Your Public Art Project

Kaldor Public Art Projects and NSW Department of Education present Your Public Art Project

An exciting pilot arts program for schools,Your Public Art Project, will culminate with a showcase of student work on Monday 18 November from 10am – 2pm, at the Art Gallery of NSW.

What is public art? How can it transform our local environment? In 2019, as part of their major 50th anniversary celebrations, Kaldor Public Art Projects invited primary and secondary students from a number of government schools across NSW to reimagine public spaces within their communities.

In this exciting new pilot program, Kaldor Public Art Projects encouraged students to work collaboratively to investigate their environment and develop their own innovative public art work. Five schools across NSW have completed the program, in locations as diverse as Bourke and Wilcannia (western NSW), St Clair and Emu Plains (Western Sydney) and Dulwich Hill (Sydney's inner west).

The 50-year history of Kaldor Public Art Projects served as a starting point for the program. A series of specially designed new video resources, featuring Australian artist David Capra and his much-loved dachshund Teena, provided an introduction to key projects, themes and archival objects from this rich and layered history, enabling students to understand diverse approaches to art-making and imagine new possibilities in the realm of public art.

In addition to digital resources, the Kaldor Public Art Projects education team led a series of face-to-face incursions for each participating school. These incursions extended upon 21st century learning methodologies, placing the 4 C's at the centre of enquiry: collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and communication.

Students have worked collaboratively to complete their projects over Terms 3 and 4. The resulting work reflects the diversity of each school community, spanning a broad range of topics and themes, artistic techniques and materials. In developing their responses to the brief, students have discovered new forms of creative expression, and forged strong connections with their local communities – including local Aboriginal elders and Youth Off the Streets. An outstanding feature of the program has been the willingness of students to direct their own learning, and to voice their concerns about pressing issues, such as climate change, environmental management, the impact of technology and Indigenous connections to country.

Kaldor Public Projects has worked closely with The Arts Unit and Stem.T4L, Information Technology Directorate, at the NSW Department of Education, to ensure that each of these temporary projects was extensively documented. The Department of Education has provided access to quality photographic and video documentation, along with cutting-edge technologies such as 3D photogrammetry models and 360-degree virtual reality. These digital resources will be used to facilitate wider access to the project and peer-to-peer learning opportunities.

Video footage will be available on the NSW Department of Education website as a dynamic and adaptable resource for students. The content is already in use by students from the Robotics Club at Merrylands High School. In an exciting new STEAM initiative, the students are developing an app for Google Play, which transforms the project documentation into a VR experience.

On Monday 18 November, Kaldor Public Art Projects, in partnership with The Arts Unit, will present a student showcase at the Art Gallery of NSW. The event celebrates the culmination of the project, and provides an opportunity for the invited audience to view short documentaries of each school's journey, explore the virtual artworks, and hear directly from students. Students from Bourke Public School, Wilcannia Central School and Dulwich High School of Visual Arts & Design have been invited to present on the day, to reflect on their learning, and to share their experiences with the audience.

The showcase event will include opening and closing remarks by John Kaldor, Director, Kaldor Public Art Projects.

Kaldor Public Art Projects is delighted with the enormous success of this pilot program, and aims to expand upon Your Public Art Project in 2020-21, and will continue to act as a strong advocate for the importance of visual arts education.

Details about each school's Your Public Art Project

BOURKE PUBLIC SCHOOL | Year 5 & 6 (20 students)
The community of Bourke is invested in this project and have come together to create a permanent water feature of 1m x 1m within the school's cultural garden. This is an important place for the school community to reflect and connect with others. The water feature includes signs, symbols and totems relevant to the four Aboriginal community groups that live within the Bourke region: Ngemba, Barkindji, Wangkumara and Murrawari. Students and teachers of Bourke Public School have forged rich partnerships with their community through the project, including the Aboriginal Education Consultative Group, local Indigenous elders, the local Men's Shed and Youth Off the Streets, Bourke.

WILCANNIA CENTRAL SCHOOL | Year 6, Year 7 & Year 8 (25 students)
Students of Wilcannia painted six 2.4m x 1m wooden panels, before installing them onto the Knox and Downs General Store on the Barrier Highway, Wilcannia. The imagery has been informed by students' understanding of rock art and street art. Students have been guided through the process by leading Indigenous artist and elder Badger Bates and Australian artist Justine Muller. Muller and Bates assisted in the creation of a culturally relevant artwork illustrating connection to country, specifically the Baarka (Darling River). The location is of great significance as it is the first thing you encounter when travelling down the Barrier Highway into Wilcannia and is considered a community landmark. Students want the audience to know what it is like to live and walk the streets in Wilcannia and to create a sense of the shared experience through the public artwork.

DULWICH HIGH SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS AND DESIGN | Year 7 (100 students)
Year 7 students of DHSVAD have created their own political party, the eARTh party (the art sits within the earth) out of concern for the environment and the climate change crisis. The public art work included a performative protest march through the annual Dulwich Hill Street Fair on Sunday 15 September, 2019 and concluded with an exhibition of the protest material at the Seaview Gallery. The public engaged by 'voting' in a polling booth and leaving behind a message to be communicated to local politicians and/or shared as part of the artwork. The project has been supported by the school's P&C and the Inner West Council.

NEPEAN CREATIVE & PERFORMING ARTS HIGH SCHOOL | Year 7 & Year 8 (30 students)
Students have created 'invisible men' sculptures of human scale from clear tape. The sculptures draw from feelings of isolation within the city and our global interconnected world and offers a reflection on today's society that moves through life with their heads down, texting and disconnected from humanity.

ST CLAIR HIGH SCHOOL | Year 10 (25 students)
Inspired by past Kaldor Public Art Projects artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude and land artist Andy Goldsworthy, the year 10 students of St Clair High School created a temporary, site-specific work on the school grounds from recycled blue glass tiles. The lines created by the tiles have a strong geometry and have been made intuitively. Through the process of working in an organic way, repetitious and culturally significant shapes and patterns have emerged. The students chose an interesting location at the back of the school, which is safe and quiet. The artwork acts like an oasis, a retreat from the noise of the playground.

This exciting new program would not have been possible without the generous support of our Major Education Partner, Gandel Philanthropy.
Special thanks also to the NSW Department of Education for their enthusiasm and support.