Program In Focus Young Indigenous Printmakers

2013/14 has seen the addition of a new Creative Classrooms program entitled Young Indigenous Printmakers

Gallery Services, Townsville City Council, in collaboration with Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts initiates and funds the Young Indigenous Printmakers program.

The program seeks to foster and promote artistic development and engage local Indigenous high school students to work with printmaking artists to produce a series of prints for exhibition at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts and The Galleria, Riverway Arts Centre.

Young Indigenous Printmakers is available to all schools in the Townsville region and is offered as an arts and cultural development program for Indigenous students in the senior schooling phase.

The program is initiated with a half-day workshop at the school where students work with Indigenous artist Gail Mabo to explore Aboriginality, identity and lino print design. They are then challenged to create their own lino print design exploring personal identity.

Gail Mabo is the daughter of Eddie Mabo and is a founding member of local printmaking collective Murris in Ink. She has had several solo exhibitions and is also recognised as a successful dancer and choreographer.

Following the workshop with Gail Mabo, students participate in a one-day intensive print workshop at the Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts studio space with Townsville printmakers Jo Lankester and Gail Mabo.

The students carve out their lino design and produce and print an edition of lino prints that will form an exhibition.

Jo Lankester is a master printmaker who is inspired by the natural environment. She is represented in the National Gallery of Australia Print Collection, Artbank, and has works in public and private collections throughout Australia and overseas.

During 2013/2014 this program was delivered to four secondary schools in the Townsville region, resulting in four exhibitions across Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Pinnacles Gallery and Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts.

This program not only promotes opportunities for local Indigenous students and artists, it promotes growing relationships between local arts organisations for a unified presentation of the arts in the Townsville Region, particularly for secondary students.

A selection of student artwork produced during the Young Indigenous Printmakers programs with William Ross State High School, St Patrick’s College, Kirwan State High School and Thuringowa State High School will be exhibited by Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts at the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) from the 24-27 July 2014.

Young Indigenous Printmakers will continue in the 2014/15 financial year with Shalom Christian College and the Townsville Edmund Rice Flexible Learning Centre scheduled for September and October workshops.