Shearwater Steiner school students modeling winning entries, Wearable Arts Awards, Mullumbimby, 2009
Image: © Greg Bartley

WAVE

WAVE - Wearable Arts Vision in Education - is an initiative of the Mullumbimby Shearwater Steiner School that brings together students, artists, professionals in the entertainment industry and in fact the whole community of the rainbow region of the North Coast of Australia.

WAVE is a live stage show presented over four nights each year in a spectacular performance of live music, vision, creative artists, student’s dance, acting, costumes and props, all created on site as part of the Shearwater School’s education programme. Professionals outside the school community and the teachers mentor the students in areas of their interest.

This artistic endeavour emerges from our Spirit, which is deliberately nurtured at Shearwater. Quiet reflection, combined with artistic risk-taking encourages the growth of an inner strength prepared to make a statement of value about a person’s understanding of life.

WAVE provides the context for this by enabling the students and adults to work cooperatively in a team, to be respected for their contribution, to realize that dedication and commitment with, and for others, enables us to achieve beyond our own personal levels. Together, everyone experiences the creativity of a team where time and talents are shared to create a greater good.

The competition element of the event sees artists from all over the world entering pieces of Wearable Art, where the body becomes the canvas and these expressions are modelled by students and incorporated into the show.

Pavitar Debra Turner & Deirdre Korobacz, WAVE

As a student I have found it to be really exciting and exhausting - WAVE stretches everyone’s imagination and brings out the best in everyone. You get along well with people you usually don’t talk to just because they are involved in the show and we are all working together to bring it off. And it really brings the curriculum alive and integrates the learning about art, music, production, catering, promotion, events management, design and technology and construction

James Pearce, year 12 student, Shearwater Steiner School