Modern art inspirations at St Michael’s schools

St Michael Foundation’s junior and senior schools in Pembroke and San Ġwann respectively recently held an exhibition of lithographs by famous, international 20th-century artists, works of art by Maltese artists, as well as artworks by its junior and senior students inspired by these international and local artists.

The exhibition, entitled ‘Modern art in print and possibilities’, featured a collection of lithographs of works by modern masters such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Fernand Leger, Henry Moore, Raoul Dufy and Henri Matisse. The collection, known internationally as ‘School prints’, was donated to the National Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta by British collector David Elyan in 2001.

Exhibited alongside the works of these international artists were prints by Maltese modern artists Alfred Chircop, Isabelle Borg, Joseph Casha and Caesar Attard, which also form part of the national museum’s collection.

These artists’ works are being used by teachers in both primary and secondary schools throughout the year as the basis for various educational and interdisciplinary activities. The students are engaged in cross-curricular work involving creative writing and languages. They are also learning about the history of modern art and of printing.

Central to these activities are creative art activities including printmaking, painting and collage, and during the exhibition the students’ resulting creative work was exhibited next to the ‘School prints’ and Maltese artists’ works.

The project was made possible by the Kreattiv funding scheme and by Heritage Malta, which lent the artists’ works from its collection.

Raphael Vella, a senior lecturer in Art Education at the University, is co-ordinating the project while art teachers Sue Schembri and Lewis Zammit are leading the activity in the schools.