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International Baccalaureate (IB) Program

For IB students, art imitates life

For seniors Dante DelGiacco and Vicky Lau, art class is more than painting and drawing, sculpting and designing – it is about life experiences, different cultures and funky ideas.

As students in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, DelGiacco and Lau can be found most afternoons in Deb Webster’s advanced placement art class. As IB students, they are required to complete three or more research workbooks during the course of their junior and senior years. The workbooks are thick, heavy books that were once filled with pages and pages of blank paper. Today they are covered with everything from computer images to candle wax, dried plants to prom dress designs. They show an exploration of surrealism, symbolism, other cultures, experimentation and much, much more.

“They like messy books,” Lau says of the IB examiners, who will ultimately assess her performance in this class and the IB program. “And I’m a neat freak, so it’s hard for me.”

But looking through Lau’s research workbook, it’s difficult to see how the neatness could be a problem. She flips through the pages noting that her ideas come from class assignments as well as her own ideas and thoughts. Turning to one page covered with swirling designs made of red candle wax, she says, “I did this one because I liked the way it smelled.”

Other pages show pictures from a trip to China and an exploration of bamboo. Others display her interest in fashion design. No matter what, the artwork on each page is surrounded by words – a description of what each piece is, how it came to be and what the ideas are behind it. This is what turns a regular book of art projects into a research sketchbook.

“Anything I do I get into, no matter what,” Lau says.

Across the table, DelGiacco’s books are a little messier – but equally as impressive. He says he comes up with many of his ideas on his own, uses his own photography and often explores the philosophies behind different concepts such as beauty or love. He says he likes texture, color, and “in your face” images.”

As he flips through the book he stops at a page with two large tears through the middle.

“It’s experimental,” he says, “So if I rip a page it’s okay.”

Looking through DelGiacco’s workbooks is like looking through the last few years of his life. For the 2005-06 school year he spent a gap year in Germany, on a Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange Scholarship, where – among many other things – he served as a volunteer for the World Cup soccer tournament in Munich. Then, last summer, after attending the New York State Summer School of the Arts program at Ithaca College, he spent a month in Guatemala as a tourist, volunteer and student in the Amerispan Program.

With a strong interest in computer graphics, many of DelGiacco’s pieces are funky designs filled with color and a wide array of images. However, he has started using a sewing machine and plans to soon be creating his own clothing designs.

“It’s better to be living through the workbook rather than having the book be something that bogs you down,” he says of his research sketchbook.

The IB program is a prestigious, rigorous course of study that is overseen by the International Baccalaureate Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Students who take part in the program are most often highly-motivated, and Lau and DelGiacco are no exception.

As they prepare for life after high school, DelGiacco would like to head to Hunter College next year, but in case that falls through he has a list of roughly 14 other colleges he would also like to attend. Lau, on the other hand, is still deciding between pre-med and fashion design. Currently she spends her mornings at Ellis Hospital as part of the New Visions program, and her afternoons at SHS.

No matter what, both are confident that they are ready for whatever waits for them down the road, and know that the IB program has played a part.

“It feels like a smaller community within the school and it’s really my support group now,” DelGiacco said. “I know it’s a lot of extra work for an art class and it’s easy to fall behind. You just have to be a good student and you’ll do fine.”