Get ready for an artistic adventure these summer school holidays.
National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) Kids on Tour is back this January with free school holiday art activities for kids at Orbost Arts Centre, including making a playful cat and dog ear headband, illustrating a Kusama-inspired pumpkin and creating fashion designs for paper dolls.
NGV Kids on Tour 2025 program at Orbost Arts Centre includes:
– Lots of Dots with Yayoi Kusama – Story time 10.30am on January 15 – Kids across Victoria will also be able to enjoy the work of iconic Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama in the Lots of dots with Yayoi Kusama activity and children’s book.
Pumpkins have appeared in Kusama’s artworks since a young age growing up on
a seed and plant farm, and this drawing activity invites children to add their favourite colours and designs to dots on a pumpkin and write a short poem about the humble fruit.
While young ones will be able to spot big dogs, little dots and shiny dots in Lots of Dots story time sessions.
– NGV Teens: Make a Pompom with Sophie Honess at 10.30am on January 10 and 17.
NGV Kids on Tour also invites teenagers to learn about the creative practices of emerging artists and build skills for their own art portfolios through an activity developed with Gamilaroi Yinarr weaver and textile artist Sophie Honess.
Designed specifically for teens, the Make a Pompom with Sophie Honess activity invites participants to create a bush flower-inspired pompom using yarn, embroidery thread and colourful felts to use as accessories on bags or key chains.
There will also be the following self-guided activities on offer during opening hours:
– Furry Friend Headband – In celebration of the Cats and Dogs exhibition, children can design a Furry Friend Headband, a set of cat or dog ears inspired by their own beloved pets or furry animals in their lives that they can take home and wear.
– Fashion, Culture and Creativity with Collective Closets – Melbourne-based fashion designers and sisters Fatuma and Laurinda Ndenzako from slow fashion label Collective Closets celebrate the beauty and history of the African continent through their designs.
– Bogong Moths with Deanne Gilson – Children will learn about bogong moths in the drawing activity developed by Dr Deanne Gilson, a proud Wadawurrung woman living on her ancestral Country of Ballarat.
NGV Kids on Tour 2025 runs at Orbost Arts Centre from January 8 to 19, 2025.
For further information, please visit the Orbost Arts Centre website.
