News
Jo Higgins
Published outcomes - National Gallery of ...
Published outcomes - National Gallery of Australia: Digital Young Writers Mentorship
Writings
Jo Higgins
ABC Arts: 'Air' at QAGOMA
ABC Arts: 'Air' at QAGOMA
Writings
Jo Higgins
ABC Arts: Megan Cope is building a living, ...
ABC Arts: Megan Cope is building a living, breathing artwork on Minjerribah
Writings, Events
Jo Higgins
Exhibition essay: Topographies of painting - ...
Exhibition essay: Topographies of painting - Gregory Hodge, Sullivan + Strumpf
Writings
Jo Higgins
ABC Arts: Richard Bell at documenta fifteen
ABC Arts: Richard Bell at documenta fifteen

MCA GENEXT

,

Artlink magazine's 'Hyphen' issue published

,

Of the many genuinely special outcomes to emerge from the National Young Writers Program that I’ve been leading at the National Gallery of Australia for the last couple of years, this latest issue of Artlink magazine has to be one of the proudest.

Artlink has been publishing thematic issues dedicating to contemporary art practice across Australia and the Asia-Pacific for over four decades. It’s a rigorous, provocative, thoughtful publication that has long championed emerging and early career writers. I should know. My first by-line was a review for Artlink over 20 years ago (a Very Cringe Read all these years later, but still.)

Having Artlink Editor Una Rey and Assistant Editor Belinda Howden join the National Young Writers Program this year - with Artlink as official Publishing Partner - has brought another level of rigour, context, professionalism and care to the program. Their faith (in me, the program, the participants) to offer up their Summer issue to three program alumni to guest-edit as part of a paid professional development mentorship has been such a huge undertaking.

Back in July, Claire Osborn-Li, Ava Lacoon and Hen Vaughan were selected as guest editors and they’ve been working with Una and Belinda over the last five months to conceive, commission, edit and deliver their issue, Hyphen. It is now officially out in the world…

I feel very proud of them and very proud to have contributed an essay to this issue. “The Museum As A Cowboy Place” is my rethinking of the critical role of youth programs and young people to museums in the wake of MCA Australia quietly shuttering their Young Creatives programs earlier this year, including GENEXT, the Youth Committee and Young Guides.

The museums might be struggling (and/or getting it wrong) but if Hyphen and its guest editors and other young writers are any measure of things to come, the future feels salvage-able/possible/bright?….

You can order a hardcopy and/or buy a digital version of Hyphen via the Artlink website here. Please support the magazine and these writers. And if you want a taste - Claire, Ava and Hen’s editorial is available to read free here.

OTHER POSTS

Journal of Museum Education article: "Pockets of Resilience - the Digital Responses of Youth Collectives in Contemporary Art Museums During Lockdown."

Last year I had the opportunity to speak with academic and research Dr Carolina Silva for her paper looking at the different responses of youth collectives at contemporary art museums around the world to the COVID-19 pandemic and mass closure of cultural institutions.

MCA GENEXT Goes Online was one of three case studies she examined.

(In a coming full circle career moment the other two programs Silva profiles are the Whitechapel Gallery’s Duchamp & Sons, who were part of the Louis Vuitton Young Arts Project; and MOCA Teens at Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art; and whose program managers, Michelle Antonisse and Jorge Espinosa, I had the huge privilege of learning with last year as part of a peer learning community with the Walker Art Center.)

You can access the article, which appears is in Vol.46, Issue 4, by clicking on the cover image.

OTHER POSTS

Raise your voice: young people in the arts

The following is an excerpt from an article I wrote for MCA Stories & Ideas reflecting on the impact of COVID-19 on the Young Creatives programs this year and inviting several alumni to contribute their reflections and hopes for a post-COVID cultural sector, with young people at the heart.

At the start of 2020, I began working with three Young Creatives alumni, Emily Lienert (2018–2019), Maleeka Gazula (2017) and Steph Sekulovska (2016–2017) to co-develop and present a series of programs for the wider arts sector, including a professional development program, ‘Working with young people in the arts’. Building on the findings of our 2019 GENEXT Impact report, my own Churchill Fellowship findings, and Emily, Maleeka and Steph’s expertise, we were excited to share our insights into best practice for building youth-led programs in museums. We wanted to expand upon how cultural institutions can support young people’s creative youth development, and highlight ways that museums can benefit from having young people in the building.

And then COVID-19 struck.

While some Young Creatives programs were re-imagined, others, including our professional development program, were rescheduled for 2021. These last 6 months have raised so many challenges for all of us in the arts sector, but for those of us working with young people, the stakes have felt particularly high – we’ve witnessed the significant social, mental and educational impacts of life under lockdown.1

We’ve been grappling with a whole lot of questions, including:

  • What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the lives and creative outlets of young people?

  • What role (if any) has creativity played in their isolation?

  • What might a post-COVID-19 world look like for young people?

  • What role can the museum play for young people in this new-normal, not-quite-post-COVID world?

I invited Emily, Maleeka and Steph to think about some of these issues and reflect on their relationship with the MCA and the broader cultural sector. Here, they write about why they wanted to be part of youth-led programs, and whether COVID-19 has changed the way they think about art, museums, creativity and the future wellbeing and contribution of young people.

1. Kids Helpline and the Australian Human Rights Commission have co-authored a report on the impacts of COVID-19 on children and young people who contact Kids Helpline; and the ABC has also reported on mental health pressures on young people.

Continue reading on the MCA website here.

Image: Artwork by MCA Youth Committee members as part of their workshop “Assumptions Roulette” for MCA Conversation Starters, September 2017.

OTHER POSTS

I acknowledge the Gadigal and Bidjigal peoples of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the unceded land on which I live and work and I pay my respects to their Elders, past and present.