Session 1 · CREATE: Connect
Art for a reason
- 10 minHook: show three artworks made for a place or event (Len Lye's Wind Wand, a local mural, a Matariki light installation). What makes each one intentional rather than decoration?
- 15 minMeet the brief: the organiser (in person, by video or through a letter) explains the event, the space and the audience. Record constraints: size, time, light, safety, budget.
- 20 minConcept board: idea in one sentence, audience and place, three techniques to explore, one inspiring artist, three success criteria ('The work must…').
- 5 minShare with a partner, who asks one 'why?' question about each part.
Session 2 · CREATE: Respond
Influences and protocols
- 10 minMini-lesson: whose forms are these? Customary motifs carry whakapapa and responsibilities. Being influenced by an idea or a way of working is different from copying a sacred form.
- 25 minResearch two artists whose work connects to your idea (at least one from Aotearoa or the Pacific). In your visual diary, respond: what will you borrow (an approach, a material, a scale), and what will you do differently?
- 15 minGallery-style talk in small groups: present one influence in 60 seconds with an image.
Getting started
Use the concept-board template and choose one artist from the class influence wall.
Stretch
Research an influence from a culture other than your own and write down what you learned about its protocols before using any of its ideas.
Checkpoint
A concept board with audience, place, success criteria and two researched influences.
Activities for this week
- Concept board: What exactly am I making, for whom, and how will I know it works?
Useful this week
- Public and street art ↗ Public art across Aotearoa: how art responds to a place and a community.
- Te Papa Collections Online ↗ Find influences from Aotearoa and the Pacific for your concept board.
- Len Lye Foundation ↗ The story, drawings and moving sculptures of one of New Zealand's most inventive artists.