Sampling our Child-Friendly Museums

This text samples three innovative programs situated in Melbourne, Cairns and Canberra for kids of various ages. The Cairns Regional Gallery held an exhibition of lino prints by Torres Strait Islander artist Alick Tipoti which attracted 35 school bookings (over 500 children). The Children's Museum at Melbourne Museum opened in October 2000 and held the exhibition 123 Grow!, about the magic of how things, including ourselves, grow. The National Portrait Gallery, Canberra had a showing of student portraiture entitled Hearts/Heads: Headspace II in September 2001.

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Focus: No Man is an Island: A Two Part Reading

Radok here recognises the issue of nationality present in the work of German artist Nikolaus Lang, an artist who often visits Australia to make field trips, to research, to make art and to exhibit. Since his first visit as a participant in the 1979 Sydney Biennale, Lang has been collaborating with Aboriginal people, as his work strongly relates to the origins of art and the origins of the materials of art, often literally the pigments that form artworks. Parts I and II discuss these facts and some of the ideas imbedded in his collaborative works with Indigenous artists Dorrie Gibson, Andrew Gibson and John Turpie.

Stephanie Radok

Vis.Arts.Online

Art websites for Kids

Stephanie Lindquist

Geoffrey Goldie: A Survey Show: 1968-2000

Drawings, Paintings, Etchings,Set & Costume Designs Gipps Street Gallery, Melbourne Nov/Dec 2000

Sam Schoenbaum

Kidding Around: Children in the Visual Arts

Throughout the twentieth century the spontaneous, vibrant art of children has provided inspiration and insight to avant-garde artists the world over. Although artists and educators have acknowledged the potential of children's art and the importance of nurturing creativity for over a century, it has taken considerably longer for government and the arts infrastructure to realise the needs of young artists. Lindquist looks at some of the international and local initiatives fostering young artists, concluding that a greater respect and nurturing of child art via a shift in the priorities of the Australia Council and other arts funding bodies is essential.

Stephanie Lindquist

The Child in Photography

In the century and a half since photography allowed humanity an historical moment of self-consciousness - a way to see ourselves as never before - photographers have been drawn to recording youth, especially children. A child standing before the photographer's lens provided a dual perspective on humanity - at once eternally young and yet, clad in clothes to be soon outgrown, ephemeral. McFarlane looks to the work of Bill Henson, Tracey Moffatt, Ian Dodd, Sebastio Salgado, Deborah Paauwe, Anne Ferran, Sandy Edwards, Jon Rhodes and Roger Scott.

Robert McFarlane

The Archibald Prize

Art Gallery of NSW March 2001

Jo Higgins

Letter to the Editor

Frank Bauer

Primary Non-Producers: The Arts in Crisis in Public Education

In this article Orchard is looking at the nature of art teaching in primary schools rather than focusing on the debate surrounding the value of arts learning and education. Although art has in the past decade become a formal part of the curriculum across Australia there is still a huge dearth of support material for teachers, particularly those in isolated areas. Orchard introduces some of the support programs which have been implemented in various schools, including the Department of Education & Training & Employment (DETE) and South Australian Living Artists (SALA) programs.

Julie Orchard

East of Somewhere

Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney 10 March - 29 April

Kiersten Fishburn

Promised Land: Nien Schwarz

Perth International Arts Festival 2001 event The Church Gallery, Claremont

Ian McLean

Artists and Wunderkids

Beryl Mckenzie and Jennifer Phipps

The Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award

Werribee Park, Victoria 21 March - 13 May 2001

Maria Bilske

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