Hands On! Conference
The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
October 13 – 16, 2015

Posted by jeremysutton on Sep 3, 2015 in Uncategorized | No Comments

On October 15, 2015, I presented a short 6 minute mini-talk known as a “palorado”, and performed live iPad painting, at the “Hands On!” Conference in the magnificent and recently renovated Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. “Hands On!” is the international association of children in museums. The conference is attended by over 300 museum professionals from across the globe and addresses the latest developments in children’s education and engagement in museums.

I created live iPad portraits of conference attendees in the closing reception party which took place in the beautiful atrium area of the newly renovated Rijksmuseum. My iPad display, and my painting process, was projected in real time onto a huge screen suspended in the atrium for all to enjoy.

My drawing of Annemies Broekgaarden, Head Public and Education at the Rijksmuseum and President of Hands On! for this conference is shown during it’s creation above.

With Annemies and Paul and my drawing of them

Drawing May using Zen Brush 2

Painting the iPad portrait of Tanya whose birthday it was that same day! She was shy about sitting for her portrait (her friends convinced her) but who then loved the experience and end result!

With Joerg Ehtreiber, Hands On! Treasurer and Director of Frida and Fred Children’s Museum, Graz, Austria – my portrait of him showing on the big screen. Below my iPad portrait of Sandra and Anna.

Thank you to the Rijksmuseum and the Hands On! Conference team for inviting me to participate in this wonderful conference.

Teaching Young People in Museums

Palorado is Esperanto for talking. It is a way to present an interesting topic in a short time, with or without pictures. During the palorado session at the Hands On! Conference, presenters get six minutes each to discuss issues they are passionate about and to share new thoughts, encourage and inspire! My palorado, Kids, Art & iPads!, shared the incredibly inspiring results of teaching iPad drawing and painting to children aged 7 to 14 years old as part of a summer camp this past summer, which included taking them to draw in museums (the de Young, Legion of Honor and Asian Art Museums, San Francisco) and galleries, plus my experience teaching iPad drawing workshops earlier this year at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (one student shown drawing in the Weston Cast Court of the V&A immediately below), and at the Seoul Museum of Art. During these iPad art classes the kids gained invaluable artistic, as well as technical, skills and insights. They learned about art history; expanded their artistic horizons; learned first hand how to draw what they see; learned how to apply the principles of composition; learned how to work with patterns and symmetry; and learned how to use color in an expressive way. On the technical side the children learned not only how to use the apps and record replay videos of their creative process, but also the learned about the power of using multiple apps to create a single artwork (“app round-tripping”) to achieve a greater richness of result, taking advantage of the strengths of different media and tools. I’ve included some photos from the classes at the bottom of this web page.

The goal of my palorado presentation, Kids, Art & iPads!, was to encourage museums to bring together kids and iPad drawing, which some are already doing (such as at the multimedia lab of the new Rijksmuseum Teekenschool and at the Learning Center of the Victoria & Albert Museum) as a incredibly effective, empowering and engaging way for children to interact with, and learn from, the museums’ collections, using a medium, a mobile device, that comes naturally to them and through which they are used to engaging with the world.

Here are more photos (below) from iPad classes I have taught that involve young people in museums and galleries and relate to the topic of my palorado talk at “Hands On!”:

iPad drawing in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco