Friday 26 October - Sunday 18 November

Exhibition open 7 days - 10am to 4pm

Melange - a group exhibition by the students from Oaklynn Special School

The Upstairs gallery is extremely excited to host the students from Oaklynn Special School led by Arts Specialist Mark Cygan. Our space is filled to the brim with pure joy and expressive energy and we implore you to come and see these works and support the students and their teacher! Mark Cygan has taught these special needs children for over 20 years and this exhibition is a wonderful homage to his work.

“The highlight for the visual arts at Oaklynn Special School this year is the opportunity to exhibit a collection of unique student created art works.

At Oaklynn art is taught as a way of knowing and understanding the world. Purposeful visual art activities expand our children's ways of exploring, expressing and coming to terms with the world they inhabit in a structured and enjoyable way.

Our visual arts curriculum provides for a wide range of activities which enable students to develop ideas through imagery.  Learning in and through art can contribute positively to children's sense of personal and cultural identity and to their whole development.

Oaklynn students have experience in exploring and experimenting with a variety of art materials and media and are likely, as they develop, to produce art that is personal. Our quality visual arts programme at Oaklynn ensures that each child has a variety of enriching visual arts experiences in both two- and three dimensional media.

The major purpose of my visual arts program for artistically gifted and talented students is to bring  together high interests and abilities in art in ways that will broaden and deepen their knowledge about art, sharpen their art skills, and offer them learning opportunities seldom found in a regular art classroom setting. 

The Gifted and talented art class offers a venue at base school that will effectively provide the serious student with a broad exposure to the visual arts, the discipline required, and the opportunity to produce excellence through development, theory, and performance skills. We offer our ethnically diverse student population the opportunity to use their artistic talent, body and mind as an instrument of communication to express the joy that the visual arts bring.   

Students are provided experiences intended to develop and refine observational drawing skills, broaden experiences in a variety of media, solve challenging problems of visual composition, and develop creative thinking. As students move from primary, intermediate and into high school, emphasis is placed on development of artistic behaviours requiring students to work more independently, pursue and develop visual ideas in greater depth, and continue refinement of observational skills and skills with media. 

As the art specialist at Oaklynn Special school for my 20th year I am so pleased at this opportunity for the 3rd time to share with the greater community the talent our students possess, and the creative voice that often goes unseen.” ~ Mark Cygan

Support an emerging artist

The Upstairs Gallery is a community space supporting and promoting emerging artists and the arts. Your donations help us to continue doing this work