Three Damascus College students have recently received the honour of being invited to showcase their work at the 2021 VCE Season of Excellence, presented by the VCAA.

Year 12 2020 students Jack Davidson and Patrick Western have both been asked to audition for Top Class, where they will perform their drama solo performances in Melbourne.

Jack and Patrick have been busy recreating, rehearsing and polishing their solos, and they look forward to the audition in Melbourne on Sunday 31^st January.

Jack was also lucky enough to be accepted into Top Designs for his podcast piece, which will be on display at the Melbourne Museum.

“It is an exciting opportunity and I can’t wait to check out the fellow exhibitors work and to possibly inspire VCE media and arts students to create a podcast or audio product,” said Jack.

Patrick said that at first, he was shocked to hear he was invited to audition for Top Acts.

“This shock was soon overshadowed by excitement and joy to be able to share a piece of what I have created throughout remote learning, with next year’s cohort,” said Patrick.

Year 11 2020 student Charlotte Grimes has also been successful in having her Studio Arts photographic artwork accepted into Top Arts, and her work will be featured in the exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in March, which showcases the best artwork from the state selected by the VCAA.

Charlotte said that in Year 10 her class visited the Top Arts exhibition and it ignited a passion in her, and she soon realised that she wanted to work towards her work being celebrated in this way.

“It feels awesome to be able to achieve this two-year dream,” said Charlotte.

Charlotte’s photographic artwork will also be on display at the Art Gallery of Ballarat as part of the Next Gen exhibition, commencing 19 February.

Damascus College Principal, Mr Matthew Byrne said that it is a wonderful accomplishment for these students, especially in a year that has been so challenging with remote learning due to COVID-19.

“Jack, Patrick and Charlotte are exceptional young people with significant gifts and talents that have been nurtured and challenged throughout their time at Damascus. It is wonderful to see that they are being appropriately acknowledged state-wide for their creativity and passion,” said Mr Byrne.

“This acknowledgement also pays tribute to the hard work and dedication of our Arts and Performing Arts learning areas, in achieving such sustained success amid the challenges of running practical subjects throughout remote learning.”

The VCE Season of Excellence is a five-month annual festival showcasing outstanding senior secondary student work from Victorian schools, in design, technology, research, multimedia and visual arts. Their work is presented in Melbourne’s major cultural venues from February to June.

“I am very proud of these accomplishments and it really has been the ‘cherry on top’ for finishing my time at Damascus and VCE,” said Jack.

We wish Jack, Patrick and Charlotte the best of luck as they prepare for their auditions and exhibition.

Further information

Top Arts is an exhibition of photography, drawing, painting, sculpture, mixed media, film and print making produced by VCE Art and Studio Art students, held at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia.

Top Designs is an annual exhibition at Melbourne Museum presenting work created by students who completed VCE Media, Product Design and Technology, Theatre Studies, Systems Engineering, Visual Communication Design and VCE VET studies including Creative and Digital Media, Furnishing, Engineering Studies, Integrated Technologies and Music Industry (Sound Production).

Top Class presents twelve concerts by outstanding VCE performing arts students who have completed VCE Dance and VCE VET Dance, VCE Drama, Theatre Studies, Music Performance, Music Investigation, Music Style & Composition and VCE VET Music Industry. Performances are compered by the chief assessors for performance studies.

Top Class Sound features performances of original musical works composed by students undertaking VCE Music Investigation and Music Style and Composition, who have created original music as part of Unit 3 and 4 Assessment tasks.

The Top Class concert series is held at the Melbourne Recital Centre and Arts Centre Melbourne.