Feeling a sense of belonging is paramount to a child’s overall well-being. We feel this belonging when we are accepted and when we are given the freedom to be ourselves. How can schools with diverse and international student demographics foster a sense of belonging? At International School Bangkok (ISB), we see art as an important avenue to celebrate diversity and different cultures and to foster connection.
Every year, at ISB, we celebrate Intercultural Week. This is a week full of activities and assemblies that provide students with the platform to share and celebrate their home country or culture, as well as learn about those of others. This year, Elementary School art students also created a unique art project called, ‘Cultures Connecting through the Arts’, which was inspired by artistic styles from around the world.
The end result was a kinetic sound-sculpture. The students researched interactive art pieces, those which used varying objects to create sound and that were used in a range of different cultures.
Inspiring Creativity and Learning
The installation was developed with the use of bamboo, coconuts, and rattan, which the students used to create individual art pieces. These were combined together to become creative sculptures. All these were brought together into one final art piece, the style of which was inspired by great artists, whose work draws on the use of lines, dots and circles.
The end result was a community art piece, placed centrally on the ISB campus, which encourages our students, parents, teachers and visitors to participate and create a cacophony of sound while celebrating cultures, embracing differences, connecting to the art and others, and recognizing the work of our young artists.
Art creates an avenue to communicate with one another through creative and personal expression. Art can speak through barriers created by different languages and identities. It allows for human connection and the intercultural sound sculpture created by the ISB students was a beautiful example of this.
For more information about ISB please visit our website www.isb.ac.th
