Gallery space for kids

Independent Schools Victoria’s (ISV) annual art exhibition was housed at 1 Spring St for years but can now be found at The District Docklands.

The pop-up exhibition will occupy a space at The District’s Wharf Street until late November. ISV arts learning executive Anne Smith said there were a few reasons they relocated to Docklands.

“I was very aware of the Docklands area, I’ve spent quite a bit of time here personally since it was first developed,” she said.

“I knew there seemed to be a bit of an arts profile being developed and I thought it would be really great if we could show our collection here.

“We had a launch on September 3 and students, their parents, teachers, principals all attended and found that having the exhibition here provided the students with what very much felt like a professional gallery space.”

ISV is a member service organisation representing Victoria’s non-government sector of education with over 220 schools as current members.

Many of the schools are located within metropolitan Melbourne, but a third are in regional Victoria. 12 schools are represented in the exhibition this year.

“There’s a huge variety of themes obviously,” Ms Smith said.

“Because the works are created by students from ages four to 18 sometimes the themes are things like portraiture or still life, or the more traditional themes, but the senior students tend to get into more complex ideas.”

“Our schools are of all faiths, philosophies and cultures so we work with a very diverse group of schools, and a lot of the themes are acknowledging other cultures that may be close to the students.”

Schools represented in the exhibition include Al-Taqwa College, Al Siraat College, Camberwell Girls’ Grammar School and Cathedral College Wangaratta.