way they rigorously pursue dense theoretical understandings to enrich more tangible experiments, performances, and play. Therefore, we encourage students to select whichever subject areas hold their sustained interest, enabling them to maintain passion and pure joy in their day. ‘IF YOU’LL JUST COME WITH ME, YOU’LL SEE THE BEAUTY OF TUESDAY AFTERNOON’ In Tuesday Afternoon, The Moody Blues remind us of the need for beauty in our lives. Each year we have students who are so enthralled by a life of art-making that they carry on beyond school and pursue tertiary courses in the creative industries, music, theatre, film production, fashion, and related fields. Now studying music at university, graduate Charlotte Parsonage (2022) continues to fill us with hope for a future of well‑positioned, articulate, artful graduates of Girls Grammar through her Year 12 work, The Kids . Generations of our alumnae artists, performers, actors, composers, producers, museum curators, community arts workers, radio presenters, social media playlisters— and other hyphenated‑slash‑variegated artists—concur!

Listen to Andrew Pennay’s conversation

with Principal, Ms Jacinda Euler Welsh, which features Charlotte Parsonage’s piece The Kids . Visit bggs.qld.edu.au/news/illumine/ for-parents or scan the QR code.

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GAZETTE • ISSUE 1, 2023 ISSUE 1, 2023

BRISBANE GIRLS GRAMMAR SCHOOL