The Warrnambool Art Gallery
Craftivism. Dissident Objects and Subversive Forms 2 March - 5 May 2019
Penny Byrne: HIGH VIS: Protest, People and Power in a time of Fake News 2 March - 19 May 2019
Damon Kowarsky: Sans Frontières 8 December 2018 - 5 May 2019
On Country: Stories of Gunditjmara Elders 8 December 2018 - 30 June 2019
“Compromised” was the adjective staff used to describe the experience at Warrnambool Art Gallery (The WAG) when I went to visit it last week. Across the five gallery spaces, what seemed like an invasive species of gallery goer—a swarm of school aged children—were sitting on the floor, working at desks, speaking with instructors, sometimes engaging with the art. The students were busy with hands-on projects, developing girls’ involvement with STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics), something sorely lacking in broader society. The presence of ‘GIRL STEAM’ was total, and as I shuffled around the edges of this throng I tried to do the job I came for, but it was not easy. The concerns of future and current students reverberated and obstructed, in a way that I came to actually prefer to the usual bubble of the art gallery experience.
David Wlazlo is a PhD Candidate in Art History and Theory at Monash University.
