ArtPlay
John O'Toole, Robert Brown, Neryl Jeanneret
ArtPlay is committed to providing children and families with rich arts and play experiences. Beginning in 2007, ArtPlay is a three year project which provides an opportunity not previously available in Australia to conduct sustained and in-depth research within a space specifically designed for art and play experiences for children aged 3 -12. The Project is sponsored by the Australian Research Council, The City of Melbourne and The Australia Council for the Arts, and is designed and directed by the Artistic and Creative Education Program in the Gradute School of Education at the University of Melbourne. The project team involves a group of experienced researchers and arts educators led by Professor John O’Toole and Dr Neryl Jeanneret, and including Mr Robert Brown and Melanie Chilianis. This team are working closely with the Creative Producer of ArtPlay, Mr Simon Spain and ArtPlay staff.
Within this context, this project proposes to explore what happens when children work with artists in artmaking in a dedicated art-rich non-school environment. What is the nature of their engagement? Further, how can this engagement contribute to learning and cultural citizenship? The clues and answers will be provided by the participants of ArtPlay, the young artists themselves, the adult professional artists who lead the activities, and the parents, teachers and carers.
The participants (children, teachers, artists, parent/carers) will be observed, photographed and may be videotaped by the research team during the activities. At the end of the activity, you may be asked to complete an interview or survey that will take no more than 20 minutes. Some participants will be asked to permit the researcher to undertake a phone interview with them after one month, to find out your memories and thoughts about the ArtPlay activity – no more than 20 minutes. (The discussion and interview will be audiotaped). If the ArtPlay activity involves making material artworks, the researchers may ask to look and and/or make a record of these.
As part of this study City of Melbourne management and staff linked to ArtPlay will also be interviewed so as to understand better how a cycle of planning, implementation and evaluation inform the provision of ArtPlay programs.
There are no risks involved, and the privacy of all participants will be respected – recorded material of all kinds will only be scrutinised by the research team, will be kept stored under lock and key at the university and will be destroyed at the end of the project. The Project has received clearance by the University’s Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC. No. 050924X). Involvement in the project is entirely voluntary and participants are free to withdraw consent at any time, and to withdraw any unprocessed data previously supplied.
- Read the Artplay Pilot Study Report (pdf)
- Read the Artplay First Year Report (pdf 5.1MB)
Further information is available from Robert Brown.