As a mother, I often advocate the importance of fun, creativity, and play for my child. But this year went by in a haze of online lessons, home-based learning, and constantly changing circumstances. As such, for the year-end holidays, I resolved to go in search of meaningful experiences to engage my child in.
In all honesty, when I first heard of the Gallery Children’s Biennale 2021 (GCB), I was unsure if art installations would engage my active 6-year-old son. As it happens, my fears were unfounded, and visiting the GCB was one of the best experiences he has ever had.
True to the theme of the exhibition, I’ve discovered Why Art Matters and how empowering it is for children. Happening right now to the end of the year, GCB is truly a treasure trove of experiences and ideal fun holiday activity for children. Here’s why.
Fun Activities For Kids At Gallery Children’s Biennale 2021
Returning for its third edition, Gallery Children’s Biennale 2021 is a series of playful and interactive art experiences that seek to empower children to navigate the changing times with empathy and confidence.
For the first time, GCB is taking place both online and on-site. This ‘phygital experience’ means my son had twice the fun!
There are a total of 9 artwork installations in GCB, each of which opens the door to a world of its own. But the sum of these exhibits is greater than its parts. Taken as a whole, it is a journey where children can experience a new dimension of creativity and wondrous surprises.
What do I love most about it? While GCB is a great experience for everyone, children are at the very heart of the biennale. Why?
- The art installations are aesthetically pleasing, colourful, playful, and promise fun – children are immediately drawn in
- A multi-sensory experience for children as they touch, move and interact with the installations
- Activities offer children a space to unleash their creativity and foster critical thinking skills as they learn through play
- Art installations and activities shed light on timely and relevant issues in an easy-to-understand manner
Here’s a virtual tour of the GCB and its highlights for my child:
The immersive on-site experience inspires children through 4 topics that are timely and relevant.
1. Home
I love how the artworks under this theme explore the notions of home and community, and that we all have a part to play for a greater good. I feel the necessity to emphasise the idea of connectedness and being rooted, especially now, given how the pandemic has isolated us from one another.
We walked through the art installation Head/Home by art duo Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan and my son named it the cardboard city. This is no ordinary cardboard city though. The installations are literally larger than life!
The city is a hodgepodge of cardboard homes– some tiny, some grand, some cultural, and others completely whimsical. My son pointed at one of the houses and said it reminded him of The Burrow in Harry Potter.
We spent a good amount of time taking a close look at the cardboard homes and marvelling at the amount of detail that went into making every part of these homes, even window shutters!
What we took away from this installation is that home is a concept that stretches far and wide. It means many things to many different people, yet all these differences come together as one.
Somewhat like a discordant symphony, delight in disorder! Rightfully so, as the cardboard used to create this installation was collected by artists from migrant communities around the world and community groups in Singapore.
On another note, this art installation also shows children that when it comes to letting their imagination take flight, there are no rules, and the possibilities are endless.
2. Diversity
The art installations here truly embrace that every one of us is unique but together we form something beautiful and empowering. It is a platform for children to express themselves creatively.
In the installation Voices from the Centers, children get to record a TikTok-like video of themselves singing, speaking, dancing, or pretty much doing anything to express their creativity.
They then get to superimpose the video onto an artwork of their choice. The patterns in the videos are inspired by actual weaving techniques.
All the video collages are displayed in the exhibit with a myriad of other submissions. The result? A beautiful virtual tapestry of bright-eyed young children with a message to share.
My son chose a picture of tigers and along with a little jig, he shared that he likes tigers because they are brave, strong, and mysterious, like him!
Children can also try their hand at weaving using recycled paper – a novel experience for most of them. My son and I decided to bring the materials home to work on our weaving skills. Mums, again, this is an extension of the art installation and an off-screen activity to keep your children occupied at home!
3. Time
A Day’s Book is a curious library of daily diaries with interesting stories from children all over the world. We picked a few books that caught my son’s attention and sat down to read them. Not quite the stories I had expected but they truly opened my eyes to a child’s world.
The pages were a kaleidoscope of colourful drawings and the simplest of words that together, give you an insight into a day in the life of a child, as he understands it. While I tried to wrap my head around the books, my son interpreted the stories in his own ways.
Furthermore, children can also contribute to a journal entry and share their thoughts with children all over the world! They can do this through the microsite or at the iPad stations available onsite.
I like how it’s a great way to introduce children to the idea of journaling sans the daunting idea of having to write sentences! It definitely puts a new spin on things.
4. Environment
If you think this is a difficult topic to explain to little ones, you’ve got another thing coming. The installations in Because It Makes Me Feel is a sight for sore eyes! What with colourful tepee tents, cushions, and fairy lights, my son felt right at home here!
The exhibit is all about making children feel safe and a sense of belonging to the environment around them. The exhibit helps children to forge meaningful connections with their environment and to feel a need to protect it.
In addition to exploring different homes, children can also do some drawing and string it up for display. I loved the little fruit baskets in one of the tents, and my son felt like a real artist trying out still life drawing.
He decided that he would display his drawing in our home instead of adding it to the drawings strung up in the tent!
Conversations with an Octopus is another lovely installation. Children have to piece together drawings, text, and even a video chronicling the adventures of The Girl With The Red Shorts and her friend The Octopus.
By sailing through the ocean and exploring an underwater library, children will learn more about environmental problems like plastic litter in the ocean and how they can contribute to tackling these problems through interactive elements in the story.
Did I mention that the cushions and cosy space for viewing the videos provided much-needed respite from all the walking?
So there you have it, mums, a tour of the highlights of GCB. In addition to these art installations, you can look forward to an array of on-site children’s programmes such as storytelling sessions and workshops.
My virtual tour doesn’t do justice to what’s in store. Seeing is believing, so you’ve got to let your children experience the wonders for themselves.
I must say that the art installations and follow-up activities are a welcome change from the screen fatigue my son has been experiencing all year round. They also provide talking points for some of the pertinent issues we are facing.
Remember, the world we live in today is filled with challenges and is ever-changing. As such, more so than ever, it is important for our children to be open and embracing.
What better way than art to teach them acceptance and openness, to embrace the possibilities of diversity, to fuel their creative power, and ignite the fire of wonder? Come visit the GCB 2021 onsite festival today at National Gallery Singapore.
Admission is free for all and no ticket is required. For more information, check this link.