children’s art centre

What a stunning example ofmaking art accessible to the

community, in particular childrenand families. A true example

of how art museums are placesof learning, fun and playfulness.

Visitor comment recorded at Summer Spectacular — a 15-day children’s festival presented for Kids’ APT, part of the fourth Asia–Pacific Triennialof Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, January 2003.

Kids’ APT — first presented as part of the Gallery’s thirdAsia–Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in 1999 — brokenew ground by acknowledging children as a key audiencefor an international contemporary art event. Since then, theGallery’s philosophy of working directly with contemporaryartists to develop projects for children has attracted morethan one million visitors to children’s exhibitions andprograms.

The Queensland Art Gallery’s Children’s Art Centreexhibitions and programs have become a defining part ofthe Gallery, essential to its core principle of connecting artand people. With the opening of the Queensland Gallery ofModern Art (QGMA) in November 2006, the Children’s ArtCentre will have a permanent physical base, with adedicated exhibition space, teacher resources andworkshop facilities. Although based at QGMA (the Gallery’ssecond site), the Children’s Art Centre will continue topresent programs across both buildings.

We gratefully acknowledge the Queensland Governmentfor funding Children’s Art Centre pilot programs, enablingus to reach new audiences. We look forward to bringingcontemporary art to even more contemporary kids at QGMA.

Wayne Goss Doug Hall Chair, Board of Trustees Director

Children and families at Kids’ APTSummer Spectacular festival,January 2003.

cover Yayoi Kusama’s The obliterationroom 2002, commissioned for Kids’ APT 2002. Photograph: Matthew Kassay

inside coverThe obliteration room installed forthe 2005 Children’s Art Centreexhibition, ‘Made for this World:Contemporary Art and the PlacesWe Build’.Photograph: Natasha Harth

children’s art centre

SINCE ITSINAUGURATION IN 1998,THE QUEENSLAND ARTGALLERY’S INNOVATIVE

EXHIBITION ANDEDUCATIONAL

PROGRAMMING FORCHILDREN HAS BEEN

RECOGNISEDNATIONALLY AND

INTERNATIONALLY.

key facts

The Gallerybeganprogrammingspecifically forchildren as a key audience in 1998. Sincethen the Galleryhas presentednine children’sexhibitions(including atravellingexhibition), twoKids’ APTs, twosummer festivalsand hundreds of creativeworkshops.

The Children’sArt Centre willbe based at theGallery’s second site, the QueenslandGallery of ModernArt (QGMA), but will presentexhibitions andprograms acrossboth buildings.

An ongoingseries ofcommissionedartists’ projectsfor children willform theChildren’s ArtCentre exhibitionprogram atQGMA. This newprogram will bein addition to theGallery’s annualchildren’sexhibition ofcontemporaryart from theCollection.

Artist-runprograms areintegral to theChildren’s ArtCentre. Local,national andinternationalartists work with Gallery staff to developinteractive artworks andprograms for kids.

The Gallery’sannual children’sexhibitions aretargeted towardschildren aged 3to 12 years, butare also stand-alone museumexhibitions in their presentationof major worksfrom the Gallery’sCollection.

Key elements of children’sexhibitionsinclude innovativeexhibitiondesigns to create child-friendlyenvironments,interpretive labelsand activitybooks, exhibitionmascots andspeciallycommissionedinteractive artworks.

The Children’sArt Centreprovides valuableresources (both print andweb-based) forearly childhoodand primaryteachers, as wellas professionaldevelopmentopportunities foreducators suchas exhibitionpreviews andseminars.

The first majorproject for theChildren’s ArtCentre in QGMAwill be Kids’ APT2006, which will presentinteractive worksfor children byexhibiting artistsand a majorfestival event.

The Gallery’s exhibitions for children draw out youngviewers’ instinctive attraction to contemporary art — itsabstractions, diversity, scale and experimentation. Fromcolourful but relatively small-scale initial exhibitions, theresponse of children, parents and teachers soon made itevident that children’s exhibitions warranted space andscale of ‘blockbuster’ proportions.

‘Play’, a 2001 exhibition for kids, recognised that theprocess of playing — a mix of exploration, inquiry, problem-solving, interaction and fun — is synonymous with children’s learning and social development. In 2003,‘Colour’ was the first children’s exhibition to be presentedin the Gallery’s single largest exhibition space, and wasaccompanied by a suitably colourful chameleon characteras exhibition mascot.

Major new acquisitions to the Gallery’s contemporary andmoving-image collections were unveiled in the 2004Children’s Art Centre exhibition, ‘The Nature Machine:Contemporary Art, Nature and Technology’. In thesummer of 2005, ‘Made for this World: ContemporaryArt and the Places We Build’ asked children to lookclosely at our everyday built environments, and made atimely connection to the Gallery’s own constructionproject — the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art.

In addition to exhibitions designed specifically for them,children are also catered for within many major exhibitions in the Gallery’s general program. In 2003, ‘Story Place:Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest’included interactive activities commissioned from severalexhibiting artists, which were displayed in a dedicatedspace for children — ‘Googi’s Place’. Interpretive labels andan activity book were also produced specifically for children.

Installation view of the children’sexhibition, ‘Play’, 2001.

following pagesActivities throughout ‘The NatureMachine: Contemporary Art, Natureand Technology’ (2004–05)encouraged children to investigatethe exhibition’s key concepts of art,nature and technology.

Photographs: Richard Stringer

CHILDREN’S ARTCENTRE EXHIBITIONSOPEN UP THE WORLD

OF CONTEMPORARYART FOR YOUNG

VISITORS.

THE OFTENCHALLENGING AND

COMPLEX IDEASCONTEMPORARY

ARTISTS ADDRESS AREMADE ACCESSIBLE TO

CHILDREN THROUGHSTORYTELLING,

HANDS-ON CREATINGAND INTERACTION

WITH ARTISTS.

children’s exhibitions

Introduced as an integral part of the Triennial in 1999, Kids’APTs have included works for children by Cai Guo-Qiang(China), Eugene Carchesio (Australia), Song Dong (China),Surasi Kusolwong (Thailand), Suh Do-Ho (South Korea) andYayoi Kusama (Japan).

One of the most successful projects was Yayoi Kusama’sThe obliteration room 2002 in Kids’ APT 2002. By the closeof the exhibition, Kusama’s pristine white room, created toresemble a typical Australian living room, had beentransformed by many thousands of coloured dots stuck toevery surface. Engaging and fun for kids, the work alsoremained true to the artist’s broader practice. Afterparticipating in The obliteration room, children were able tomake connections to Kusama’s other exhibited works —Narcissus garden 1966/2002 and Soul under the moon2002 — which also proved immensely popular with children.

In 2005 the Gallery collaborated with Kusama to produce aweb-based interactive game for children based on Theobliteration room. This major project is the first in a seriesof planned online interactives to be developed for childrenfocused on different works in the Gallery’s Collection. Theseinteractives will form an important part of the Gallery’sonline educational resources for kids. www.qag.qld.gov.au/kids

Kids’ APT will be an integral part of APT 2006, the openingexhibition at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art inNovember 2006.

Artist Heri Dono worked withchildren to present a wayang(shadow) puppet performance aspart of Kids’ APT 2002.Photograph: Lukas Davidson

following pagesAs part of Kids’ APT 1999, childrenbuilt bridges — like the oneconstructed across the Watermall by APT artist Cai Guo-Qiang.

Cai Guo-QiangBlue dragon and bridge crossing –Project for the Third Asia–PacificTriennial 1999 Collection: The artist Photograph: Richard Stringer

Kids’ APT

EXHIBITING ARTISTSINTERPRET THEIR WORK

FOR CHILDREN IN KIDS’ APT, PART OF THEGALLERY’S ACCLAIMED

ASIA–PACIFIC TRIENNIAL OFCONTEMPORARY ART (APT).

Children participating in OlafurEliasson’s The cubic structuralevolution project 2004 during thechildren’s exhibition ‘Made for thisWorld: Contemporary Art and thePlaces We Build’, November 2005. Photograph: Natasha Harth

children’s festivals

FESTIVALS AND OTHERMAJOR PUBLIC

PROGRAMS PROVIDEANOTHER VIBRANT

LAYER TO CHILDREN’SEXPERIENCES AT THE

GALLERY.

FESTIVALS EXTEND THEEXPLORATION OF ART

WORK AND EXHIBITIONTHEMES THROUGH

PERFORMANCES, ARTISTTALKS, WORKSHOPS

AND MORE.

The Gallery’s first children’s festival was Kids’ APTSummer Spectacular, presented in January 2003 as partof the fourth Asia–Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art.Summer Spectacular’s multicultural program of more than30 performances and activities attracted 50 000 people injust 15 days. A combination of art, spectacle, music, danceand storytelling, the festival was a clear example of theshifts that have taken place in the Gallery and othermuseums over the past two decades — no longer areinstitutions primarily about the silent contemplation andpreservation of objects; rather they are active and dynamicplaces for people of all ages.

In January 2005 ‘The Nature Machine’ Summer Festivalexplored the exhibition’s key concepts of art, nature andtechnology. Attended by nearly 30 000 people, a highlightof the nine-day festival was a work by eminent internationalartist Olafur Eliasson that invited children to create andrecreate an ever-evolving cityscape from thousands ofpieces of white Lego. This work, The cubic structuralevolution project 2004, will tour to regional Queenslandgalleries in 2007.

Another of ‘The Nature Machine’ festival’s popular activitieswas inspired by Jana Sterbak’s video installation From hereto there 2003, in which the artist used video footage filmedby a dog with a lightweight camera on its back. For‘Canine-cam’, visitors brought the family dog to the Galleryto record and take home their pet’s-eye view of the world.

Research through observation, visitor surveys, andinterviews with children, parents and participating artistsassists the Gallery in developing each new festival orexhibition program.

ongoing programming and education

Held twice a month on Sunday afternoons, Sunday at theGallery workshops are presented by local and nationalartists, and respond to current exhibitions or Collectiondisplays. Gallery research demonstrates that children notonly respond to art work, but have a great interest in, andempathy for, the creative journey of the artist. Theseprograms give children the opportunity to work directly with artists, and assist in making art and the art museumpart of the child’s world.

Toddler Tuesday provides the opportunity for very youngchildren, with a parent or carer, to join in creative activitiesbased around art works in the Gallery’s Collection.Storytellers, performers and early childhood experts workwith Gallery staff to create a dynamic program. Demand forplaces in the sessions has seen Toddler Tuesday become atwice-weekly fixture of the Gallery’s program.

As we move towards the opening of the Queensland Galleryof Modern Art, the Children’s Art Centre will expand itsservices to the education sector — including professionaldevelopment opportunities for teachers, and printed andonline curriculum resources to help facilitate the inclusion ofChildren’s Art Centre exhibitions and Gallery Collectionworks in the teaching programs of Queensland schools.

ONGOING PROGRAMSSUCH AS SUNDAY AT

THE GALLERY ANDTODDLER TUESDAYHELP FOSTER THE

CREATIVE ANDLEARNING POTENTIAL

OF CHILDREN.

A selection of Queensland ArtGallery children’s activity books.

Queensland . . . is about tobecome home to the mostremarkable and innovative

art museum in the southern hemisphere.

Elaine W Ng, Art AsiaPacific, Issue no.43, Winter 2005

Queensland Gallery of Modern Art

IN NOVEMBER 2006 THEQUEENSLAND ART

GALLERY WILL BECOME ATWO-SITE INSTITUTION

WITH THE OPENING OF ITSSECOND BUILDING, THEQUEENSLAND GALLERY

OF MODERN ART.

Illustration of the Queensland Galleryof Modern Art.Image courtesy: Architectus, Sydney

Overlooking the Brisbane River, the Queensland Gallery ofModern Art (QGMA) will be located 200 metres north of theexisting Gallery, linked by a public plaza. Together, theQueensland Art Gallery and the Queensland Gallery ofModern Art will become the second-largest public artmuseum in Australia.

QGMA will focus on the art of the late twentieth andtwenty-first centuries, showcasing the Gallery’scontemporary Australian, Indigenous Australian, Asian,Pacific and international collections. The new building willhouse several exciting new initiatives — the Children’s ArtCentre and the Australian Cinémathèque, both of which willbe based in QGMA while presenting programs across bothbuildings. Featuring 5825 square metres of exhibition spaceover four levels, QGMA will also house the AustralianCentre of Asia–Pacific Art (for research and support of theGallery’s Asian and Pacific activities), and a centre forcontemporary art conservation.

Following the ‘Asia–Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art2006’ as QGMA’s opening exhibition, a major retrospectiveexhibition of the work of Andy Warhol is planned for 2007.With the opening of QGMA, the existing Queensland ArtGallery building will be dedicated to the display of theGallery’s heritage collections, with works predominantlydating before 1970.

The construction of the Queensland Gallery of Modern Artis part of the Queensland Government’s Millennium Arts Project.www.qag.qld.gov.au/qgma

QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY QUEENSLAND GALLERY OF MODERN ARTDoug Hall, Director

CONTACTSCHILDREN’S ART CENTREEmail: childrensartcentre@qag.qld.gov.au Tel: +61 (0) 7 3840 7325Subscribe online to Artmail, the Gallery’s free e-bulletin, andindicate your special interest in the Children’s Art Centre.www.qag.qld.gov.au/artmail

SPONSORSHIPEmail: foundation@qag.qld.gov.auTel: +61 (0) 7 3840 7337

MEDIAEmail: media@qag.qld.gov.auTel: +61 (0) 7 3840 7162

© Queensland Art Gallery, January 2006Melbourne Street, South Brisbane, Queensland AustraliaPO Box 3686, South Brisbane, Queensland 4101 Australiawww.qag.qld.gov.au

www.qag.qld.gov.au/kids

Objects made by children during aworkshop with Australian artistEugene Carchesio, January 2004. Photograph: Natasha Harth

Brisbane, Australia