Students studying for the Associate Degree in Early Childhood Education, at the Anguilla Community College, are proud of what they have achieved in their Visual Arts class and have staged an impressive exhibition of their work.
The exhibition was mounted in the main conference room at the College on Thursday, July 10. The students, who are teachers at various preschools on the island, must complete Visual Arts as an elective course.
“Certainly, we can see that the Early Childhood Educators are proud of what they have been able to achieve in this class, and I am equally proud of their achievement,” said Dr Leroy Hill, at the exhibition highlighting the students’ work.
Dr Hill, Director, Humanities & Education at the Community College, continued: “The Visual Arts course aims to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Visual Arts. More so, the course seeks to demonstrate to student-teachers how they can incorporate some of these strategies and techniques in the teaching and learning environment.
“It also seeks to help teachers develop their innate creative potential in order to build positive attitudes to visual arts. In short, a teacher who has developed self-confidence in the teaching of Visual Arts will better understand how children learn and develop their creative self-expression through exposure to the Visual Arts.”
Acting Dean, Ms Sharon Richardson, said the exhibition was far more impressive than the earlier staging preparations had shown. “I am amazed at the number of indigenous items that the students have incorporated into their artwork,” she said. “I know for sure that this is far more work than the time they were allotted for this course; and you can see that there has been a lot of effort in preparing for the exhibition.”
Ms Richardson specially thanked Mrs Melsadis Fleming, the Visual Arts Instructor, for her commitment to the task and she congratulated all of the students for their wonderful work. “I know that there are some who didn’t even do art in school, but I am seeing all kinds of creativity in here,” she added. “The work really looks beautiful and I want to thank all of you for putting your best effort forward.”
President of the College, Professor Delroy Louden, said that apart from demonstrating creativity, the students had put a great deal of imagination in their work. “I am not surprised about anything I see here. I have always expected this from all of you,” he told the exhibiting students. “One of the beautiful things about the Anguilla Community College is that it is just timely that we are able to bring out these creative bits in you, because we want you to be our next ambassadors – that with our limited resources we still can do great things.”
Professor Louden stressed that he was delighted with the high quality of work.
Mrs Fleming, the Visual Arts Instructor, said she was pleased to have served in that capacity being an artist. She was, however, taken aback by the time allotted when considering the challenging outline of the course for the students some of whom had no experience in art. “I must say the group had a very positive attitude which was very helpful. I worked out my course outline, and we had to put in some extra hours in order to arrive at this point of the exhibition,” she concluded.
She commended the students for their dedication and good work and restated her delight in conducting the Visual Arts course.
