Students from Grades 9 to 12 at Pathways School Noida presented sculpture, installation and painting in a professional gallery setting through the 2022 exhibition Living with Art.
Hosted at Stainless Gallery, the group exhibition gave young artists responsibility for developing personal themes, selecting materials and presenting completed work to an audience beyond the school.
Individual themes and varied materials
The students worked with clay, wire, plaster of Paris and acrylic on canvas. Their subjects included identity, culture, race, emotion and gender, alongside wider concerns such as women’s rights and the environment.
Rather than following a single visual style, each participant developed an individual approach. The exhibition therefore reflected a range of technical interests and personal perspectives, while retaining a common emphasis on art as a form of communication.
From studio practice to curatorial decisions
The process extended beyond making objects. Students studied art from different cultures and periods, developed practical techniques and considered how their work should be arranged and explained within a gallery.
Grade 12 student Sonam described the IB art curriculum as a way of reflecting on who people are, how they live and why they make particular choices. That approach positioned artistic practice as a form of sustained inquiry rather than preparation for a narrowly defined profession.
Faculty members guided the students from research and experimentation through to the final presentation. Showing the work publicly added seriousness to the process and asked the participants to see themselves not only as pupils completing an assignment, but as artists responsible for the meaning and reception of their work.
Living with Art demonstrated how a school exhibition can connect technical education, personal expression and public presentation. Its value came from allowing young artists to move through the complete cycle of developing, curating and discussing a body of work.