Eleventh International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

This study reports on a Western Australian (WA) collaborative partnership between a university art museum and a local primary school in the metropolitan capital city Perth. The study reports a novel approach with primary school student’s experiential integrated learning about modern art. The project was framed to accord with their school’s adherence to WA Government School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCASA) requirements for Visual Arts and English for years four, five, and six and to occur within the authentic context of a nationally recognised art museum. Moreover, the project advances Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC). The convention gives expression to the rights of children to have agency in the design and delivery of the project and to have their opinions expressed and be given due and equitable weight in the arts in a public context. The project facilitated and provided for development of skills and confidence and opportunities for diverse expression by the students. The UNCRC policy was publicly endorsed in a culminating event scheduled as part of the formal public program of the art museum within the university’s annual Research Week. Some students’ personal responses in the form of poetry or prose to selected artworks were displayed as extended authentically produced wall labels, with others providing brief descriptive oral presentations or displaying their own folio drawings of the artworks to an audience. These presentations, in content and form, also complied with the outcomes sought in the SCASA requirements.