Wairoa Workshop – Access & Inclusion

Thanks to support from Create NSW, announced during Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2017, we have been able to continue and develop our Access & Inclusion Program. As a result of the support, we are now able to offer workshops led by exhibiting artists about how to make sculptures. This involves offering sculpture making workshops with Sculpture by the Sea artists at schools and community centres. Students at Wairoa School, Bondi recently participated in a sculpture-making workshop with artist Linda Bowden.

Wairoa School provides quality educational programs in a caring environment for 65 students with intellectual and multiple disabilities in the 4-18 years age range drawn from the Eastern and Inner-West area of Sydney.

Designed to engage audiences with disability to experience and enjoy sculpture through discussion and touch, the Education Access & Inclusion program has collaborated with Wairoa School for many years, providing pre-exhibition information that helps prepare students for their visits and Tactile Tours when they visit Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi.

Assistant Principle Penelope Earp explained, “Our excursion to Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi is one of our highlights of the school year and yields many benefits. Students often have another disability from physical to autism to medical, therefore it is not always possible to take my class on excursions as either the location is inappropriate or my students are unable to benefit due to their needs. By being part of the tour the students always, despite their ability, develop their artistic needs and aspirations and I can see their confidence boosted.

“Thanks to the workshops with an artist from Sculpture by the Sea, students can extend their experience of sculpture ‘hands on’ in their school environment. I am amazed at what they produced”.

Linda Bowden has exhibited in 13 Sculpture by the Sea exhibitions to date, and has delivered many exciting art-making workshops as part of the School Education Program during the exhibition.

Bowden will be working with Wairoa students to develop a body of work based on the theme ‘fantastical creatures’. Students will explore and realise their ideas through drawing, soft wire and malleable materials and learn about three-dimensional forms both abstract and figurative.

For more information about the Access & Inclusion Program at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi, during exhibition and out of exhibition please visit: sculpturebythesea.com/bondi/tactile-tours

Or contact the Education Access & Inclusion manager Petra Pattinson: [email protected]