On Tuesday 19th October 2021, in an email to principals, NESA announced changes to the process for recommending students for HSC Showcases this year, including ARTEXPRESS. Details about the process are located in Schools Online and are available once HSC Body of Work marks are entered. As in 2020, Visual Arts teachers will recommend students’ outstanding Bodies of Work to be considered for ARTEXPRESS. This year however, schools are limited to making only ONE student recommendation per twenty students in the cohort.
Recommendations should demonstrate exemplary and sophisticated work in its conception, artmaking process and resolution, and be appropriate for a general audience. Recommendations need to be accompanied by a teacher supporting statement and photographic or video documentation, via Schools Online. Recommendations by teachers do not guarantee selection for ARTEXPRESS, which is decided by gallery curators, in collaboration with the Arts Unit and NESA. All recommendations are to remain confidential. Nominated students and schools will be notified of the outcome of the selection process at the end of all written exams.
VADEA have been in contact with NESA, seeking clarification about the changes to the nomination process. VADEA are extremely concerned and disappointed with NESA’s decision to limit the number of ARTEXPRESS recommendations in 2021, particularly as this is inconsistent with the process established in 2020. This is incredibly problematic for schools with numerous outstanding works produced, who may have received similar marks. Highly successful cohorts in Visual Arts are not unusual, with some schools often receiving numerous nominations. To receive a nomination for a prestigious Showcase event, such as ARTEXPRESS, is a significant achievement and an acknowledgement of a student’s commitment and effort in their HSC year.
In non-COVID impacted years, students’ works are nominated by NESA HSC markers that are deemed excellent examples suitable for exhibition, without reference to school system, geography or circumstances. Works nominated through this fair and equitable process are then selected by gallery curators and education officers, in association with the ARTEXPRESS Officer, to ensure representation across the HSC Visual Arts candidature: government/non government schools, gender balance, regional representation and Expressive Forms. The changes to nominations in 2021 distort this process and is at odds with the practice introduced in 2020.
Unfortunately, this change comes at the end of another unprecedented year, marked by continued disruption to our daily lives. HSC teachers have yet again had to bear the burden of marking their own students’ work and what should have been a celebration of student achievement has now placed teachers in the unenviable position to make a choice between numerous outstanding and worthy candidates. NESA have implemented this change without consultation, nor without providing the professional learning or explicit guidance to support HSC teachers in making recommendations. VADEA believes this process is inequitable and unjust, significantly compromising the representation of excellence and the high esteem with which ARTEXPRESS is held by our subject, our students, parents, school community, and the general public.
We encourage our members to contact your sector representatives and raise any concerns with NESA you have about changes to the nomination process for ARTEXPRESS.
Nicole DeLosa
Co-President – Professional Learning
Brian Shand
Co-President – Advocacy, Special Projects and Membership
