Ivanhoe Grammar School celebrates the opening of its new Performing and Visual Arts precinct
ArtsEdge at Locksley Beauty, splendour and grace exude from the design concepts inherent in the new performing and visual arts precinct, ArtsEdge at Locksley, at Ivanhoe Grammar School’s Ridgeway Campus. Designed by award-winning Melbourne architects Baldasso Cortese, the building is a unique reinvention of the original 1924 red-brick Locksley House. With minimal changes to the building’s external fabric, it has an interior that belies a truly 21st-century open and contemporary learning space.
Officially opened in May by Professor Su Baker, Director of the Victorian College of the Arts, the centre is testament to the importance of the arts at Ivanhoe. The stunning, panoramic views from the top floor provide a breathtaking vista which is energising in its capacity to inspire creative thinking and working processes and practices. The presence of this natural beauty, coupled with the strategic balancing of traditional and contemporary architectural elements, has created interiors that are uplifting and exciting to be in.
Visual Art The seven Art studios incorporated into the existing heritage building have been enhanced as learning spaces by a strategic use of colour in the interior design to heighten energy and advance the creative potential of our students.
Curriculum offerings have increased with the inclusion of a purpose-built Mac Lab, which is central to the interior layout, offering greater entry points for all art students to engage with digital technologies as part of their learning. Textile design has been defined as a distinct discipline with the integration of silk screen printing facilities. These run parallel to the existing curriculum offerings which embrace studio practices in 2D and 3D studies in the disciplines of drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, ceramics and sculpture. The inclusion of large, high-definition television monitors and surround sound in all studios enables new media technologies to contribute significantly to the study and analysis of artistic styles and appreciation of art.
The Locksley Gallery at the entrance of the building provides a direct interface with the profile of Art within the curriculum. This will house ongoing exhibitions with specific curatorial emphasis showcasing both student work and that of artists connected to the school community and beyond.
Music and Theatre Studies Music sees the development of a first-class, large rehearsal room for orchestra, band and choir with beautiful wooden floors and acoustically treated walls, creating a wonderfully balanced acoustic environment for large ensembles. The upper floor houses the new music and drama classrooms with vibrant coloured walls along with full-height glass walls looking into the classrooms. The zig-gag corridor leads to the music reception and the upper music studios. The lower ground area has been redefined into six music studios with two double-piano studios, two large percussion studios for teaching tuned and untuned percussion, and a professional audio mastering studio as well as a recording studio. Theatre Studies is further enhanced by new drama classrooms, a dance studio, performance theatrette, a green room and change rooms.
This wonderful new precinct brings Music, Theatre Studies and the Visual Arts together in a new way. It gives students and staff an inspiring and responsive environment to work and study in. In this context, the school looks forward to celebrating The Arts collaboratively through a range of cross-arts curriculum links and events, adding greater dimension for cultural expression and understanding in the lives of our students.