Founder’s Day and YCIS Beijing 25th Anniversary celebrations were packed with an assortment of activities that showcased our students varied skills, especially visual art. Providing the framework, Artist-in-Residence Elizabeth Briel asked students to mirror their positive feelings in their work.

The Colours Say It All‘Move it, Move it!’ was the title of the exhibition and it complemented the theme for the rest of the day’s activities, made up of sporting activities on the school campus at Honglingjin Park.The instructions for submission were simple: use blue, red and white to create the drawings. These colours represent the YCIS brand. Blue, orange and white followed for students at Yew Wah schools. The artwork was to be created within a 30x30cm space. And with the rules out of the way, the students dove in to get their hands dirty and creative, striving to find their inner Picasso!

A Broad Range of Creative ExpressionWork from different campuses showcased assorted talent. From murals to abstract paintings and performance art with watercolours – this was one activity that delighted participants. The art and dance also revealed the enthusiasm in the school for learning.

“I was fascinated by the expressive nature of our students’ works,”  said Ms Cusato, referring to the displays secondary students in Years 7-13.

United We Stand – and PaintDue to the uncertainty this year has brought, the exhibition was a wonderful way for our YCYW network to create art in unison with a common goal – a grand exhibition on Founder’s Day. Said Ms Cusato, YCIS Beijing secondary art teacher, “The exhibition reflected our local active Beijing community.”

And It All Started with A WalkOn Founder’s day a video depicting all the artworks from Shanghai and Beijing to Qingdao and Guangzhou was included in the live stream and what an outstanding display this was. “The presentation was fantastic,”  Ms Cusato says.

For YCIS Beijing, this theme was particularly meaningful as it is reminiscent of the walk our founder took around Honglingjin Park – a place always teeming with activity – while scouting for a location for the school.

We intend to ‘Move it, Move it!’ through this year as a community to show our resilience and enthusiasm for life.