Throughout 2019 ADFAS Pokolbin continued to support our students in our local area in a range of ways.

Cessnock East Public School received funding for a Year 5 and 6 excursion to Sydney to visit the Art Gallery of New South Wales and take part in a guided tour of the gallery. The day also included a scavenger hunt through The Botanic Gardens and walk around the Opera House. We received photographs of the day and a well composed letter from the students to thank us for providing this opportunity. We have also provided funds for a book donation to the school library and two book prizes for “Inspired Learners” for the school’s annual Presentation Day Assembly.

Cessnock West Public School requested funding for a four day art workshop with local artist Kes Harper.

Year 3 and 4 students spent a day with Kes following the excellent program she presented at Cessnock East in 2018. “Our Day as an Artist” involved four different classes each focussing on a different Australian artist. Each artist’s style, technique and choice of media used were studied. The students were then given the opportunity to create works of their own. It was a very creative and enjoyable day.

In 2020, following our two year cycle, Cessnock East will be given the opportunity to apply for funding for an Arts based school program. Cessnock West will receive funding for the touring Opera Australia’s Schools Program . The opera for 2020 is “The Barber of Seville” which should be a great hit.

Inaugural scholarship winner Bowen Cavanagh is now pursuing his artistic passion in his career as a photographer and runner up Jett Mozzell is attending the University of Newcastle to study Art and Communications. Our 2019 Scholarship winner Ryan Dixon has been accepted into a very selective drama school in Sydney about which he is greatly excited.

Due to the generous support of our members we continue to have the privilege of supporting our local schools and students in the area of the creative and performing arts. On behalf of our committee thank you once again for your constant and generous support.

Debra McGuigan

ADFAS Pokolbin

Once again our ADFAS Pokolbin $1000 Visual and Performing Arts Scholarship was offered to Creative and Performing Arts students from both Cessnock and Mount View High Schools. The funds provided are held by the school with the purpose of supporting the selected student with their HSC in their chosen area of the arts in 2020. Our scholarship sub-committee was greatly impressed with the standard of the applications. The $1000 Scholarship prize was awarded to Vivienne Kelleher, a Visual Arts student who attends Cessnock High School. Vivienne’s passion for the environment was well communicated through her wonderful etchings. The committee also admired her collage work. As was the case in 2018, a student was also selected as Scholarship Runner Up winner. A prize of $250 was
awarded to Katelyn Heard, also from Cessnock High School. Katelyn based her body of work on the theme of fire and the destruction it causes. Her amazing photographs were fascinating to view. Our scholarship committee also wanted to recognise the high standard of this year’s applications received and for the first time we awarded  four "highly commended" certificates as well. They went to the following students:

Ma Nina Juanerio………Cessnock High School

Aria Brown………..Cessnock High School

Billie Taylor ……. Mount View High School

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These awards were presented on 4 th November at our final lecture of the year.

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ADFAS Pokolbin provided the funds for Cessnock East PS to enjoy an excursion to Sydney on 3rd July. The excursion to the Sydney Opera House and Art Gallery of New South Wales with a packed lunch in the Botanic Gardens was a great success. We have since been sent a letter from the students thanking us for providing them with a great day including several photographs.

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Burgeoning filmmaker Ryan Dixon has a lot to smile about after winning our Visual and Performing Arts Scholarship for 2019. The Year 11 student from Mount View High School received the honour together with a cheque for $1000, alongside fellow Mount View student and cellist Lillian Taylor, also in Year 11, at the society’s final lecture of the year at Cessnock Performing Arts Centre.

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"I was ecstatic that I had won this special honour," Ryan said. "I had put everything I could into that submission and I am really happy to be able put this to use to assist me with my major work". Ryan also said he intends to use his award to purchase camera and special effects equipment while Lillian will use her $250 encouragement award for cello lessons to help perfect her HSC performance pieces.

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ADFAS Pokolbin Young Arts Program has received an award for 10 years of commitment and support from Cessnock East Public School. This award acknowledges the hard work and financial commitment by our members, Young Arts Coordinators and the various Committees and Chairmen over the years in providing this long term support to promote the arts to senior Primary School students in our area.

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This is not our first award for excellence in our Young Arts Program. ADFAS Pokolbin was also honoured and delighted to earlier be awarded the prestigious Pauline Hopkins Cup for our 2015 Young Arts Program. The Cup was formally presented to our Society at the ADFAS annual conference in March, 2016, by the then National Young Arts Coordinator, Carol Horton.

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Our winner of the 2018 ADFAS Pokolbin Young Arts Scholarship, Bowen Cavanagh from Mount View High School, is seen here with purchases made from the $1,000 monetary prize. Bowen is a promising photographer and already has a portfolio of his photographs on Instagram. With the award amount, he has been able to research his requirements and to invest in new and improved photographic equipment and editing software to further his year 12 studies in Visual Arts and Photography.

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This scholarship is proudly awarded by ADFAS Pokolbin to aspiring students in the latter years of the high school system and requires a strict application process including academic achievement and Teacher's letter of recommendation. In the application, Bowen stated that in the subject of Visual Arts, his medium of choice is Photography and that he would like to share his photography with the world and make a career in that field.

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ADFAS Pokolbin wish him every success and we hope to bring updates of his progress in the future. Students wishing to apply for next year's scholarship should apply before Friday 7th September, 2018.

Click or tap on "Arts Scholarship" above for details.

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ADFAS Pokolbin has awarded monetary scholarships to 2 students at local high schools to further their studies in Visual and Performing Arts. Click or tap to read the article published in our local newspaper, The Advertiser.