It's very clear that art plays an important part in Yew Chung International School's (YCIS) holistic model of education. Founded in 1932 in Hong Kong, YCIS now has six schools in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, Qingdao and Silicon Valley in the US. In fact, at YCIS, "to align with culture and arts" is one-third of the school's motto.

One particularly unique aspect of the arts education at YCIS is its Artist-in-Residence (AIR) program. In addition to art class teachers, YCIS also employs two professional artists to work at the school all year-round on it's campuses in Puxi and Pudong, with the aim of guiding and inspiring students by creating small and large-scale art projects that enhance classroom learning, and that beautify and decorate the campus. The artists are also encouraged to develop their own personal portfolios during the school year.

At YCIS Shanghai, Mark Montgomery serves as the AIR at the school's Puxi campuses, and Esther Chow is the AIR at the school's campuses in Pudong. Both AIRs have studios on campus that are used for group projects with students, and for their own creative work.

Before joining YCIS four years ago, Montgomery, who specializes in comics and murals, worked and exhibited in countries including Ireland, Spain, Italy and the Bahamas. After gaining international experience as a working artist, Montgomery says he wanted to settle in Shanghai for some time to build a deeper understanding of the culture and people here.

When asked about his role versus that of a traditional art instructor, Montgomery explains, "all teachers are storytellers, and as an Artist-in-Residence, I get to help students create and tell stories. Normally, education is about learning processes - for example, how to work out a mathematical equation. In my art studio, though, while students learn about processes and techniques, I am also able to constantly encourage them to think creatively - which is limitless!"

Beyond art coaching, Montgomery also helps incorporate art into the school's wider curriculum. Once, when students were studying the Renaissance period, classroom teachers sought his help to create a project that would allow the students to engage more deeply with the course material.

"I had this idea that, given that there were no art stores during that period of time (so people couldn't go out and buy paints), artists had to make their own paints, so we decided to show the students how this was done," he said.

Montgomery then gathered the necessary materials and helped the students make tempera paint, a type of paint widely used by Renaissance masters like Leonardo da Vinci, from scratch. The students then used the paint as part of a group project to create a stylized recreation of the famous Mona Lisa portrait. According to Montgomery, such cross-curricular projects are a hit with students and give them an excellent opportunity to gain hands-on experience with their academic subjects.

Over the coming school year, Montgomery is planning to work with the school's music teachers on a project to help kindergarten students visualize music. "Music has rhythm and can be shown as movement on a canvas," he explained.

Walking through the YCIS Shanghai campuses, it's easy to find many beautiful murals that explore various themes. Many of them are works that were created with support from the AIR program, working together with the school's students.

At YCIS's Hongqiao campus, on an outside wall near the playground, there is a rain forest scene that Montgomery painted along with Year 2 students. Montgomery said the students who created the work had natural drawing skills and had created pictures of trees, flowers and animals which served as inspiration during the creation of the large-scale mural. "Most of the mural was painted by students themselves. I helped them when they could not reach certain heights," Montgomery said.

Mark Montgomery teaches students during an art class.

Mark Montgomery makes tempera paint with students during a unit on the Renaissance.

Photos: Courtesy of YCIS Shanghai