Creative arts students brushing up nicely amidst latest lockdown

VICTORIA has experienced its fifth lockdown to date as a result of the global pandemic, but students from a local arts college are getting creative under a global hashtag to make the best of a bad situation.

During the state-mandated lockdown, Oxygen College, a registered training organisation with three campuses across the state including Geelong, has been encouraging students to post their work onto social media under the banner #covidcreates.

Students studying a broad range of topics at the institution have posted various forms of media to this point, including photographs, musical compositions, video edits and artwork.

The idea for the extra work came about during the previous lockdown back in June when marketing coordinator of Oxygen College Renee Wilson came up with the idea after moving into her new role.

“The idea was mainly to create more inspiration,” said Ms Wilson.

“I thought instead of focusing on being down and what not, we got all of our students to get on board to share and be proud of what they had done.”

Many students took it upon themselves to undertake extra work on top of their studies and part-time work to produce more pieces of art, creating a bit of a buzz amongst the cohort.

The project also allows students to focus their energy into something creative, with many part-time jobs being put on hold.

Ms Wilson has also seen large amounts of support from the students too, which she says can mean a lot in an industry like the creative arts.

“There’s been a lot of cheering on and support which is really nice,” said Ms Wilson.

“It creates a lot of confidence and encouragement, and all the comments we get between students and external people can create really good feedback.”

Be sure to check out more of the students’ work on the college’s Instagram page @oxygen_college.