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Amazing artists and educators

Patricia Piccinini: Art in childhood series

Patricia Puccinini

This post is the third in the ‘Art in Childhood series’ that looks at the experience of famous artists in childhood! The first blog post looked at Australian painter Ben Quilty who shared his story of growing up on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia.The second post zoomed in on Djerrkŋu Yunupiŋu who talked about growing up in East Arnhem in Australia. Patricia Piccinini is one of Australia’s most acclaimed contemporary artists. Her hyperreal sculptures explore themes such as people’s relationship with technology, nature, and culture. Patricia represented Australia at the 2003 Venice Biennale. She is also currently the Enterprise Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Melbourne. In this story, Patricia shares what art was like for her attending a public school in Canberra, Australia. Louisa Penfold: You were born in Sierra Leone and then immigrated to Canberra as a child. Were there any experiences that you had in your…

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Amazing artists and educators

Djerrkŋu Yunupiŋu: Art in childhood series

Djerrkŋu Yunupiŋu painting at the Buku Art Centre

Image credit: Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Art Centre This post is the second in a series that explores the childhood experiences of artists. In each post, a different esteemed artist shares their account of the people and experiences that inspired them to pursue a career in the field. The first post featured the story of Ben Quilty who shared his story of growing up on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia. This blog post features the work of Djerrkŋu Yunupiŋu. Djerrkŋu is an Indigenous artist based in Yirrkala in East Arnhem Land, Australia. Born near the Mata Mata community on Inglis Island, she is part of the Gumatj clan. Djerrkŋu’s art practices draws on weaving, healing, printmaking, and painting techniques to share ancestral stories. She was a finalist at this year’s National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in Australia. “Weaving ancestral stories” -Djerrkŋu Yunupiŋu’s story of art in childhood When I was young,…

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Amazing artists and educators

Ben Quilty: Art in childhood series

I recently had an article published in the Weekend Australian that looked at different artists’ experience of art in childhood. You can read the original article in full here: ‘Why teach kids art?’, published in The Australian, September 12, 2020 The article features the stories of four esteemed Australian artists -Patricia Piccinini, Djerrkngu Yunupingu, John Wolseley, and Ben Quilty- who share their experience of art while growing up. Something that I found so interesting when doing the interviews was how the artists talked about the important role of parents and teachers in supporting their artistic pursuits. Over the next two months, I am going to share the extended stories of these artists’ experience of art in childhood… starting with the amazing Ben Quilty! Ben is one of Australia’s most esteemed visual artists. His paintings explore ideas around masculinity, colonization, and political activism. He was also awarded the 2011 Archibald Prize…

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Children's creative spaces

The ‘Atelier van Licht’ at the Centraal Museum, Utrecht

The Atelier of Light at the Centraal Museum, NL www.louisapenfold.com

This post features a reflection on my visit to the Atelier van Licht at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, The Netherlands. The Atelier was being presented as part of the museum’s Nice’n’Light exhibition that ran from 17 October 2015 – 24 January 2016.  Above: Atelier van Licht at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Image credit: Atelier van Licht A creative space for children’s play and experimentation with materials Back in February 2016, I travelled to the Netherlands to meet with Annemieke Huisingh, the founder of the wonderful Atelier van Licht. I was interested in learning more about the Atelier’s approach to designing children’s material-based creative learning environments. At the time, the Atelier (which is another word used to describe an artist’s studio) was on display at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht as part of a contemporary art show that was exploring artist’s experimentation with light. The Atelier had been designed for children of all ages…

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Learning

Why art is important in children’s learning

Art can play an important part in children’s learning. This post shares five key reasons why. “Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.” Article 31, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Many education theorists have argued that art has a central role in children’s learning and development. For example, John Dewey – the founder of American progressive education – argued for the need to integrate art into people’s everyday experiences. Eillot Eisner then talked about the criticality of art in public school curriculum and Maxine Greene wrote about its significance in allowing people to imagine the world from multiple perspectives. All of these amazing thinkers built their arguments on the same issue: that art has been marginalised from school curriculum in place of syllabus focused on maths, English, science and technology. A recent example of this can…

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PhD Research

Finishing my PhD fieldwork

Last week I had my final day of data generation in Manchester. Over the past couple of months I have been fortunate enough to have worked within a fantastic team comprised of an education curator, artists, teachers, children and parents. This time has been such an intense period of development, growth and expansion for my research and all of us on the team. I will spend the next couple of months writing up and theorising my findings before starting the second stage of fieldwork in 2017. At times it can be strange working with children in education settings. You have this intense period, whether it be a school year, or a series of repeat visits to a museum, or even a single workshop, where a particular group of little humans become the centre of your creative and intellectual being. You see them change and develop in their thinking, communicating and curiosities about…

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