APT10 KIDS ON TOUR COMES TO COOKTOWN

Families and children in Cooktown can experience a range of exciting free hands-on art-making activities when the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) presents APT10 Kids on Tour at Nature's Powerhouse on the 11, 12 and 14 of April. 

QAGOMA Director Chris Saines said APT10 Kids on Tour would connect young visitors and their families with ideas and cultures from across Australia, Asia and the Pacific through a diverse range of activities celebrating community, diversity and mindful contemplation.

‘Since 1998, QAGOMA has collaborated with more than 290 Australian and international contemporary artists to produce engaging interactive projects, activities and publications for children and families,’ Mr Saines said.

‘As we present the expansive tenth edition of the Gallery’s flagship exhibition, the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, in Brisbane all through summer, APT10 Kids on Tour is a free program that reaches our youngest audiences in regional and remote centres across the state.’

SESSION INFORMATION:

APT10 Kids on Tour includes activities developed in collaboration with artists Shannon Novak (Aotearoa New Zealand), Phuong Ngo (Australia), Syagini Ratna Wulan (Indonesia), Jamilah Haji (Thailand), Gidree Bawlee Foundation of Arts (Bangladesh) and Vipoo Srivilasa (Thailand / Australia).

Phuong Ngo’s collage activity Pattern Exchange 2021 is informed by the artist’s interest in the colonial history of cement tiles in Vietnam and invites children to create their own geometric tile design using patterned coloured paper, scissors and glue, while Shannon Novak’s Make Visible: Celebrate You 2021 is a digital interactive that asks kids to design a flag to represent their identity and what makes them happy.  

Syagini Ratna Wulan’s activity Atom 2021 invites children to add colour and pattern to a variety of mandala forms often used in spiritual and religious practices, and Vipoo Srivilasa’s Garden of Love 2021 encourages participants to draw a portrait or write a message to the person they miss the most and is accompanied by Dok Rak, the animated APT10 Kids ‘flower bear’ mascot, and friends.

Developed in collaboration with the Gidree Bawlee Foundation of Arts in Bangladesh, Where Stortles Roam 2021 invites children to use paper templates to make a puppet of an imaginary animal inspired by the Bengali poet Sukumar Roy’s ‘Khichuri (Stew Much)’. In Jamilah Haji’s drawing activity Happiness and Desire 2021, children of all abilities can think about what makes them happy and what they wish for.

APT10 Kids on Tour also includes Mudam.gi: Uramat Fire Drawings 2021, a display of children’s drawings exploring the theme of fire by children from the Uramat Clan in Gualim, Papua New Guinea, and Noosa and Stanthorpe in Queensland — all of whom live in communities that have been affected by fire in different ways.

QAGOMA gratefully acknowledges the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation’s generous support of APT10 Kids on Tour.

 Image credits above (left to right):

1. Syagini Ratna Wulan activity trial for Atom 2021 / Commissioned for APT10 Kids with support from the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation / Photograph: Chloë Callistemon, QAGOMA.
2. Gidree Bawlee Foundation of Arts activity trial for Where Stortles Roam 2021 / Bangladesh 2021 / Commissioned for APT10 Kids with support from the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation / Image courtesy: Salma Jamal Moushum
3. Phuong Ngo / Australia b.1983 / Pattern Exchange 2021 / Commissioned for APT10 Kids with support from the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation / © The artist / Photograph: Chloë Callistemon, QAGOMA
4. Phuong Ngo / Australia b.1983 / Pattern Exchange 2021 / Commissioned for APT10 Kids with support from the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation / © The artist / Photograph: Chloë Callistemon, QAGOMA