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Children’s art workshop series

Artwork projects are an engaging way to capture and portray children’s views and lived experiences.

In 2023, Emerging Minds ran art workshops in Australian metropolitan and regional centres with children of various ages, and diverse identities and experiences.

Our approach was: imperfections in artwork are OK! And while the workshops provided some guidance on creative techniques (fewer than a traditional art class) we instead focused on ways to communicate the themes, which were prompted by response to prompts such as:

  • What does family mean to you?
  • What is your safe space? Real or imagined.
  • What are your strengths? How do you face challenges?
  • Draw what you enjoy doing or the things in your life that bring you happiness and positive feelings.
  • Depict and emotion you have experienced using colour and body language.
  • Show some of the thoughts that occupy your mind by illustrating them inside the silhouette of a human head.
  • Depict some of your personality strengths through the design of a superhero like character or the use of animal symbolism.

As a result, workshop participants created more than 90 artworks reflecting the perspectives of children and young people that we sought to make visible and respond to.

Following the workshops, we provided children and families with updates on how their artworks have informed or been used in Emerging Minds project outcomes, including the ways their voices and perspectives have been made visible in adult-centric documents.

Take a few minutes to admire some of the artworks and their descriptions in the following gallery, and in Emerging Minds resources.

 

Children’s artwork gallery

> > See all the children’s artworks here

How I get through tough times

This short animation showcases the artworks in a reflective activity that aims to support parents to consider things that help children manage stresses or big feelings, express their emotions, and connect with people or places that support them.

How I get through tough times (1 minute, 5 seconds)

Resources

Children’s artworks help keep children’s perspectives visible within the Getting through tough times resources, bringing their experiences, strengths and ways of making sense of the world into conversations that are often led by adults. Select a topic below or see all the Getting through tough times resources.

Read more about our lived and living experience partnerships

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