Students from Dwellingup Primary School travelled to Sculpture by the Sea at Cottesloe Beach last week, to create their own piece of artwork.
The Sculpture by the Sea education program, sponsored by Alcoa, had the students showing off their aluminium sculpting skills, after touring the seaside exhibition and meeting aluminium artist Barbara Licha.
Dwellingup teacher Courtenay Forward said the workshop was valuable because it exposed students to working with a new creative medium, aluminium wire, for the first time.
“They had no trepidation about getting started, which is a big change from the anxiety some of them feel about drawing,” she said.
“After working with Barbara and creating their own sculptures, the kids loved seeing how Barbara's work differed from the other types of sculptures in the exhibit.”
Year 6 student Logan Gavin said it was great to work with Barbara to get ideas: his sculpture depicted a cloud trapped inside a cube.
“Barbara showed us how to make the different styles like the square, the cube and the circle bases,” he said.
“Before I made it I thought the wire would be hard to bend, but it was really easy.”
Alcoa chairman Michael Parker said the Alcoa School Education Program is an incredibly important part of the exhibition.
“For the young people who come to play, look and learn about the sculptures the possibilities are endless,” Mr Parker said.
“They are the next generation of artists, engineers, dreamers and thinkers.”
Dwellingup Primary School is one of twelve schools from communities closest to Alcoa operations that attended workshops as guests of the company, along with Harvey Primary School, Yarloop Primary School and Waroona District High and Primary School.