Yesterday was quite busy as every year the Australian National University hold an open Day. It allows prospective students to visit and speak to staff. However the School of Art takes on quite a festive atmosphere as we throw open all the studios for people to see. We hold demonstrations of things like glass blowing, paper making and free activities are on. For instance yesterday I saw a lot of parents trundling around with the creative attempts of their children as this year children were making their own pots in the Ceramic workshop. There are demonstrations and activities in every workshop and the public are usually very interested in how objects are made. The school has workshops for Ceramic, Glass, Gold and Silversmithing, Painting, Photomedia, Printmedia and Drawing, Sculpture, Textiles and Wood. We also have an Art theory department and an Artist book studio, Papermaking studio, and Computer Arts Studio where I work.
Installations of work by both students and staff are throughout the school. This year Valerie Kirk head of the Textiles Workshop (as I also teach the textile students) asked me to ‘do something’ with the cabinets in Library so I created an installation of standard plastic shirt buttons. Simply put, I drew a button out of buttons at the base of the cabinet. People seemed to enjoy it as I have had quite a few comments. The button necklaces in the images are Valerie’s work. All up it was a fun and successful day and Jerry’s version of the day is over on his blog mindsigh.
