Art conference catering for all

Dunedin contemporary art-lovers can look forward to a surfeit of riches next week when Dunedin hosts the 10th conference of the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Art Educators.

While conference sessions will not be open to the public, several exhibitions have been organised to link directly with the conference programme and to appeal to both delegates and general audiences.

They include a significant exhibition by Kai Tahu artists at the Temple Gallery, as well as others featuring the work of local schoolchildren, tertiary students, Otago Polytechnic staff and invited guests.

The conference, held every second year, caters for educators at all levels from preschool to tertiary, and for educators working in museums and art galleries.

This year's event over four days next week is being hosted by the Otago Polytechnic's School of Art and Department of Design, and Kai Tahu ki Arai-Te-Uru - a group representing local runanga.

A record 285 people had registered, conference organiser and art school professor Leoni Schmidt said.

They were from all over New Zealand as well as from Australia, London, Johannesburg and Istanbul.

Putting the conference together had taken much planning, with six or seven programme streams happening simultaneously, including speakers, practical workshops, studio sessions, discussion round tables and special interest group sessions.

"It's going to be an intense three days of updating, upskilling, discussing, networking and communicating about visual arts education.

"If anybody is involved in visual arts education in any way, shape or form, this is where they should be . . ." she said.

Among the keynote speakers are Prof Ken Friedman, professor of design at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, whose area of expertise is the role of design and art in strengthening economies; Dr Barbara Piscitelli, a Brisbane-based freelance consultant whose specialty is encouraging and valuing children's art; and Dr Jo Diamond, a senior lecturer in Maori art history at the University of Canterbury, who will discuss non-classroom-based teaching and learning experiences.

Exhibitions open to the public

• Kai Tahu exhibition, Temple Gallery, Moray Pl
• Ocular Lab instructional modelling exhibition, Blue Oyster Gallery, Moray Pl
• Neil Emmerson, 73 Princes St (former Plumbleys' rare books shop)
• Catharine Hodson, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Octagon
• Clive Humphreys: "Sheet Music (for Cheryl)", Animal Attic, Otago Museum
• Otago Polytechnic School of Art staff painting exhibition, art school building, Albany St
• Otago Polytechnic School of Art staff and students' work, art school gallery, annex building, Riego St
• Secondary schools art, art school building, Albany St
• Primary schools art, art school building, Albany St
Secondary school art teachers' works, art school building, Albany St
Otago Polytechnic School of Design staff and students' exhibition, design school, cnr St Andrew St and Harbour Tce
"New Zealand Children's Picture Diaries", Otago Art Society gallery, Dunedin Railway Station (from April 23)