Students are invited to use motifs to create a tapa cloth style artwork.

Drawing inspiration from local artist Sam Tupou, and his work featured in the Museum of Brisbane’s 2021 exhibition City in the Sun, students are invited to use motifs inspired by the natural and built environment to create a tapa cloth style artwork.

Inclusions

Workshop (1 hour)
Students learn about how traditional tapa cloth methods and products continue to be meaningfully incorporated into cultural practices across the Pacific Islands and among the diasporas. They learn how tapa cloth designs, techniques and symbolism continues to inspire contemporary artists. In the process of producing an original artwork, students also learn about the use of grids, symmetry, repetition and restricted colour palettes in visual design.

Exhibition Tour (1 hour)
Complete a guided tour of our current exhibitions. Students will have opportunities to engage in tactile learning during the tour with our educational touch trolleys.

City Hall Tour (1 hour)
Discover the history and significance of the heritage-listed City Hall on a tour of the ‘People’s Place’. Students will have the opportunity to discover the stories and artistry of the building.

The workshop leads students through a sequence of activities where they learn about the tapa cloth-making techniques and traditions in the Pacific Islands and then experiment with designing their own motif.

In the workshop students will:

• Watch a video of artist Sam Tupou talk about his background, practice and artwork.
• Learn about the traditional Pacific Islands practices of making tapa bark cloth.
• Identify patterns, shapes, and design features such as borders, symmetry, and repetition.
• Drawing inspiration from the traditions of producing bark tapa cloth and the natural or build environment in Brisbane, find and select a motif.
• Experiment with different mediums and patterns to create their own tapa cloth style inspired artwork with inks and fabric.
• In addition to the 1-hour workshop, students may also attend a City Hall Tour and/ or an Exhibition Tour:
• City Hall Tour (1 hour)
• A guided tour of City Hall including information about the significance of the building – its’ history and the people who are important in this story. Tours can be tailored to respond to your learning outcomes.
• Exhibition Tour (1 hour)
• Guided and delivered by Museum Educators, each tour is tailored for the age, grade and learning outcomes of the group. Inspire your students through a carefully curated selection of objects and artworks.

• Schools can book the workshop alone OR choose just 1 of the 2 tours. We will tailor the day based on the number of students, location restrictions, time restrictions and learning outcomes of the class.
• We are limited by space in our workshop studio, so ideally, we aim for groups of approximately 20, but this number can go up to about 25. This capacity is for the comfort and enjoyment of students.
• We can split one school into 4 groups of approx. 20 students, and they take turns participating in the workshop. When not in the workshop session, the 3 other groups are participating in either: a city hall tour, or a museum tour, or lunch break. An excursion day run with 4 groups would take 4 hours for the entire cohort to particulate in all sessions.

The maximum number of groups we welcome in one day is 4, so the maximum number of students is 80-100 from on the same day.

Yes, schools can book the workshop alone. Or choose just 1 of the 2 tours. We will tailor the day based on the number of students, location restrictions, time restrictions and learning outcomes of the class.

For any of our workshops, schools can add an Exhibition Tour or City Hall Tour for $35 per group.