Art is something that I have been doing for a really long time and it has set off to become a crucial form of self-expression. It is something I do to spend time with myself and understand my inner space. After completing MYP I started feeling like I wasn’t able to give time to practice arts, due to pandemic taking over our lives and a constant school workload. I started to hate it and felt like I was losing my passions but in a very less time a friend of mine who felt the same way started an arts club. A lot of people who felt similarly joined the club and we all together created a place for us to perform art and help eachother grow in terms of new skills, artforms, techniques and ideas. Our club soon became a very positive platform for us to freely express ourselves and experience many different forms of art. The members of the club collaboratively planned sessions, it did not have any fixed system or schedule. We all decided the topic based on something that we all wanted to try out like tie and dyes or black out poetries. This club was my artistic outlet through which I started manifesting my life in the club discussions and art pieces. It was a great opportunity for me to understand and value my art and skills.

LO 1: Identify their own strengths and develop areas for personal growth.
For me creating art has been a constant, so I have realised my strengths and weaknesses over time like I am great with charcoal and acrylic paints but watercolor is not really my forte. By working as a group in the club I understood that even though my artworks turn out to be great and satisfactory, they show that I was impatient to complete it and also lack perfection to some extent when compared to other club members. When it began to be a constant it got into my observation so I started giving more thought to it. Working as a club I also realised that I am not very good when It comes to communicating my ideas and meaning behind my artworks verbally. I believe realising your weaknesses leads you to overcoming them. The club played a major role in making me a better artist, it not only helped me learn different artforms but also gave me multiple opportunities to explore myself and overcome my weaknesses in the process.

LO 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
One challenge that we faced in this club is that we all had different subjects and timetables so it was very difficult for us to find such a time when everyone is free. Working out according to each other’s schedules was very challenging even though we did not have a fixed schedule session, it was according to common consensus. However, we tried picking a common time to conduct our sessions on weekends, we also recorded our sessions for people who were not present so that they can catch up and don’t miss out on important learnings. Another challenge for me was to actively participate and work through an online platform, given that we had online classes all day. To overcome this I tried my best to create a vibe in my room by dimming the light and playing soft music in the background. Doing this kept me motivated and calm throughout the session. We all as a group also faced a challenge of selecting a topic that was interesting to all of us. A few topics were intriguing to a few people whereas a few people had a very different opinion on it. So I strongly believe that it was my responsibility as an artist and member of the club to make sure sessions felt appealing to everyone and no one felt excluded. It was necessary for everyone to feel included to make the discussions fruitful and sessions worth out time.

LO 5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.
Working collaboratively as a group of 12 members was needed in order to learn and grow. Art is not just about skills but also sharing each other’s perspectives, ideas and learning each other’s techniques. To do so acceptance and patience was crucial, after a lot of fights regarding topic selection and fixing a common time to meet, over time we all understood and developed a mutual respect for each other. Staying responsible is very necessary since making an art takes a lot of time, it won’t always get completed in the time provided in the club sessions, hence it would be our personal responsibility to complete it whenever we get time. Being open-minded was extremely important because arts is all about expression, it brings up controversial topics related to religion or politics, so we all needed to be open minded enough to accept what our peers would express or show. Being a risk-taker was the most important part, considering that practicing arts accompanies judgements and criticism, it can sometimes make you feel futile or demotivated but taking that risk can only make you an artist. Also if we all had not built up the courage to face challenges and acquire new artforms we would not have grown and learnt them. Lastly, to sum it up, joining the club was a great experience to grow as a better artist and improve my skills as well as practice arts on a daily basis.

Evidence: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fQ1UHHbHtkWCsUIbv8iOo0YAjYBxBrikOQwkGMO_wYY/edit?usp=sharing