Beautiful, bright and artistic: An exhibition of child and student teacher art at the 75th anniversary of the Nursery School Teacher College, Sydney.

Sandra Wong

    Research output: Non-textual outputs, including Creative WorksCreative Works - Curation of Exhibition/Event/Festival

    Abstract

    Beautiful, bright and artistic': An exhibition of child and student teacher art.This exhibition explored a history of teaching art in Australian early childhood (EC) educational settings from the early twentieth century to the contemporary. Drawing on unique archival material from the Nursery School Teachers' College (the first college to train nursery school teachers in Australia), and Sydney Day Nursery Association (now SDN Children Services - the first provider of day nurseries in Australia), the exhibition presented original and digitally copied child and student teacher artworks, art materials, teaching resources and historic film footage, across five 'stations' each exploring a different historical period. Whilst there is a relatively large body of literature examining children's art during the last century (Richards, 2007) this work is primarily theoretical. There is a dearth of work exploring what happens in EC educational settings or of young children's artwork. This exhibition sourced and drew on archival material never previously exhibited to contribute new knowledge. It illustrated how the work of Austrian, Franz Cizek, the Father of Child Art (Viola, 1940), influenced the teaching of art in Australian EC settings from the early 1920s until the 1950s, when Piagetian cognitive developmental theories shifted pedagogies. It also highlighted how the degree to which children should be 'taught' art, or left to 'explore uninhibitedly', was and remains a tension for EC teachers.To the author's knowledge this was the first exhibition of its kind in Australia. It was viewed by approximately 150 people. Designed as a 'travelling' exhibition, sections have been subsequently erected at other SDN Children's Services' functions.
    Original languageEnglish
    Place of PublicationSydney
    PublisherSDN Children's Services
    Publication statusPublished - 2010

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