Resources and Activities

This lesson plan and activity focuses on how artists use the natural environment to develop artworks. The printable resource below supports the delivery of the Visual Arts Years 7–10 Syllabus Board of Studies NSW outcomes. Teachers can decide how much time and weight is given to each task.

DOWNLOAD LESSON PLAN(PDF, 997KB)

One foot on the ground, one foot in the water, is a La Trobe Art Institute exhibition touring with NETS Victoria, curated by Travis Curtin. It features the artists Catherine Bell, Timothy Cook, French & Mottershead, Mabel Juli,  Richard Lewer, Sara Morawetz, Michael Needham, Nell, Patrick Freddy Puruntatameri and Nawurapu Wunuŋmurra.

Each artist provides a highly unique, engaging, and sensitive approach towards our shared mortal condition, exemplifying the way art can help us learn to better live with death. 

The exhibition seeks to encourage a range of conversations that normalise experiences of dying and death, providing insight into the ways the living hold on to and let go of the dead, as a person’s physical presence transitions into a memory, and we are left with objects that carry the residue of their being. 

This Learning Guide is aimed at supporting students and teachers to engage in discussions and activities before, during and after a visit to the One foot on the ground, one foot in the water exhibition. It can be used in conjunction with the One foot on the ground, one foot in the water exhibition catalogue, gallery wall texts and information provided on the NETS Victoria website.

DOWNLOAD LEARNING GUIDE(PDF, 16MB)

This resource provides information and activities designed to assist teachers in developing student engagement with the JamFactory Icon 2021 Kunmanara Carroll: Ngaylu Nyanganyi Ngura Winki (I Can See All Those Places) exhibition. Activities are tailored toward secondary students in the middle years age bracket (Years 7-10), however, teachers are encouraged to adapt all content to suit the age and needs of their specific student group. Some suggestions for modification and extension have been provided.

DOWNLOAD EDUCATION RESOURCE(PDF, 20MB)

Lore & Order explores the intricate and abstruse history between Aboriginal people, Christian missionaries and colonial lawmakers. 

The exhibition’s genesis came from the Aboriginal Reference Group (ARG) wishing to explore the history of a local and unique partnership. The Reverend Lancelot Threlkeld and Aboriginal leader Birabahn met at a time of critical importance to the survival of Aboriginal people; the early phase of colonial Lake Macquarie. Facing ongoing atrocities on men, women and children, their collaboration brought a measure of safeguard and validity to the local Awabakal people.

During 15 years of connection, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery and the ARG have examined many narratives of white contact in Lake Macquarie and the effects on Aboriginal people.

DOWNLOAD EDUCATION RESOURCE(PDF, 1MB)

The exhibition’s curator, Lisa Corsi, has chosen a pivotal year in Australia’s history – 1988. Corsi has gathered work by particular artists practicing at the time, to create her own personal narrative about this period as well as an overview of the cultural world of the late 1980s. Artworks in her selection include iconic imagery already known via textbooks and classrooms, experimental and challenging works, and retrospective works reflecting upon personal and cultural values of the time. 

The exhibition also explores an often-overlooked area of the artist-artwork-audience relationship – the role of the private collector. Collectors and artists have provided statements that allow insights into what draws individuals to collect particular artworks and acknowledge the considerable contribution made by private collectors as patrons in the artworld.

Collective Identity(IeS): This Is That Time offers a range of educational opportunities for Stage 5 and 6 Visual Arts students. As the title suggests, the notion of identity is explored in a variety of representations, providing a sound starting point and support for case studies and explorations of this theme. Both personal and social identities are addressed – artworks investigating race, place, ethnicity, heritage, events, gender and class are part of the collection. Students have a broad range of conceptual and material practices to draw on in the exhibition and further research using the links provided will allow them to develop more in-depth studies of individual artists.

DOWNLOAD EDUCATION RESOURCE(PDF, 2MB)

War is a complex, fraught and emotional subject. Beyond the immediate devastation any warfare wreaks are the insidious and far-reaching ramifications of its aftermath. It affects all of us at some time, in some way. Many Australians are reflecting on war and its legacy, but for the First Peoples the time for honest reflection is long overdue. Since the frontier violence that characterised the colonisation of their lands, Aboriginal people have lived with conflict as a feature of daily life. Their diverse cultures have been conditioned by ongoing social and political struggle. 

In consultation with the Aboriginal Reference Group at Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, we conceived (in)visible: the First Peoples and War to prioritise the perspectives of Aboriginal men and women, and to confront the deeper cultural, political and social issues they have dealt with around conflict situations from the frontier to the front. 

DOWNLOAD EDUCATION KIT(PDF, 589KB)

Guan Wei is a Chinese Australian artist who was born in Beijing in 1957.  His works are informed by his personal journey between China and Australia. His first trip to Australia was for an artist residency at the Tasmania School of Art, Hobart in 1989. Guan Wei could see the way China was changing, giving people limited political and personal freedoms, and so made Australia his home in 1990.

The beauty of the natural environment in Australia, especially the blue ocean and the colourful plants and animals, was a source of great joy for Guan Wei and became an essential part of the motifs in his work.

DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY(PDF, 999KB)

Anne Zahalka is one of Australia’s best-known photomedia artists. She comes from an immigrant background, with Jewish Viennese and Catholic Czech heritage. Growing up in Australia at a time when immigration was increasing and Australians were becoming more aware of diverse cultural groups has greatly influenced her work, in particular with themes that reflect on multiculturalism, identity and the nature of representation.

DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY(PDF, 531KB)

Janet Laurence has forged a long and distinguished international career as one of Australia’s most thought-provoking and prolific artists. Although initially trained in painting, her interests have taken her into photography,  sculpture, site-specific permanent sculpture, installation, architecture and film.  Early studies in Sydney, Australia; Perugia, Italy; and New York City, USA led to both Rockefeller (1997), and Churchill Fellowships (2006). 

Janet Laurence’s artworks appear in both public and private collections throughout the world. Locally, she has major public artworks installed: in Sydney at the Museum of Sydney, the Central Synagogue, the Sydney 2000 Olympic site, and the Domain; in Melbourne, at the CH2 Building; and in Canberra at the Australian War Memorial and various government buildings, to name but a few. 

Internationally, public commissions feature in Changi Airport, Thailand; the Olympic Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland; Hyde Park, London, England; and the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial site, Japan.

DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY(PDF, 545KB)

Quilty’s works are unique and instantly recognisable. His passionate and thoughtful approach to his subjects demonstrates his commitment to the idea art can reflect, suggest, provoke and lead social change. His is not the art of complacency; rather it demands a reaction from audiences and thrives on the opportunity to confront and engage the viewer.

DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY(PDF, 558KB)

As a descendant of both Aboriginal and European people, Judy Watson brings a personal awareness of culture, history and place to her practice. Watson spent time with both sides of her family growing up and in the early 1990s she investigated her matrilineal Aboriginal history more deeply, by travelling out with family to their Country, listening to their stories, being shown bush foods and important sites, ‘learning from the ground up’. This cultural and family connection informs her practice.

Her training in art colleges in Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria has built an awareness of Western historical and contemporary art, which also informs her practice. 

Watson has developed an extensive career in the visual arts, with her material practice encompassing printmaking, painting, drawing, artist’s books, sculpture, video and installation.

DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY(PDF, 836KB)

With a career spanning four decades, Fiona Hall is one of Australia’s most celebrated and innovative contemporary artists. She came to prominence as a photographer in the 1970s, and in the 1980s extended her creative practice to embrace a diverse range of art forms including sculpture, painting, installation, garden design, and video. Since the 1990s, Hall has adopted new creative forms and directed her attention to making sense of modern life.

In part, Hall’s art echoes the workings of the natural world and the processes of adaptation and interaction. Humans are drawn into the equally supportive and competitive relationships between species – insects, plants, marine organisms. Hall addresses the relationships between nature and culture by transforming everyday materials and objects into complex artworks. In doing so, she reminds us that we are all intertwined within the complex and fragile web of the natural world. 

DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY(PDF, 6MB)