One of the tamariki from Nature Kids enjoying the recreation they made in the sandpit after seeing artist Kalisolaite ‘Uhila's work.
One of the tamariki from Nature Kids enjoying the recreation they made in the sandpit after seeing artist Kalisolaite ‘Uhila's work.
Opinion by Tom Kitchin
OPINION
Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga Hastings Art Gallery kairuruku whakatairanga marketing co-ordinator Tom Kitchin talks to an early childhood centre about recreating local artists’ work.
Here at Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga, there was a lot of excitement and amazement around the office when we heard children at an early childhood centre had recreated one of our exhibitions.
You may have been to see Kelekele Mo’ui (Living Soil), the installation by Kalisolaite ‘Uhila we exhibited from early May to late August.
Early childhood education centre Nature Kids brought around 30 of its children to visit the exhibition.
Laura Abraham is the team leader at the centre’s Rata room. “We are called Nature Kids because we thrive on the environment and what it has to offer,” she said.
“We’ve got a beautiful outside space. We learn a lot about Papatūānuku and the environment. We grow our own fruit and veg, we teach the tamariki how to really take care of it.”
‘Uhila’s exhibition in Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga’s Holt Gallery. Photo / Thomas Teutenberg
Nature Kids has worked with the gallery before. Earlier this year, it started to focus its teaching on Pacific Island culture, so it contacted the gallery’s education team.
Luckily, it was around the time of ‘Uhila’s exhibition, so they organised a visit. “The children were just automatically drawn to this pile of dirt,” Abraham said.
“We obviously spend a lot of time in our sandpit, and they love making big mountains of sand. So it sparked a lot of questions from the children. We put up a lot of photos after we had visited the art gallery on our wall with the artist amongst the dirt, and that sparked so many questions – is he alive? Is he dead?”
The children were then inspired to recreate the installation.
The Nature Kids’ recreation of Kelekele Mo‘ui (Living Soil).
One of the centre’s, teachers brought in a plastic chair and put it in the sandpit, and the children started getting to work on their recreation.
“They spent pretty much all day revisiting it and adding to it,” Abraham said. “Some children just like to climb up and sit on the seat and some would cover each other while sitting on the seat as well.”
The early childhood educator described the gallery visit as “probably one of the best trips we’ve done”.
“I feel like it was the most heartfelt one. The children got a lot out of it. The children were also well-behaved, like they knew not to run around. It sets a calm space.”
The gallery’s audience and learning assistant, Frances Martin, worked closely with Nature Kids to organise the visit and led some of the classes when they came along.
She describes the children’s reaction to ‘Uhila’s work as “one of awe”.
“I think that a pile of dirt is something that children can relate to because they’ve all played in a sandpit or played in the dirt, and they know what dirt is.
“If a 2-year-old sees a painting at an art gallery, that might be outside of their realm of understanding, but a pile of dirt is something that they understand because they’ve played in it, then they want to engage in it because it’s something they’re comfortable and familiar with.
“It’s this thing that adults can’t necessarily make sense of, but kids get it.”
The gallery’s audience and learning manager, Elham Salari, also led some of the visits.
“As soon as I spoke to the children, they immediately got it – I didn’t need to explain what Papatūānuku or kaitiaki was – they were just like – yes, yes,” she said.
“Early childhood education teachers are doing a great job teaching children about the environment.”
