He Kōrero Auaha: Art That Speaks

You need: a printed or projected New Zealand artwork (Te Papa Collections Online is a good start) · visual diary · timer

1. Look for three silent minutes. Resist the urge to decide if you like it.
2. Describe: list ten things you can see, including colours, shapes, materials and size.
3. Analyse: where does your eye go first? What is repeated? What is big, small, bright, dark?
4. Interpret: what might the artist be saying? Give one clue from the work for each guess.
5. Judge: does it work, and for whom? Would someone from a different background read it differently?

How you'll know: Every interpretation you write is backed by something you can point to in the work.

Go further: Find out the title and the artist's own words. Did they change your interpretation?

You need: magazines or printed images · coloured and textured paper · glue stick · scissors · A4 or A3 card

1. Collect images, colours and textures that connect to you, your whānau or your place.
2. Tear rather than cut some pieces for a softer edge. Test both.
3. Arrange everything with one clear focal point before gluing anything.
4. Add one symbol you designed yourself that stands for something important to you.
5. Limit the final collage to the pieces that help the idea. Put the rest in an envelope.

How you'll know: A viewer can name at least one thing the collage says about you without being told.

Safety: Scissors stay on the table; pass them handles first.

Go further: Limit yourself to three colours and explain the reason for each.

You need: paint, pastels or coloured pencils · a strip of card with six boxes · a list of feelings

1. Fill six boxes with different colours or colour mixes.
2. Without talking, write the feeling each one gives you underneath.
3. Compare with a partner: which colours did you agree on? Which did you disagree about?
4. Choose a three-colour palette for your artwork and write why.

How you'll know: You can explain how your palette supports the feeling in your idea.

Go further: Find out what one colour means in two different cultures (for example white, red or black) and think about who will see your work.

You need: Chrome Music Lab (Song Maker) or classroom instruments · headphones · your idea sentence

1. Decide on tempo (fast or slow), dynamics (loud or soft) and tonality (major for bright, minor for darker moods).
2. Compose a 30-second piece in Song Maker, or with instruments and a steady beat.
3. Add a drone or repeated low note to hold the piece together.
4. Play it to three listeners and ask what place or feeling they imagine.

How you'll know: At least two listeners describe a mood close to the one you intended.

Go further: Add a field recording from your place (birdsong, waves, traffic) under the music.

You need: open space · music or a drum · a partner

1. Choose an idea, such as hope, belonging or loss.
2. Create three gestures that stand for it. Make each one bigger than feels normal.
3. Link them into a short sequence with smooth transitions (the way one movement flows into the next).
4. Perform it twice: once fast, once slow. Which carries the idea better?

How you'll know: Your audience can guess the idea, or something close to it, from the movement alone.

Safety: Clear the space of bags and chairs; warm up wrists, shoulders and ankles first.

Go further: Add a prop (a length of fabric, a stone, a book) that changes the meaning.

You need: pencil · visual diary · a card viewfinder (a rectangle cut out of card)

1. Draw four matchbox-sized rectangles.
2. Sketch four different layouts: symbol large and central, small and off-centre, cropped at the edge, framed by other shapes.
3. Use the viewfinder over your trials to find crops you hadn't noticed.
4. Show each thumbnail to a partner for five seconds, hide it, and ask what they saw first.
5. Pick the layout where your main idea was seen first.

How you'll know: Your chosen layout has one clear focal point that a viewer notices within five seconds.

Go further: Make the least important part the most interesting texture, so the eye rests there after the focal point.

You need: works in progress · sticky notes · sentence starters: I notice… I wonder… What if…

1. Sit in fours. The artist shows the work and says nothing yet.
2. Each person gives one 'I notice', one 'I wonder' and one 'What if' on a sticky note.
3. The artist reads the notes aloud and asks one question back.
4. The artist chooses one change to make and one thing to keep, and writes both down.

How you'll know: Every comment is about the work (not the person), and you leave with a specific change to try.

Go further: Keep a 'feedback I didn't use' list and explain why you chose not to follow it.

You need: two or three example statements from a New Zealand gallery website · highlighters · statement frame

1. Highlight the idea in yellow, materials and choices in green, and influences in blue in each example.
2. Draft your own using the frame: 'My work is about… I chose… because… I was influenced by…'.
3. Cut every word that doesn't help. Aim for 100–150 words.
4. Read it aloud to someone who has not seen your work. Can they picture it?

How you'll know: Your statement names the idea and explains at least two deliberate choices with 'because'.

Go further: Write a second, 25-word version for a label.