Universal language of child art at Boorai

A
n innovative children’s art gallery based at the University of Melbourne’s Early Learning Centre in Abbotsford (part of the Melbourne Graduate School of Education) aims to put the child’s voice right out front, and validate the unique perspective of a child’s view of the world.

According to Jan Deans, the Early Learning Centre’s Director and founder of Boorai: The Children’s Art Gallery, the gallery presents exhibitions and related seminars that challenge audiences to recognise and value personal and socio-cultural comments expressed by children through their art and language.

Boorai is the word for ‘baby’ or ‘child’ in the Wurundjeri language of the local Indigenous people and many of the exhibitions use Indigenous themes or propositions for art-making.

The exhibition Sky Dreaming explores the concept of wonder with the theme: ‘Everybody under the same sky – the observation and study of the vault of heaven represents a natural basis for meeting and dialogue between peoples’.

While that may seem quite a sophisticated proposition for pre-school children to be working with, the exhibition showcases the children’s study of and responses to the Indigenous Dreamtime stories ‘Boomerang Moon’ and ‘Sun Woman’ with remarkable results, including beautiful works such as ‘Hot Sun’ and ‘Galaxy’.

“Child art as a ‘universal language’ provides important insights into the ideas, skills and life experiences significant to young children,” explains Jan Deans.

“The artist and educator Franz Cizek organised one of the first child art exhibitions ever staged in 1908 in London and this event drew attention to the fact that children are not just small or immature adults, they are individuals with their own personalities and their own way of expressing themselves.

“That exhibition helped educators for the first time to realise that children are not mere imitators, but are creators themselves,” she says. “Boorai is an initiative that further acknowledges the significance of children’s art as skilful, intelligent and insightful.”

Since its inception in 1999, Boorai has presented many exhibitions, all of which have made powerful comments on issues that directly relate to the lives of young children, informed by study areas such as Antarctica, drought, ecology and forests, poetry, music and colour, dance, the future, spirituality, and similarity and difference. Last year was particularly busy for Boorai with 11 exhibitions launched locally, nationally and internationally.

Antarctica –The Land of Icy Secrets was a collaborative project with the Antarctica Education Division presented at Parliament House in Canberra and opened by Federal Minister Peter Garrett, while Art for Children by Children was presented at the Children’s Court of Victoria and opened by Judge Paul Grant. It offered children the chance to offer support to other children during difficult times.

Exhibitions have also incorporated children’s art from diverse national and international communities including China, USA, UK, Italy, Singapore and Japan.

“Children’s art is highly personal yet strongly influenced by socio-cultural contexts,” says Jan Deans.

“Boorai has brought together diverse groups of people linked by a shared belief in the power of art to communicate the nature of lived experience. Through their drawings, painting and models young children have presented their ideas fully and directly to adults.

“Their expressive communications, supported by extensive documentation, enable teachers, parents and researchers to gain further understanding of the ideas, beliefs and abilities of young children, and to see them as active participants helping to shape our culture.

“Boorai is really an exciting vision, inspired by the natural creativity of children and a commitment to inter-cultural collaboration, made possible by the expertise of teachers, artists, families, and researchers who share a belief in the capacity of all young children to enjoy, invent and learn through art.”

View current and former Boorai: The Children’s Art Gallery exhibitions online at:
http://www.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/eldi/elc/boorai/
Visits to the Gallery are by appointment only; contact info at:
www.education.unimelb.edu.au/eldi/elc