By JESSE GRAHAM
HEALESVILLE Primary School students will be stars for the day, taking part in an exhibition opening next week at the National Gallery of Victoria.
NGV representatives came out to the school on Friday 11 September for a two-hour workshop, with students to come up with pieces to be displayed when the gallery’s new exhibition opens for a preview next Friday.
The exhibition, Our Land is Alive, Hermannsburg Potters for Kids, features pots from Northern Territory Indigenous art collective, The Hermannsburg Potters.
The Hermannsburg Potters’ terracotta pots will be on display, painted with historic AFL moments featuring Indigenous players, past and present – from Adam Goodes and Lewis Jetta to Michael Long and Syd Jackson.
NGV’s children and youth programs officer Brittany Wilkins said the gallery approached the school to have students decorate Hermannsburg-inspired pots with their own drawings of AFL players.
The 24 students all worked to plan their decorations, drawing football players and scenes onto paper before transcribing them onto the pots.
These pots will then be at the gallery next Friday, where the students will meet media representatives and dignitaries, as well as getting one of the first public looks at The Hermannsburg Potters’ works.
Ms Wilkins said that, as part of the exhibition, children would be able to decorate their own pots – and Healesville Primary School’s pots will be there to guide them.
“These kids are going to be creating one that’s going on display, to inspire people who come to the show,” she said.
Teacher Fenna Hogg said that students with an interest in art and football were chosen for the group, and that students from Grades 3 to 6 were chosen.
“It’s great because this exhibition is about Indigenous potters and we do a lot of cultural awareness at school, and inclusiveness, and we’ve got Koori kids at our school,” she said.
“In this group, here, we’ve got three kids who are Koori and … this is really empowering for them, and it’s exciting.”
The exhibition officially opens from 19 September and will run until April next year.
For more information, visit the NGV website or call 8620 2222.
