(Quilty, 2017).

Ben quilty exhibition making and responding resource

The ‘Ben Quilty’ Making and Responding resource is a perceptive and knowledgeable resource that has been adapted from the Art Gallery of South Australia’s (AGSA) previous Quilty exhibition. Found in the AGSA’s education resource sector, the Quilty resource comes in the form of a downloadable PowerPoint and provides an extensive volume of making and responding tasks that involve students in the life, experiences, and processes that have dictated the path of Quilty’s work.

I was drawn to this resource because it featured a renowned Australian artist with a fascinating body of work, however after assessing the resource itself I was excited by the detailed collection of making and responding tasks that students can engage with. Quilty’s art style is highly expressive and is often informed by deep political or social issues that could be profoundly interesting to students. I believe it would be productive for students to explore his collections and investigate how Quilty conveys such strong intentions through his choice of material and process.

The parent site AGSA is easy to navigate and has a rich collection of educational resources for teachers to implement into their lessons. You can explore student and teaching resources for current and previous exhibitions that are in-depth and innately adapted to the working guidelines of the Australian Curriculum. The ‘Quilty’ learning resource is divided into sectors that individually explore areas such as his personal experience, the social/cultural meanings of his work, the techniques he uses to communicate meaning, and how he challenges traditional conventions. Accompanied alongside the artworks in these sectors are a range of making and responding tasks that encourage students to delve into the visual conventions and meanings of his work.

This resource is well aligned with the Curriculum’s year 7 and 8 band content descriptor (ACAVAR123), where students are required to “analyse how artists use visual conventions in artworks” (ACARA, 2010). Through the ‘Quilty’ resource, students will have the opportunity to critique a virtual exhibition of art while reviewing how visual conventions have been used, critically analyse visual conventions and their implications towards the artist's intentions, and present informed opinions about a display of works from the same artist. This resource will further support students in learning through general capabilities by encouraging them to critically engage with creative thinking processes.

The structure of this resource positions educators to incorporate teaching through experiential learning strategies, where students are involved in the ongoing cycle of experimenting and reflecting in order to develop new skills and increase their base of knowledge. A single artwork/making and responding task could be selected from the resource to work with across a week, or the resource could be used to adapt a larger project that properly delves into the meanings and processes of Quilty’s work with a student-developed artwork outcome in mind.

(Quilty, 2006)

(AGSA, 2023)

(Quilty, 2012)

References:

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2010). Visual Arts F-10 Curriculum. https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/the-arts/visual-arts/

Art Gallery of South Australia. (2023). Past Exhibitions – Quilty. https://www.agsa.sa.gov.au/education/resources-educators/resources-educators-past-exhibitions/

Quilty, B. (2017). New Bird [PowerPoint Slides]. [Oil on Linen]. Art Gallery of South Australia. https://www.agsa.sa.gov.au/education/resources-educators/resources-educators-past-exhibitions/

Quilty, B. (2006). Skull Landscape [PowerPoint Slides]. [Oil and Aerosol on Linen]. Art Gallery of South Australia. https://www.agsa.sa.gov.au/education/resources-educators/resources-educators-past-exhibitions/

Quilty, B. (2012). Fairy Bower Rorschach [PowerPoint Slides]. [Oil on Linen]. Art Gallery of South Australia. https://www.agsa.sa.gov.au/education/resources-educators/resources-educators-past-exhibitions/