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Showcase No3
WHY DEDICATE AN ART GALLERY SPACE TO CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE?
One of the first things that Joe Eisenberg did in
dream has been realised in a multitude of emerging
2004 as the newly appointed Cultural Director of
ways, artists creating for children, children creating
Maitland Regional Art Gallery was to appoint an
for children, teenagers showcasing their emerging
Education Co-ordinator to the art gallery staff; in
view of the world, classes of children looking at
this action he was supported by the prime sponsors
and responding to the artworks of others, families,
of the art gallery, Maitland City Council.
friends and casual visitors being drawn into the worlds of others and deriving pleasure, interest
This action speaks volumes: an Education
and enjoyment from the experience. As each Art
Co-ordinator’s role is to link the community to
Factory exhibition emerges from ideas, invitations,
the art gallery through activities, events, classes
responses and connections everyone takes stock,
and courses that support and extend the gallery
everyone learns, everyone responds and the mix
exhibition program and engage as much of the
is further nourished for future exhibitions and
gallery audience as possible.
related activities.
Many of these activities under the umbrella of Education focus on engaging the young, giving them opportunities to play, to have fun, to create and exhibit in the gallery setting and hopefully to feel that the art gallery is one of their places, a place that becomes familiar, a place to keep visiting as times goes by. To have an actual space dedicated to children and young people within the art gallery was a tangible manifestation of this aim and an idea championed by Joe. The opportunity for this dream to be realised came about when plans for the new extended gallery on the site of the original Maitland Technical College were drawn up to include the Art Factory with Joe securing the support of the Thyne Reid Foundation for
Today you can see Showcase No3 in the Art Factory; a collection of artworks made by a range of students from Year 7 – Year 12 in their school art rooms across the Maitland region over recent months. Showcase is about moving artworks out of the classroom and into public view here at MRAG, it is about giving these artists, other young artists and gallery visitors the chance to see what is happening right now as these artists explore their world and find expressive ways to show us their ideas, their thoughts and sometimes their dreams. The Art Factory artists and all those who enjoy the Art Factory exhibitions and activities - past, present and future - thank Joe Eisenberg for this wonderful and enduring legacy.
this innovation. And so the Art Factory came about: two floors of real space for the young and not-so-young to exhibit, play and create in was opened along with the other new and re-furbished spaces of Maitland Regional Art Gallery in 2009. And since then the
by Anne McLaughlin & Michelle Maartensz Learning & Audience Development Curators
