Year 9 Visual Arts Excursion to Art Gallery NSW

This Visual Arts excursion supports the Stage 5 unit Industrial Impressionism: Revolution in the Art World, in which students explore the genre of landscape painting through the lens of the Impressionist movement. The learning experience is designed to enrich student understanding of how artists responded to the social and technological changes brought by the Industrial Revolution, particularly in their depiction of the natural and built environment.

At the Art Gallery of NSW, students will engage with original works by key Impressionist and Australian Impressionist artists. This component of the excursion directly supports students’ development in art criticism and history, offering them the opportunity to observe artistic techniques first-hand, analyse artworks in context, and reflect on relationships between artist, artwork, world, and audience.

At the Royal Botanic Garden, students will engage in artmaking activities such as plein air drawing, photography, and compositional studies. This allows them to apply impressionist painting techniques while capturing natural light, movement, and atmosphere in a contemporary setting.

The experience supports the following Stage 5 Visual Arts syllabus outcomes:

5.1: Develops autonomy in applying visual conventions and techniques in artmaking 

5.2: Makes artworks informed by an understanding of the relationships between artist–artwork–world–audience

5.7: Applies understanding of practice to critical and historical interpretations

5.8: Uses the understanding of relationships between artist–artwork–world– audience in interpretation of art

The excursion is integral to the unit's inquiry-based approach and provides a realworld context in which students can synthesise and extend their learning through direct engagement with both artworks and the environment.