The inaugural Sunshine Arts Fest, a local high school competition hosted by Sunshine Plaza to celebrate the region’s brightest creative young minds, concluded this week with judges awarding Pacific Lutheran College the overall title and $3,500 prize.
Pacific Lutheran College was among six Sunshine Coast high schools who showcased their innovative installations at Sunshine Plaza in June and July this year, combining a visual art display and augmented reality (AR) component and providing the local community with the opportunity to interact and vote for their winning display.
Sunshine Plaza Centre Manager, Michael Manwaring said: “It’s been fantastic to see our region’s community, particularly our young people, embrace the inaugural Sunshine Arts Fest as it provides us all with an interactive platform to explore our creativity and emerging technologies together.
“Having the installations on display over an extended period has definitely added an extra vibrancy to the Centre and we extend heartfelt congratulations to this year’s winners and all schools who participated.”
Winners: Pacific Lutheran College received the $3,500 prize
Supported by the Sunshine Arts Fest Artist Ambassador, Sarah Sculley, the six schools were guided through the creative process over several months to develop captivating installations that conveyed their unique stories through the AR experience.
Pacific Lutheran College reflected the competition theme ‘Let the Sunshine In’ with a striking, intricately painted piano, incorporating video content using AR technology.
“I want to congratulate Pacific Lutheran College on their outstanding installation and well-deserved win, with stunning layering and textures and a really interesting AR component that interacted beautifully with the visual display,” said Sculley.
The public vote saw Sunshine Coast Grammar School take home the $1,500 People’s Choice Award, seeing both schools emerge victorious from an impressive pool of entries submitted by Caloundra State High School, Kawana Waters State College, Montessori International College, and St Andrew’s Anglican College.
Sunshine Coast Grammar School received the $1,500 People’s Choice Award
The winners were announced at a presentation event hosted at the Event Cinemas at Sunshine Plaza, where all participating schools were in attendance along with two of the judges, Sarah Sculley and Hayley Jenkin, and community partner, headspace Maroochydore.
Marnie Whittaker, Teacher from Pacific Lutheran College said: “Being part of the inaugural Sunshine Arts Fest has been a wonderful experience for our students and being awarded the overall winner is a fantastic outcome!
“The students embraced the opportunity to collaborate across departments and year levels on this project and were excited to display their installation in the public domain for the community to engage with an innovative experience.
Sunshine Coast Grammar School’s installation
“As an emerging technology, knowledge of AR will prove valuable to our students as they progress in their academic learning and beyond. We saw them apply impressive creative thinking, problem-solving and teamwork to achieve the final installation and we couldn’t be prouder of their efforts.”
As part of Sunshine Arts Fest’s partnership with headspace Maroochydore, Sunshine Plaza is donating $1* for every public vote received to the community organisation’s local youth art programs.
*The final donation to headspace is capped at $5,000.
