SHOWCASE N o 3: ARTWORK BY YEAR 7-12 LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

WHY DEDICATE AN ART GALLERY SPACE TO CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE?

One of the first things that Joe Eisenberg did in 2004 as the newly appointed Cultural Director of Maitland Regional Art Gallery was to appoint an Education Co-ordinator to the art gallery staff; in this action he was supported by the prime sponsors of the art gallery, Maitland City Council.

This action speaks volumes: an Education Co-ordinator’s role is to link the community to the art gallery through activities, events, classes and courses that support and extend the gallery exhibition program and engage as much of the gallery audience as possible.

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 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 dream has been realised in a multitude of emerging ways, artists creating for children, children creating for children, teenagers showcasing their emerging view of the world, classes of children looking at and responding to the artworks of others, families, friends and casual visitors being drawn into the worlds of others and deriving pleasure, interest and enjoyment from the experience. As each Art Factory exhibition emerges from ideas, invitations, responses and connections everyone takes stock, everyone learns, everyone responds and the mix is further nourished for future exhibitions and related activities.

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.

by Anne McLaughlin & Michelle Maartensz Learning & Audience Development Curators

ON THE MAKE

ON THE MAKE: A COLLECTION STORY

(above) Judy Cassab, Untitled, 1999, silkscreen on paper, 56 x 76 cm donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Michael Hobbs, 2012 (right) Margaret Woodward, Untitled, 1999, lithograph on paper, 76 x 56 cm donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Michael Hobbs, 2012