From the Head of School

 Art is Part of a Well-rounded Education

Near the village of Montignac in southwest France are the Lascaux Caves.  Deep inside are the most incredible paintings of large animals - 17,000 years old, ten millennia older than the earliest civilisations.  And these are still relatively recent compared to the 30,000 year old ‘Venus of Willendorf’ discovered in Austria, or older still, the 40,000 year old cave paintings at Maros in Indonesia: an age when we still shared the planet with neanderthals.  

The communities which created these artworks lived on the edge of subsistence; one bad year could wipe them away.  Yet they found time and spent energy for objects which, unlike tools or weapons, had no practical function: that would not enrich, but were themselves the enrichment of life.  

They did this without a specialist class of artist, community members with some kind of specific training.  Yet they created art that can still speak to our shared humanity across the millennia.  

Today, we often think of art as an elite activity, skulking in galleries and opera houses; a luxury; creations of highly trained specialists.  In fact art is intrinsic to being human; it is a fundamental way of seeing the world and expressing our experience of it.  We had a rich and sophisticated art while living in societies no more complex than an extended family with technology no more advanced than a sharpened flint.  

Art today is, as the ancient examples in France, Austria and Indonesia were, a community act as much as an individual one.  That is why ISA is proud to make a show of student art at our exhibition at the Print Room on Union Street. We are also proud to host our young performers in our lunchtime concert next week (see community hub calendar for details).

A well rounded education isn’t just about functional skills, it should equip us to thrive - to express our humanity more fully.  At ISA, creating is not some specialist activity for an elite: it is something we celebrate in every student.  Don’t miss out on our exhibitions and concerts.