Cooktown KIDS ART SOCIETY

Thanks to support from Fairfax Family Foundation and QAGOMA providing free art materials to APT8 Kids on Tour the Cooktown School of Art Society Inc Elizabeth Guzsely Gallery was able to run contemporary art activities on the gallery verandah on Thursday 31st March 2016. Photos from the art sessions are on Google Photos.

Long way from COOKTOWN? Not so much as the Elizabeth Guzsely Gallery, 125 Charlotte Street Cooktown held APT8 Kids on Tour ART activities day on Saturday 19th March 2016 from 10am to 2pm. FREE with all materials supplied.

Many of the art activities that are in the exhibition in Brisbane from Nov to April were presented in adapted versions for kids .

APT8 Kids is supported by Principal Benefactor Tim Fairfax Family Foundation and Major Sponsor Santos GLNG.

Kids and parents engage with the ideas and work of contemporary artists from Australia, Asia and the Pacific through participation in the program. These projects enrich young visitors’ knowledge of this culturally diverse region and enable children and families to explore the ways in which artists reflect their cultures, beliefs and ideas. Venues will be provided with a selection of activities from the Children’s Art Centre publication Draw, Make, Create: APT8 Kids, which were developed in collaboration with a number of exhibiting APT8 artists in association with the APT8 Kids exhibition.

Indian artist Pushpa Kumari has created the APT8 Kids mascot — a peacock. Peacocks are large birds native to India; the male birds are known for their dazzling green, blue and gold tails and performances to attract female peahens. With performance being an important component in APT8, the peacock was a clear choice as the APT8 Kids mascot.

RICHARD BELL. Australia b.1953. Kamilaroi/Jiman/Kooma people
15 Minutes DVD 2015
Richard Bell is known for his paintings and video works. He is also one of the founders of proppaNOW, a Brisbane-based Aboriginal art collective. Richard often uses humour in his work to communicate important issues, including Aboriginal land rights, politics and equality.
For APT8 Kids, Richard has developed a new video work 15 Minutes, which looks at celebrity and fame. To discover what children think of fame, Richard conducted a series of interviews with Queensland school students. 15 Minutes brings together clips from interviews in which children talk about their interests and ambitions, what they think makes them special and why they could be famous. Venues will receive a disc copy of the video artwork 15 Minutes.

UUDAM TRAN NGUYEN. Vietnam b.1971. Draw 2 Connect with License 2 Draw 2015
UuDam Tran Nguyen combines art and technology to explore contemporary city life, and in particular the way technology can connect us across vast distances. His artwork License 2 Draw, which inspired this multimedia interactive for APT8 Kids, was an app allowing users to log-in remotely from anywhere in the world to drive a remote-controlled car to create a drawing. Children can access the online activity Draw 2 Connect with License 2 Draw and drive a virtual car over a digital canvas to create a picture. The online activity is a multiplayer platform where each person involved appears in the same digital environment. This allows children from across the world to work together to create a picture.

ROSANNA RAYMOND. Aotearoa New Zealand b.1967. Play with Your Birds 2015
Rosanna Raymond creates artworks inspired by the history and traditions of her Samoan heritage, across installation, spoken word, poetry, performance and body adornment. The artist invites children to create their own tiputa (a type of garment from Tahiti resembling a poncho) that they can decorate by drawing upon the traditional patterns of Samoan culture. Traditional tiputas are made from tapa (barkcloth)

VENKAT RAMAN SINGH SHYAM. India b.1970. Pardhan Gond people. The Woman and the Parrot 2015
Venkat Raman Singh Shyam is a Gond artist from India. The Gond people are one of the largest indigenous groups in India and their artworks are known for their distinctive patterns and vibrant colours depicting the natural and spiritual worlds. Venkat has created a drawing activity inspired by the traditional Gond story of The Woman and the Parrot. Children can select a template based on the story and decorate it using different Gond patterns. Venues will be provided with activity templates and instructions, coloured pens and an artwork poster of The Woman and the Parrot 2002

YELENA VOROBYEVA AND VIKTOR VOROBYEV. Turkmenistan b.1959; Kazakhstan b.1959. I Prefer … 2015
Yelena Vorobyeva and Viktor Vorobyev create new ways of looking at the world around them by adding to or altering everyday objects. In their work I Prefer Watermelons 2002, the artists make green tomatoes look like watermelons by painting them with black stripes. Children can transform a fruit or vegetable template into something else using coloured pens. For example, a carrot could be turned into a strawberry, an onion into a fish or a pineapple into a rocket-ship. Venues will be provided with activity templates and instructions, coloured pens and an poster of I Prefer Watermelons 2002.

DRAW, MAKE, CREATE: APT8 KIDS
Venues will receive a booklet with a selection of activities from the Children’s Art Centre publication Draw, Make, Create: APT8 Kids.
Produced in association with the APT8 Kids exhibition, this booklet introduces young readers to three contemporary artists from the Australia, Asia and the Pacific — Pushpa Kumari (India), Sharon Chin (Malaysia) and Gerelkhuu Ganbold (Mongolia). The booklet contains a number of exciting, contemplative and playful art-making activities, with a focus on drawing, specially designed by the artists.