“Whether from the perspective of maker, historian, aesthetician or critic, creative and imaginative thinking are instances of higher order thinking and involve both intellectual and intuitive dimensions.” (Wilkes, 2003, p.3)

As St Catherine’s School embarks on a collaborative endeavour guided by the Queensland University to develop a thinking pedagogy to underpin all curricula, it is a valuable opportunity to reflect on the opportunities the Visual Arts offer students in school and once graduated.

Recently, I spoke with new ‘Old Girl’ Eve Rayner as she begins her double degree of Law and Art History and Curation at Australian National University.

Eve mused that her degree is an unusual combination and has raised much interest with her peers, but the combination is well suited to her strengths and interests. Alongside VCE Studio Arts, Eve partook in the 2018 Italy Study Tour, which fused her interests in history and art. In 2019, Eve also completed Art History through the Melbourne University Extension Programme.

Eve believes that studying Studio Arts created balance in her studies and having a creative outlet improved her wellbeing. She reflected, “Working on a folio was something that I loved, as I was able to write about my own artistic endeavours and have my folio reflect my ideas.” Eve discovered that maintaining the visual diary developed her time management skills for all subjects, as it was an independent and self-motivated endeavour. Continuing to reflect on her transition to university, Eve noted that studying Visual Arts supported her to be an independent learner, to be organised, creative and meet deadlines.

At St Catherine’s School, we begin our pedagogical journey by reflecting upon practice and mapping thinking. Observing Eve, one of her great strengths was her detailed and rigorous visual diary, a document that reveals creative and critical thinking, and artistic processes. In guiding students such as Eve to ‘think and practise like an artist’, the Visual Arts offer students thinking skills such as developing, researching, interpreting, analysing, examining, exploring, creating, refining, resolving and evaluating; to name a few. From an educator’s view, this is an exciting and rich collection of cognitive words that can be applied to any subject areas, not just the Arts.

Eve sums it up, “I would really recommend girls to do Studio Arts, as it is such a rewarding subject. The ability to work on your own artwork on your own terms is something that is really beneficial to developing my ideas and work habits.”