Saturday, 13 October 2012

... And now for some Whiteley!

With the Ruark Lewis exhibition well under way, all educational resources completed and public programs (including a fantastic audience participatory work - Catscradle) in full swing, my attention is fully on the Brett Whiteley education kit. I still have around five weeks till the Whiteley show opens, but it will be such a blockbuster exhibition for this regional gallery that the pressure is on.

Luckily writing this kit has been much easier than the Lewis kit, whose work can be challenging to write about for younger audiences (and the title of many of his works change with each display!). I have also been fortunate of the generosity of Alec George from the Brett Whiteley Studio, AGNSW. As the show at our Gallery is in association with the Studio, he has been quite generous to share resources, meaning I could use some info from existing Brett Whiteley Studio/ AGNEW education kits, not having to re-invent the wheel. There is such an air of excitement around this exciting exhibition... I am constantly talking it up to my students and am excited to be able to take them on an excursion to view it just before the Christmas holidays.


I don't know if it is the warmer weather; the fact that I just submitted the draft of my research paper; that I only have five more Saturdays left 'til I complete my internship; or that I am just so excited to be working on a Whiteley show (after years of being inspired by his practice and transferring this to my students), but I feel a strong sense of calm for the first time in a long time... This has been an amazingly challenging experience, but I will be happy come November 15.




Brett Whiteley The pink heron 1969 (detail) Art Gallery of New South Wales. Gift of Patrick White 1979 copyright Wendy Whiteley



Posted by at

5 comments:

  1. Emily Sinclair16 October 2012 at 11:36

    Sounds really great Marisa, it feels good to be nearly there, doesn't it?! The Brett Whiteley education kit sounds like a fantastic project - it's fantastic as well that you have the experience of the Lewis kit to help you create this one, it must make you feel more at ease taking on this kit.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown17 October 2012 at 18:34

    It really sounds amazing that you have the chance to experience in the Brett Whiteley education kit. And i am glad that you did something related to the Studio, it must be interesting and full of challenges, and l am sure that you can take everything in order. What you have done actually reminds my own work, i have done a series of research lately. At the very beginning, it seemed so boring to me, but when I calm down and put my heart into it, I finally found that is an amazing job. By the way, I hope you have a good time during the whole internship.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown17 October 2012 at 18:35

    Hey Marisa, great news that you are doing well with your internship + Research Paper right now!
    BTW any tips on working on education booklets/kits? :)
    We are going to look into getting the children edu booklets for art fair.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Marisa van Eijk27 October 2012 at 10:08

      Hi Caren,

      Thanks for your kind words of support. A few tips that I have learnt while creating the past two education kits:

      * Make sure you reference the current Syllabus (NSW Visual Arts Syllabus are available on the Board of Studies website) for whichever age group you are writing it for - know your audience! I'm not sure if you have an education background but it is best to divide any Art History/ Criticism questions into the 3 syllabus content areas - The Frames, The Conceptual Framework and Practice), as well as Artmaking activities.

      * Don't use language that students (teenagers at the oldest) won't understand. If in doubt, dumb it down a little as the teacher can always push the students further. Also you can add a glossary to explain any unfamiliar terms.

      * Be concise in descriptions and choose only a minimal number of specific works from the exhibition to include in the kit. In the Whiteley exhibition we will have 60 works on display and in the ed kit we use 8 (yr 7-12) and 6 (yr k-6) examples of works to discuss and examine in detail. Too many and the students get too confused... they don't deal well with too much choice.

      The best thing to do before starting is to look at how other galleries set out their ed kits. Many have great educational resources online which are available to download. The AGNSW has a great Whiteley one (which I used some info from as our exhibition is in association with them), but also check out NGA, NGV, QAG/GOMA (excellent kids/ adolescent programs), as well as regional galleries like Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Newcastle Art Gallery and the Casula Powerhouse. Also there are some great resources OS, eg the Whitney Museum, The Tate, The Brooklyn Museum, MOMA, the Met.

      I hope this helps. Ps, if you still need help, let me know and I can email you a copy of the ed kits I have written (but i'm sure if you Google exhibitions I have discussed in my blog comments, you can easily work out where I am doing my internship and check out their website) :)

      Good luck!

      Marisa

      Delete
  4. Unknown27 November 2012 at 15:46

    awesome, Marisa! ;)

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)