Interview To Mrs. Bonavventura 

Today, we have the pleasure of sitting down with Miss Bonaventura, a very well-known artist, dedicated to inspiring young minds through creativity.
In this interview, we'll delve into Sara's unique approach to life, exploring the ways in which she nurtures artistic expression and fosters a love for creativity in the classroom.

1. First of all, what is your name and your role at our school?

I'm Sara Bonaventura and I teach visual arts in the Diploma Programme. My family name brings luck, not to me but to the people I meet I guess. It's Bonaventura, but you made me laugh with Buonaventura, that's how it's usually misspelled. I got called Buenaventura as well in Latin America. Since it's also a first name, they also called me Bonaventure thinking it was the name, not the surname. They do not know the football player :) I made a mess also with my first name in the past, so now sometimes it is with H, sometimes without. But in the end we do not really choose our names, they get chosen, no?

2. If teaching never existed what would you do?

I consider myself a teaching artist more than a teacher, so probably I'm already bending the idea of myself as a teacher. Learning to me is still more appealing than teaching. I learn from my students as well. So maybe, a student? But to be honest a secret desire was to be a musician instead

3. How did you end up at H-farm?

I was teaching in an international school in Singapore when a university professor with whom I had collaborated with, invited me to a conference by the Veneto region about the brain drain (we use the expression cervelli in fuga in Italian), along with other Italian expats who left the country as fortune seeker abroad, I was explaining my story and a couple of days after I got an email from a former coordinator, now working at H-Farm as senior admission manager, who attended the conference and invited me to join.

5. Could you please tell us one funny thing that has happened to you at H-farm that you won't forget?

Oh, many things, so many things, my class is typically quite dynamic. But maybe I can tell you the following anecdote. When I was still teaching also the MYP5 I had a couple of lessons on an animation technique, called rotoscope, based on live action, which is later drawn frame by frame tracing the movement. I asked my students to shoot a very short video of a typical spring day at HFarm to be later animated. One of my students immediately went out and performed two springy backflips in a row. We were still in the old campus and I was about to faint… the animation turned out to be quite successful though I have to say!

6. What do you like doing in your free time? Do you have hobbies or pets?

I spend most of my free time working on my own artworks. I do not have pets since I wouldn't be able to take care of them, but I love cats. I'm a cat person, I was bitten and injured by a German-Shepard when I was very little, and no matter how much I worked on it, I tend not to trust dogs, whereas I know I should distrust cats…

7. One fun fact about you that might surprise your students?

They might have a few that surprise me…I'm not sure about this one. Maybe my terrible relationship with the alarm every morning, since I was little. It's love and hate, since I've never been late to school, not even as a student, but since back then I simply hate the alarm. I'm a night owl, not a morning person, but I have the feeling my students know this already…

8. When have you felt most alive? Or what makes you feel alive?

Oh another difficult one, hard to pick one specific thing, I mean you would say art but it's probably nature with its wonders. I felt very alive, like never before, under a starry night in the middle of the desert in Central Australia. I was in the so-called Red Centre with my younger sister and we were in our sleeping bags inside a swag, no tent to feel the sky so close, we could almost grasp it. It was also an important trip, when I got to know my sister; she's 8 years younger and before that moment we never felt really close. I'm sure it's also because of that mindblowing starry night, that despite being really different, we are still very connected. I have another story in Cooktown Australia, but let's keep it for another chapter..

9. What role do you believe art plays in a student's overall education and development?

I've always believed in the potential of expressive languages, not only visual arts, but also music, dance, or drama. I think they help develop cognitive skills in a more holistic, well-rounded way. Besides the fact that I still believe that developing fine motor abilities is very important even to work as a biotechnologist, motor skills represented a turning point in human evolution after all, not specifically in drawing as people tend to think but in varied and different ways, besides this, I think expressive languages can support kids in building self-confidence but thinking outside of the box. Being a risk taker. I would say mainly this, without bothering too much about more subject-specific skills and the fact that in Italy we have an inestimable cultural heritage we don't look after.

10. How do you foster creativity in your students?

Empathy and divergent thinking drive also my teaching approach. At least I try... I let the students choose their sources of inspiration, giving them a methodological framework but letting them choose, which is not easy. Students need to feel entitled and responsible to choose and research. My lessons are strongly based on 1:1 feedback sessions, rather than typical lessons.

11. What is Art for you?

Art is my life :) Art is a guarantee of sanity, a famous sculptor, Louise Bourgeois, once said. It certainly was for me growing up, my secret shelter which made some of my dear old friends and partners envious. It was a shelter in a parallel dimension, if you knew what it was you knew how to find the portals, otherwise you'll never find it. Growing up the shelter became bigger and also more cosy, it became a real studio, I continued dreaming but I started inviting many people in. Other artists shared their company as well. Art is never finished, only abandoned, said one of the biggest artists of all the times, Da Vinci. So I guess at some point that shelter might be abandoned, but never finished. A strange thing about art is that it's community, but like a monologue between two or more persons.

12. How do you stay updated on new artistic trends and techniques?

It's a very good question, often not asked since people sometimes have a stereotypical idea of art: oil painting in front of an easel. I started as a painter and it looks like the first days of primary school I stated I wanted to become a painter. But as an artist, I work with digital tools. I touch oil paint only in class, once you learn certain fine motor skills and techniques, you are not a virtuoso but also not that bad. With softwares on the other hand, it's hard to keep pace. Due to my age, I'm confident with 2d softwares, but the world is now 3d and I hardly keep up with it, so for some of my own art projects, I work with collaborators helping me with 3d animation, especially rigging. I study, I watch tutorials, but I have the feeling my students are much faster than me now in learning new tools!

13. Who is the person that inspired you the most in your life? and why

I have many, too many. A lot of artists and teachers. I realised it years and years after of course, and to some of them, I didn't even have a chance to express my gratitude. One of them, his name was Nikos Alexiou, was a Greek artist I worked for as an assistant for his solo show during the Venice Biennale. The fee paid to the artists for the Venice Biennale is one of the highest in the world of the arts, glorifying career achievements. It's like reaching the top. Unfortunately, he passed away from cancer a little after the show. He's one of the best artists I've ever worked with. The show was a painstaking set up and we all went mad, but the result was amazing. Nikos had a 5-star hotel booked for him but he was sleeping in the exhibition pavilion, working till late every day. He often preferred to have dinner with us, the younger assistants, rather than the jet-set of the arts (important curators and collectionists). He has been a great example of humble self-discipline and teamwork at the same time.

14. If you could switch life with anyone for a day, who would it be?

This is the most difficult question, I have no idea. If I start thinking… I'm still not quite sure who I am, so imagining being someone else is even more uncanny. I think I'd rather persist in trying to understand myself deeply.

 17. In your opinion what would be a world without art? Better? Worst? (explain)

Ah ah of course worse, wait maybe not, maybe people will stop escapist strategies to rather actually change the world they live in. But then I think a world without arts and culture would be very sad, I surely wouldn't survive in such a world. I also tend to think that it is important to humanise sciences through the arts and work transdisciplinary. I'm working with researchers at the CNR in Venice at the moment. Soon working with marine biologists for another project of mine in the Mediterranean. I think everything is interconnected, entangled, intertwined, organically and less organically. I think change, deep change, happens only when very different disciplines unfold together apart.

18. Do you have a favourite quote or piece of advice that has guided you through various aspects of your life?

He was an external advisor, not an academic professor but a museum advisorI have many quotes but I cherish a piece of advice that one of my supervisors of my master degree gave me. He was an external advisor, not an academic professor but a museum advisor, who knew me very well since I was in his group of museum guides back then. He gave me a tip I still often have to remind myself: Scegli una cosa e tienila cara. He was not just talking about the topics of my thesis, but a tendency I have to overcommit and take in too many projects. I think it's my strategy to never get bored, but at times I exaggerate and I give myself the same advice. He's another person I never managed to thank for this.

19. What do you wish you had known when you were a student, looking back on your academic journey?

Oh, this is another good question, I was a good student so I do not have many regrets… I wish I knew that some jobs existed, maybe, some jobs I simply did not know existed. Also maybe, looking back and thinking practically, the only thing is that I gave up on sports. I was a very good volleyball player, but I quit because of school. It's not strictly academic, but somehow it was for me since everyday volleyball training made my liceo more challenging so I dropped the sport and never really made it up. I wish I had known this when I quit it.

20. Are there any books, movies, or music that have significantly influenced your life or that you currently enjoy?

I think in every cycle of my life I have read specific books, discovered specific artists, listened to bands, and watched particular movies. They had indeed a really significant influence: I became vegan at the age of 15 because of some bands I was listening to Same for books, I remember when I read Calvino's Il Barone Rampante in a couple of daysit was suggested by my epic Italian teacher and I totally identified with the story. I had co-built a treehouse with some peers from the neighborhood in primary school and I still love treehouses! A few years later a different kind of music brought me to Germany and I moved to Berlin also because of it. I still listen to ambient music made with electronic synthesizers discovered back then, which helps me focus while working with digital flows. Same for books, I remember when I read Calvino's Il Barone Rampante in a couple of days, I was in scuola media, it was suggested by my epic Italian teacher and I totally identified with the story. I had co-built a treehouse with some peers from the neighborhood in primary school and I still love treehouses, I have an amazing brand new book about them and I have a book about Calvino's gardener Libereso who inspired the novel. For the arts, it's even more complicated, life cycles and personal milestones are very hectic so I really have too many references. Again I know I should choose one thing and cherish it, but aligning with the flow of life for me probably means embracing the abyss of infinite possibilities, and trying not to drown.

21. Are there any specific goals or projects you're working on, either inside or outside the classroom?

My big goal with my DP2 is their final exhibition, I mean my goal or their goal? Both! Then I'm trying to work with AI in school as well as in a video of mine. I have a big personal goal, for an art project dealing with the Venice lagoon; it's one of the reasons why I still hang around here. Wish me luck for it :) And good luck with this project of yours! I hope I did not annoy you too much, I'm getting old, but always… Buonavventura!