Hall Orchard Primary School at The Generator gallery,
Summer 2002
Workshop by Paul Gent

I met teacher Rose Birdsall and her class of about 25-30 children having their picnic in Queens park before going to the Artspace exhibition. (A custom started last year and hopefully for years to come) When arriving to the Generator Gallery the first thing the children notice is the size of the space and the knowledge that they could be free to run around. (It wouldn't be so much fun to be restricted in a cramped space)

The first thing the children did was to run around the many different artworks, with the encouragement to look closely at the works, and choose the ones that they liked best and would like to base their own work from.

The most popular work were the 3d pieces, like nita rao's towers, but I was happy that some individuals were attracted to the abstract pieces also, such as Barry Miles oil paintings.

Some wonderful interpretations of the artspace exhibition were produced, but most importantly the children were able to experiance such a wide range of original artwok in an enjoyable atmosphere.