Ongoing workshops with Chilean designers from Walka Studio. Thornbury Primary School

This week began the beginning of a two week series of wor

kshops with South Kids at ArtPlay. Designers from Walka studios, Claudia and Ricardo will be working with three schools, together they will create a collection of jewellery and accessories. The work will be made from recycle materials and collected bits and pieces of interest to

 the kids. We will be posting an on going photo collection of the workshops so that each of the schools involved can view each others work in progress. Lots of fun and certainly a different

 way to make jewellery pieces.

The young designers will return next week to extend their collection range, the workshops will finish with an exhibition of their works.

Mexican artist visits Thornbury Primary School

Visiting Mexican artist in residence, Fernando Palma , Heide Museum of Modern Art and South Kids partnered together to workshop with the grades 5/6 at Thornbury Primary School. Great masks were made, the theme for the masks was based on "The Coyote", a native animal in Mexico, many stories and myths surround this mysterious creature.

Fernando tells stories about his life in a small village, and discusses how the land is becoming littered with rubbish as a result of uncaring people

now inhabiting the areas where he grew up. Fernando will exhibit later this year at Heide Gallery,Thornbury Primary School will showcase the masks made at their annual Art exhibition.

Fernando Palma’s residency is an Arts Council England and Stour Valley Arts Fellowship at Heide Museum of Modern Art

The Chilean Giant Necklace

South Kids visits Coburg Primary School.

Kids from grades one and prep  had great fun with two dynamic  jewellery, designer-makers from Walka Studios, Chile.  The kids at Coburg Primary made a huge necklace together, as part of their international program week.  The necklace was worn by the entire class, each link was looped on by each individual child.  Claudia Betancourt and Ricardo Pulgar talked to the kids about their country of  Chile and showed the kids some of their designs that were inspired by living in Melbourne. The works were part of an exhibition at Craft Victoria in March of 2008. Both artists will be staying  in Melbourne until August and will workshop with  South Kids at ArtPlay in early June. 

Rajasthan Potters at ArtPlay

  
 In Partnership with ArtPlay, South Kids have been invited to be part of the Rajasthan potters residency from 11 - 25 February. South Kids will be the first to begin working with the pot

ters with workshops on Tuesday 12th and Wednesday 13th February. The potters, Giri Raj Prasad and Manori Lal, will demonstrate traditional Rajasthani pottery techniques and will go on to build a small homemade kiln with which to fire the pots made by the children during the workshops.

The pots will be thrown on traditional wheels and the children will be shown some examples of traditional Indian designs and motifs which the children may like to use.

There will also be an opportunity for the south kids to view a short video set in their New Delhi studio which will demonstrate traditional processing including throwing, loading, firing, and unpacking the kiln.

The Emu has landed!

Su-su arrived in downtown Soweto, he had an enjoyable flight over and in case he got lost, he was lucky enough to have sat next to a South Project Staff member all the way. If you look closely you will be able to find Su-su in the photograph with the South Kids at Mbuyisa Makhubu (new name for Belle Primary School). He arrived a few days before the workshop to check out the lay of the land. He tells us that the kids were very excited about Sara Thorn arriving and that they were in the process of preparing a special welcoming ceremony. He also brought with him the wonderful collection of drawings and sculptures completed by the South Kids in Australia to present to the school kids of Mbuyisa Makhubu.

The first international South Kids workshop was a great success and loads of fun was enjoyed by all, the numbers of students increased from 25 to 60 as everyone wanted to join in the workshop. Sara really enjoyed herself; all the children loved working with her. Some of the younger children dressed into traditional Zulu costumes to perform some interesting dance moves and singing. It seems that dance and song is a natural part of their everyday life.
There will be more details about what the kids created in the next Blog as we are waiting for Sara to return so that she can fill us in on how they responded to the Australian work and how they utilized the materials at hand.

Work shopping with Sara Thorn.

The staff at The South Project wish all of the South Kids a Happy Christmas and Happy New Year for 2008. We hope that you have a great holiday break and look forward to our South Kids program next year.

Artwork designed by Rebecca Jobson