Activity Introduction
In this lesson, students will watch artists participate in a challenge to create artworks in 25 minutes. They will examine the artworks created by one of the artists, reflecting on their artistic style, message and use of artistic elements. Students will use entrepreneurial thinking to design their own art series, writing an artist’s statement that expresses their artistic intentions. Students will then have an opportunity to create and refine their ideas and consider the viability of starting an art-making business.
Find all the IMAGI-NATION{TV} episodes on AIME’s YouTube channel.
This lesson is designed to be completed independently by students.
Time required: 90 minutes
Tips for Caregivers & Teachers
This lesson is designed to be flexible for use with various year levels and across the curriculum. It can easily be tailored or expanded to focus more deeply on the skills that students are exploring in their classroom context. For example, younger students spend some time gaining a deeper understanding of how they can use artistic elements, while older students might spend more time considering sustainability, messaging and entrepreneurial skills.
Safety advice: If a young artist decides they want to set up an online store or market stall to sell their artworks, ensure you supervise and check the personal information they are providing. Talk to them about privacy and how you can balance having a public-facing business with protecting your personal information.
Supervise the use of messy materials and sharp objects. Use non-toxic art supplies where possible and supervise students while they use machinery or equipment such as printing presses or scalpels.
- Topics: Creative Thinking, Social Issues, Sustainability
- This lesson is part of a wider program: IMAGI-NATION{TV}
- Level of teacher scaffolding: Low – students can be self-directed
- Syllabus outcomes: VAS2.1, VAS2.2, VAS3.1, VAS3.2, VAS4.1, VAS4.3, VAS4.4, VAS4.6, VAS5.6, VAS5.7, VAS5.8, VAS5.9, VAS5.10
- General capabilities: Critical and Creative Thinking, Ethical Understanding
- Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability
Australian Curriculum Mapping
Choose by subject for Primary year level mapping:
Visual ArtsYears 3 & 4 Visual Arts
- Explore ideas and artworks from different cultures and times, including artwork by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, to use as inspiration for their own representations (ACAVAM110)
- Use materials, techniques and processes to explore visual conventions when making artworks (ACAVAM111)
- Present artworks and describe how they have used visual conventions to represent their ideas (ACAVAM112)
Years 5 & 6 Visual Arts
- Explore ideas and practices used by artists, including practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, to represent different views, beliefs and opinions (ACAVAM114)
- Develop and apply techniques and processes when making their artworks (ACAVAM115)
- Plan the display of artworks to enhance their meaning for an audience (ACAVAM116)
Choose by subject for Secondary year level mapping:
Visual ArtsYears 7 & 8 Visual Arts
- Experiment with visual arts conventions and techniques, including exploration of techniques used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, to represent a theme, concept or idea in their artwork (ACAVAM118)
- Develop ways to enhance their intentions as artists through exploration of how artists use materials, techniques, technologies and processes (ACAVAM119)
- Develop planning skills for art-making by exploring techniques and processes used by different artists (ACAVAM120)
Years 9 & 10 Visual Arts
- Manipulate materials, techniques, technologies and processes to develop and represent their own artistic intentions (ACAVAM126)
- Analyse a range of visual artworks from contemporary and past times to explore differing viewpoints and enrich their visual art-making, starting with Australian artworks, including those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, and consider international artworks (ACAVAR131)
Years 9 Work Skills
- Identify types of entrepreneurial behaviours and their opportunities for application to 21st-century work and enterprise (ACWSCL010)
- Explain how the application of entrepreneurial behaviours can address a range of work and community challenges and provide benefits personally and to the community (ACWSCL011)
- Practise the skills and attributes underpinning entrepreneurial behaviours (ACWSCL012)
Year 10 Work Skills
- Assess the benefits of developing an ‘entrepreneurial mindset’ and its relevance to 21st-century work and enterprise (ACWSCL029)
- Device with internet connection
- Art supplies
- Pen and paper (optional)
Background Information
AIME created IMAGI-NATION{TV} & the IMAGI-NATION{CLASSROOM} experience to put a mentor in the home every day during the tough times of COVID-19 and beyond. It’s a daily TV show broadcast live on the internet, and it’s a gift for teachers, parents and kids to help make sense of today and imagine tomorrow.
The pursuit is to elevate knowledge; every guest we bring on knows something and has wisdom to share. This show is not just about entertainment to pass the time. We want to remake the mould for the modern hero – from beauty to brains, from selfies to self-knowledge, from hashtags to hope. IMAGI-NATION{TV} is seeking to unlock the best in every single one of us; to inspire a generation of heroes in the form of mentors who fight for a fairer world.
Learning@Home from Cool Australia
Learning@Home resources are designed for parents and teachers to use with children in the home environment. They can be used as stand-alone activities or built into existing curriculum-aligned learning programs. Our Learning@Home series includes two types of resources. The first are fun and challenging real-world activities for all ages, the second are self-directed lessons for upper primary and secondary students. These lessons support independent learning in remote or school settings.
 This lesson has been developed in partnership with AIME. AIME is an Imagination Factory that since 2005, has been creating pop-up Imagination Factories on university campuses around the world to unlock the internal narrative of marginalised kids, taking them from a world that tells them they can’t to a world that tells them they can. Kids who experience the Imagination Factory have gone on to achieve educational parity, rise up as entrepreneurs, and take on a whole new mindset that prepares them for success. |
Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.
Artist Challenge - Activity Instructions