Young Archie' Award

Mrs Kerrie Anderson

Prep Art Coordinator

The ‘Young Archie’ award began in 2013, at the Art Gallery of NSW, in conjunction with the famous Archibald Prize exhibition for adults, which has run since 1921. Children aged five to 18 are eligible to draw or paint a significant Australian who has contributed to their lives and/or society in a positive way. The Archibald Prize is awarded to the best portrait, of a man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, and painted by any artist resident in Australasia. This open competition is judged by the trustees of the Art Gallery of NSW. The prize was first awarded by J.F.Archibald, whose aim was to foster portraiture and perpetuate the memory of great Australians. Over the years some of Australia’s most prominent artists have entered and their subjects have been equally celebrated in their fields. The prize each year is $100,000.

The Year 6 cohort has undertaken a portraiture unit based on a study of human anatomy and the drawings by renaissance artist Leonardo Da Vinci, and contemporary artists such as Ben Quilty.

TSS Prep Art has its own ‘Young Archie Award’, and Year 6 boys this year have drawn Australians whose contributions they greatly value. The TSS Prep Young Archie Award winner for 2019 is Kyle Grassick 6H. The Year 6 cohort has undertaken a portraiture unit based on a study of human anatomy and the drawings by renaissance artist Leonardo Da Vinci, and contemporary artists such as Ben Quilty. Kyle's subject was Eddie Woo.

Eddie Woo (born 1985) is an Australian mathematician, best known for his free YouTube channel "WOO TUBE', that focuses on explanations of perennial mathematical problems. This assists many thousands of students, has over 500,000 subscribers and more than 30 million views worldwide as of December 2018.

In 2018, Woo was the first teacher to ever give the address in NSW. Woo won the Australia’s Local Hero Award at the 2018 Australian of the Year Awards.

In March that same year, Woo was named a Top 10 finalist in the Global Teacher Prize. It is interesting to note that many boys chose to draw their own teachers, such as ‘Mr Hamilton’ by Joshua Greaves in 6H. Joshua said he chose Mr Hamilton because “he is a teacher that I trust”.

“He listens carefully to what each boy says. I love how he manages to spend time with his son each day as well as managing a big class. At times when I’ve had problems, he acts immediately and cares about what boys are doing to achieve their best and not let them fail,” Joshua said.

Parents also rate a distinguished place in the 2019 Young Archie, including a portrait of ‘Rene Cronan Dixon’ by her son Reuben Garnier. Rene is a volunteer/ organiser with RizeUp Australia, a community driven organisation dedicated to supporting families leaving domestic and family violence.

Rene helps drive awareness of domestic and family violence in the media and the community, and provides practical assistance to the families leaving violence behind. Families are given a barren property which volunteers transform into a purposefully created furnished home, specific to each family's individual needs, including such items as food, blankets and urgent funds. Rueben is clearly very proud of his mother’s valuable community service.

The Year 6 portrait exhibition, is currently on display in our new illuminated art exhibition cabinet, kindly donated by the 2018 Friends of Prep.