Art Week 2023 at the International School of Moscow

Krylatskoe Lower Campus celebrated “all things textile” with children and teachers focusing on textile artists, such as Nick Cave and Sheila Hicks, as well as finding inspiration from paintings and other famous artists. Many new techniques using fabric and threads were taught to and learnt by all. The EYFS children enjoyed tie-dying and drawing on fabric whilst all Year One to Four children learnt how to weave with a cardboard loom and woolen yarn. Other creative activities included embroidering, sock puppets, potato printing and macramé.

Rosinka Campus took inspiration from the wonderful winter conditions around us. Each class took the theme of ‘Winter’ and created unique and diverse pieces such as Year 3’s immersive ‘The Weeping Sky’, Year 6’s emotive photography and Pre-Nursery and Nursery’s ‘Winter Frost’. In Year 1 they sewed blanket squares for a quilt while Year 2 printed their quilted pieces. Not to be left out Year 4 used their crafting skills to build wooden frames for Piet Mondrian inspired artwork and Year 5 used winter colours and printing techniques to make their falling snowflakes. The week finished with a whole school collaboration in Assembly on a piece titled ‘The Great Splat’, taking inspiration from the work of Jackson Pollock.

Krylatskoe Upper Primary focused on Textiles where staff and students delved right into learning various techniques for textiles and fabrics which were new to most of us. Everyone created their own unique t-shirts with tie & dye. We also used special wooden blocks for printing and learnt about warp & weft by weaving our patterns with ribbon. Batik or using wax on white fabric and then colouring on with special dyes, left us spellbound, while creating beautiful symmetrical patterns like on the Persian rugs fascinated everyone. We were also amazed by the wide array of beautiful fabrics from around the world that we could actually touch, feel and see their beautiful weaves from so close.

The sense of awe and positive remarks by those that attended the Art Exhibitions on each campus as well as the excitement the students had when seeing their own artwork and what had been created by their friends over the week was evidence that every child is and artist and that Art Week across all campus’ was a great success!

By Ms Drake, Ms Laue and Ms Arora