DEEP thinking by Ipswich school students has added another dimension to the city’s prestigious art gallery.
On Saturday, the show “Junior Curators: Mysterious Realms” opened to an appreciative and curious public.
Just as the name implies, this colourful, interesting and insightful show was curated by eight to 14-year-old students, under the guidance of Ipswich Gallery staff and external Australian museum professionals.
Project leads Alison MacKay and Sebastian Moody worked with the students as they curated artworks to reflect the themes of: Cottage Core, Crazy Rainbow Fish, Magical Mystical Forest, Mythical Creatures, A World Like Yours, and Glitch.
The show commences with a walk-through area and presents a view of the student’s experience via a video showing youth working and reflecting on the project.
One student noted how art could make you feel safe and give you a place to express yourself. Another talked about the teamwork involved in putting it together, while one student commented on how thinking about reasons people would come and enjoy the show interested her.
To undertake the project, 14 students, Abigail, Aira, Arabella, Charlotte, Eva, Henry, Holly, Isabella, Isobel, Kayden Khaleesi, Monroe, Peregrine and William, worked through a series of workshops over a six-month period. With supervision, the youthful learners set about discovering the gallery’s collection, developing themes and their narratives, and finally curating the show.
This lively and elegant show met the gallery’s goal of creating lifelong relationships between people and art from an early age.
The gallery has had some public attention recently given questions raised over a donation a few years ago of a D’Arcy Doyle painting, which is not currently on display.
A request to discuss the painting and the exhibition more generally with the gallery’s director was not met by the council, which stated policy reasons, but in a statement, a council representative said that the primary goal of accepting the painting and other works by Doyle was to “ensure their inclusion in Ipswich’s collection for preservation and enjoyment by future generations”.
The council has thousands of works and other items of significance, which cannot all be on permanent exhibition.
The donor of the works in question, Peter McMahon, confirmed that he had no expectation that his donations would be continuously displayed, although he suggested that the council might consider a broader exhibition of items it had in its collection at some point.
The council’s representative said, “Mysterious Realms is the largest exhibition of collection works the Art Gallery has ever shown. For residents interested in experiencing their local art collection, we would encourage them to visit the exhibition.
“This showcase not only celebrates the diversity of our collection but also offers a unique insight into the artistic vision of our community’s youth.”
