Engaging Educated Islands: An Examination of the Collaborative Process of Creating the 2009 Venice Biennale Art Education Resource for Australian School Students

Abstract

This paper describes the process of creating an electronic national art education resource based on the 2009 Venice Biennale for K-12 students throughout Australia. Australian artists have been consistently represented for over thirty years at the Venice Biennale with the support of the Australia Council, the Australian Government's premier art and advisory body. The collaborative process of creating the national art education resource is based on Community Cultural Development (CCD) practices advocated by the Australia Council. This process has brought together a range of people from the field of art education under the CCD guiding principles of: self-determination, sustainability, access, diversity and cultural democracy. This paper will describe the journey of three researchers involved in the process of creating the resource and how they experienced and engaged with the guiding principles of community cultural development. In addition it will examine the aims of this resource in providing young people with electronic access to a diverse range of Australian artists and their practices and in the process creating a site for critical and reflective engagement concerning a range of contemporary issues such as increased awareness of environmental issues.