Gesturing toward Artful Play (GAP)

Overview

About the Project

GAP explores the intersections of art, play, and place-based learning in early childhood education, investigating how learning can be extended between kindergartens, museum spaces and the Faculty of Education, and how these experiences can inspire everyday teaching practices. Guided by the Australian Early Years Learning Framework (2022), the project recognises that children’s learning is shaped by material play, relationships, cultural narratives, and environments.

The study has received ethical approval from Monash University (Project 4342) and the Department of Education (25-06-663).

Artful Play in Museums

By positioning museums as active pedagogical partners with Kindergarten contexts, GAP examines how artworks, materials, and curated spaces can foster creativity, imagination, and relational learning. Children, educators, researchers, and Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists collaborate to advance artful and playful practices and build sustainable cross-institutional partnerships. Experiences integrate Indigenous perspectives, supporting cultural understanding, self-expression, and connection to place and country.

Partnerships and Participation

Central to the project is collaboration between the Faculty of Education and MUMA (Monash University Museum of Art), with local Kindergartens and First Nations Artists. As a team of artists, researchers and educators we will host children from two diverse early learning centres. In partnership with Monash Education, the centres will work with museum educators, artists, and Indigenous communities to create immersive, artful learning experiences.

Expected Outcomes

  • Strengthened artful and playful practices in early childhood and higher education
  • Research insights that honour First Nations living communities through engagement with culture, place, and people
  • Innovative approaches to teaching and learning that bridge museums and early childhood settings and further support learnings in hIgher education

Project Leadership

Monash Faculty of Education: Aunty Karan Kent, Bidjara; Geraldine Burke, and Gloria Quinones

MUMA Monash University Museum of Art: Melissa Bedford

Inspired by Marie Clarke’s Thung-ung Coorang (Kangaroo Teeth Necklace) 2013, children created their own body adornments to celebrate nature. Their artworks are displayed on top of Aunty Karen Kent’s kangaroo and possum skin cloaks.
In response to Big Purple, 2023, a gestural work by Nicholas Currie, children created gestural marks with their hands and feet to produce a collaborative mural.
A ‘stick library’ serves as a provocation for visiting children as they listen to Aunty Karen Kent, Bidjara, share stories about the Rainbow Serpent. How will the children create their own Rainbow Serpent, and what playful stories will they enact?
Children playfully embody the story of the Rainbow Serpent by using colourful scarves and painted sticks to create a rainbow serpent installation.

Project details

Funding source:
School of Curriculum, Teaching and Inclusive Education (Monash Education)

Duration:
2026 – 2027 (Active)