Face Paint By Children, 2014, Moomba, VIC. Photo Credit: Theresa Harrison Photography
Face Paint By Children
Face Paint By Children is an exercise in trust, adults trusting children, children trusting themselves and each other. It invites the community to be generous and proud of what children can achieve. It gives children visibility in the public arena, a forum in which to express themselves and their diversity, and the chance to be recognized as artists. It is an intimate experience, often between people who may not otherwise meet.
Face Paint By Children is a socially engaged, creative arts experience, part pop-up stall, part performance, part interactive art installation; a face painting stall where children run the show. They are the artists and facilitators of the stall, painting the faces of adults, other children and themselves.
The show works in the following ways:
Community Arts and Cultural Development
Guided by professional artists a team of children undergo training prior to opening the pop-stall at a community event. During training we investigate questions such as ‘What is art?’ and ‘What is an artist”. We break down abstraction/representation, colour, line, shape and fine art technique. We use word association and improvisation to develop creative risk taking. We unpack business skills, then the children open and run the face painting stall.
Drop-In at Festivals and Events
A drop in pop-stall at an event where any child may join in and become the face paint artist. In this model children are introduced to the tools of the trade and paint their family, friends and people they don’t know.
Face Paint By Children is about offering something new and original with no generic display of animal faces or stencils to choose from.
Previous engagements include:
Moomba Festival 2015, Coburg Carnivale, Kids Arty Farty Fest, Sydney Road Street Party, Music For The People, Counihan Gallery, Barkley Square, Glenroy Festival and Roola Boola Children's Arts Festival
Photos by Theresa Harrison