The International School Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (ISHCMC) is an IB world school with students from 50 different nationalities and almost 500 students in the Primary School.

The art studio spaces are moving towards a more student-choice based learning environment. That means that students are treated as artists. Their ideas and questions are respected, nurtured and celebrated. Learning and developing the artistic process is the goal of their art experiences – the artwork itself is a wonderful by-product and the driving force of problem solving, perseverance, satisfaction and joy.

As part of a yearlong inquiry into “Who We Are: We Are Artists”, we ran our first “Post-it Exhibition” as a way of bringing the whole Primary School community together to celebrate the unique creativity that lies in all of us. This is what we at ISHCMC are all about; nurturing the creative spirit in our students. We truly believe everyone is an artist.

With this belief at the heart of our practice and inspiration from the Giant Robot Post-it Exhibitions, we began our own journey. Everyone was encouraged to create a mini-masterpiece on a Post-it Note and contribute to a wall outside the Primary School office. An inspirational quote, a texture, patterns, a sketch of a cat, a poem; the choice of subject and materials was that of the artist. The process began with teachers during a mindfulness staff meeting run by the art teachers. The following week all students made their own Post-it Note artwork and continue to add them to the wall today! The official launch consisted of students guiding their parents through the process of creating at our Student Led Conferences. 

We have watched the wall grow with our individual artistic voices. Students, teachers, parents, cleaners, guards, our entire ISHCMC community keep adding new mini-masterpieces each day for the community to admire.

Everyone can be an artist. We all draw and create differently and this exhibition celebrates choice, the diversity in our art and in our community.

Naomi Feil & Anna Davies
PYP Art Teachers
International School Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam