Sydney calls for artists to create murals for children in ECEC

The City of Sydney has invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and artist-led teams to send their proposals for ‘welcome murals’ at City of Sydney owned early learning centres.

The artworks will recognise the significance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and help promote reconciliation and inclusion, with Lord Mayor Clover Moore saying they will serve as a visible reminder to all residents and visitors that “our early childhood centres are inclusive and welcoming to all children”. 

“Children at our centres will be delighted by the new artworks when they attend the centre and the artworks will help reinforce the lessons taught by our educators about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures,” she added.

The murals will be placed at the outdoor entries of four early childhood centres: Hilda Booler Kindergarten and Broughton Street Kindergarten in Glebe, Redfern Occasional Child Care Centre in Redfern, and Alexandria Child Care Centre in Alexandria.

In particular, the City is seeking contemporary artwork proposals that share and interweave stories of the past and present with the hopes and aspirations of young Aboriginal people today.

Selected artists will collaborate with the centre, its children and families, and the wider community to create an artwork that carries meaning for the local community.

The proposed artworks will form part of a broader movement by the City to recognise and celebrate the world’s oldest continuing cultures of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Sydney through the Eora Journey projects.

Recent Eora Journey projects include YININMADYEMI Thou didst let fall by Tony Albert in Hyde Park, which honours Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service men and women; the landmark mural Welcome to Redfern by Reko Rennie; and, Nicole Foreshew’s born in darkness before dawn, a temporary projection on the side of the Australian Museum.

The fourth project in the Eora Journey, due to be completed in 2020, is Judy Watson’s bara. The work honours the Eora clans and the skills of their women symbolised in the crescent shapes of ‘bara’ – traditional fish hooks crafted and used by Gadigal women for thousands of years.

Information sessions for artists interested in taking part in creating the murals will be held in early and mid-October in Chippendale at the Pine Street Creative Centre, with expressions of interest open now until midnight Wednesday 30 October 2019. 

For more information or to apply, please see here.