For the eighth year, St. Thomas Aquinas High School has drawn inspiration from the Catholic Education Week theme for the school's foyer display. Leading up to Catholic Education Week students create huge art pieces that are hung in the foyer. This year the foyer display was inspired by the Catholic Education Week theme of Walking Forward Together.
Art teacher Nancy Prouty talks about the design's meaning.
"The display is designed around different shoes that are symbolic of the many cultures, occupations and interests that make up Canada. The shoes also tell a lot about a person's interests, work or heritage. We also wanted people to remember the saying of not judging someone until you walk a mile in their shoes. The display also features four domestic animals; a hound dog, a Great Dane, a tabby cat and a Siamese cat holding a goldfish in a bowl. All the animals are making their way across a tight rope through the center of the foyer. We decided to include animals because they are fun and we liked the idea of these animals having to work in cooperation to make their way across the tight rope. The tight rope symbolizes life and life often is a balancing act, which often requires careful treading while moving forward. Through tenuous times, we must depend on our friends and family to help us walk forward together."
There were 71 students involved in creating the display. The display is made up of cardboard, Styrofoam and paper-mâché. The shoes were created mathematically using actual shoes or a print-out of a shoe as a pattern, and then students had to calculate ratios and scales to ensure the shoes were proportionate. The animals were created using student models.
Prouty adds, "The students enjoy making the theme fun and uplifting as it's the first thing they see when they enter the foyer. It fills them with pride and a sense of accomplishment."
The artwork is displayed throughout the school year as a visual connection, helping students live out the theme in their daily lives. The installation will stay up until next May.