Colour: contemporary art for kids
(15 March − 9 June 2003)

Colour facts
• featured contemporary art from
all areas of the Gallery’s
collection
• aimed to engage children with
colour meanings, cultural
associations, feelings and
optical effects (colour facts)
• designed as a ‘colour house’
–rooms were colour focused
• interactives to experience the
sensory properties of specific
colours

Colour findings
Children:
• showed enjoyment in
interpreting the abstract,
contemporary works
• found the art to be interesting
to look at – especially art that
was strange, scary, familiar,
funny, amazing and/or different
• provided all sorts of interesting
and creative interpretations

Children and contemporary art
What enabled meaningful engagement?
• high attracting and
holding power of the
works
• opportunities for
thinking and discussion:
how was it made?
• hands-on exploration to
discover something Drawing by Aiden, Year 4
new about colour

Lionel BAWDEN – Untitled
Discoveries: familiar object
used in an interesting way:
- Look, they’re pencils!
- That’s mad!
Asking questions:
- How deep would the pencils
be inside?
- How many days would it take
to do?
Commenting and theorising:
- They’re cut and stuck together.
- I think it would take forever to
make.

Insights : contemporary art
- This is art how you feel.
- Different from what you’d see in your house.
- It’s different. You usually think paintings, not
couches with spikes.

Colour findings
Many children reported learning something new as a result of
their experience in the Colour exhibition.
• most common response: how colours feel (temperature)
• colours can be mixed to make new colours
• colours have meaning
The interactives enhanced children’s experiences in Colour.
• teachers stated that interactive components added an important
sensory dimension to the experience

Since Colour …
Children are interested in
all art forms
• interesting textures
• which use technology
(film / computer)
• have an interactive
element (sound / light)
• scale – small / large

Activity books /
child-friendly information
labels
• promotes child-adult
interaction (shared
encounters)
• provide interesting facts
• questions and activities
encourage children to build
connections between their own
lives and the art on display

Artist-child interaction
• mutually beneficial –
learn from each other
• share ideas and provide
inspiration

The Silver Factory:
Andy Warhol for Kids
• engage with processes and
ideas that Andy Warhol was
interested in
• appreciation for HOW and
WHY the artist made the type
of art that he did
• thrill of seeing yourself = the
reaction is immediate
‘15 seconds of fame’

Picasso & his collection