Jane Sillis, the director of engage – a membership organisation representing gallery and visual art professionals – was at the forefront of organising a touring exhibition featuring the artwork of children and young people.
Generation Art: Young Artists on Tour opened alongside Grayson Perry’s Provincial Punk exhibition at the Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate on 2 June.
The exhibition features 41 artworks selected from more than 200 aspiring artists, including paintings, ceramics, film and photography.
Generation Art will tour to New Walk Museum and Art Gallery and Soft Touch Arts, both in Leicester, and Quay Arts in the Isle of Wight.
What was the rationale behind Generation Art: Young Artists On Tour?
This exhibition celebrates young artists and their potential to create astonishing artworks and grew from discussions with colleagues in the arts and education sector, in particular a conversation with members of the art and design Expert Subject Advisory Group (ESAG), which highlighted the need for teachers and parents to see examples of excellent artwork by young artists in order to raise the aspirations of children and young people.
Alongside this was a desire to show the work of young artists next to that of established artists in order to demonstrate the continuum from children and young people creating art to working as a professional artist.
How has the project been designed to cater for children and teenagers?
We were eager that Generation Art involved children and young people at every step of the project, chiefly as artists who submitted their own work for the exhibition.
Young people were also involved in curating the exhibition, and will play a key role as ambassadors and promoters of Generation Art, particularly with new audiences at each of the venues involved.
Why was the decision taken to launch Generation Art at the Turner Contemporary alongside Grayson Perry’s Provincial Punk?
The Turner Contemporary was keen to show the exhibition during a period that embraces the school term and summer holidays, a busy period for the gallery. Generation Art’s time at the gallery also coincides with engage’s Children’s Art Week, running from 13-21 June. This is an annual UK-wide event that celebrates children and young people engaging with artists and art.
Provincial Punk is drawing big audiences to the gallery, and Perry’s work will serve as inspiration for an artist who, as part of Generation Art, will be commissioned to work with a group of young people from a neighbouring youth centre. The artwork they create together will be shown at the Turner Contemporary alongside the Generation Art exhibition.
How does Generation Art increase social inclusion and forge stronger links between museums and schools?
The ideas behind Generation Art are central to the concerns that engage has. Our mission is to enable access to art and artists to a wide community of participants, and seek to support learning and education staff at galleries and museums to deliver high quality activities by sharing best practice, research, professional development and leadership.
engage also raises awareness of the importance of visual arts education among politicians and funders.
Generation Art is being shown at venues located in areas that are seen as having low cultural engagement, or where there has been a scarcity of high-quality touring exhibitions. In order to engage new visitors at these venues, the Audience Agency is working with the project partners and supporting them to create audience development programmes that are tailor-made for each venue.
Audiences for Generation ART are expected to include schools, colleges, youth and community organisations as well as families, children and young people visiting independently.
The digital resource, which will be launched later this year, will document the work submitted through open submission to Generation Art and will be of use to artists, teachers, education colleagues in cultural organisations, children and young people. It is hoped that the resource will inspire schools, youth and community groups to work with artists and cultural organisations including museums and galleries.
How does the project help museums bring in new audiences?
Customised programmes for new audiences will be offered by each venue showing Generation Art. Training and mentoring provided by the Audience Agency will support venues and partners to develop, implement and evaluate audience development plans, while sharing of data will enable partners to reflect on how effective Generation Art has been in building sustainable relationships with new audiences.
Learning from Generation Art will be shared with colleagues in the cultural and education sectors through events organised by engage with the Contemporary Visual Arts Network, Artswork and the Mighty Creatives.
Generation Art: Young Artists on Tour opened alongside Grayson Perry’s Provincial Punk exhibition at the Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate on 2 June.
The exhibition features 41 artworks selected from more than 200 aspiring artists, including paintings, ceramics, film and photography.
Generation Art will tour to New Walk Museum and Art Gallery and Soft Touch Arts, both in Leicester, and Quay Arts in the Isle of Wight.
What was the rationale behind Generation Art: Young Artists On Tour?
This exhibition celebrates young artists and their potential to create astonishing artworks and grew from discussions with colleagues in the arts and education sector, in particular a conversation with members of the art and design Expert Subject Advisory Group (ESAG), which highlighted the need for teachers and parents to see examples of excellent artwork by young artists in order to raise the aspirations of children and young people.
Alongside this was a desire to show the work of young artists next to that of established artists in order to demonstrate the continuum from children and young people creating art to working as a professional artist.
How has the project been designed to cater for children and teenagers?
We were eager that Generation Art involved children and young people at every step of the project, chiefly as artists who submitted their own work for the exhibition.
Young people were also involved in curating the exhibition, and will play a key role as ambassadors and promoters of Generation Art, particularly with new audiences at each of the venues involved.
Why was the decision taken to launch Generation Art at the Turner Contemporary alongside Grayson Perry’s Provincial Punk?
The Turner Contemporary was keen to show the exhibition during a period that embraces the school term and summer holidays, a busy period for the gallery. Generation Art’s time at the gallery also coincides with engage’s Children’s Art Week, running from 13-21 June. This is an annual UK-wide event that celebrates children and young people engaging with artists and art.
Provincial Punk is drawing big audiences to the gallery, and Perry’s work will serve as inspiration for an artist who, as part of Generation Art, will be commissioned to work with a group of young people from a neighbouring youth centre. The artwork they create together will be shown at the Turner Contemporary alongside the Generation Art exhibition.
How does Generation Art increase social inclusion and forge stronger links between museums and schools?
The ideas behind Generation Art are central to the concerns that engage has. Our mission is to enable access to art and artists to a wide community of participants, and seek to support learning and education staff at galleries and museums to deliver high quality activities by sharing best practice, research, professional development and leadership.
engage also raises awareness of the importance of visual arts education among politicians and funders.
Generation Art is being shown at venues located in areas that are seen as having low cultural engagement, or where there has been a scarcity of high-quality touring exhibitions. In order to engage new visitors at these venues, the Audience Agency is working with the project partners and supporting them to create audience development programmes that are tailor-made for each venue.
Audiences for Generation ART are expected to include schools, colleges, youth and community organisations as well as families, children and young people visiting independently.
The digital resource, which will be launched later this year, will document the work submitted through open submission to Generation Art and will be of use to artists, teachers, education colleagues in cultural organisations, children and young people. It is hoped that the resource will inspire schools, youth and community groups to work with artists and cultural organisations including museums and galleries.
How does the project help museums bring in new audiences?
Customised programmes for new audiences will be offered by each venue showing Generation Art. Training and mentoring provided by the Audience Agency will support venues and partners to develop, implement and evaluate audience development plans, while sharing of data will enable partners to reflect on how effective Generation Art has been in building sustainable relationships with new audiences.
Learning from Generation Art will be shared with colleagues in the cultural and education sectors through events organised by engage with the Contemporary Visual Arts Network, Artswork and the Mighty Creatives.
