Add a touch of Parisian experience to your autumn holiday by joining our workshops at the Gallery. Let your creativity soar in a range of sessions designed for families and children. At the end of the program you are invited back to come and admire the work that our emerging artists have created in a unique, collaborative, and cumulative exhibition! 

2 - 12 April 2024
Dudley House, 60 View Street, Bendigo.

Clay Building

Inspired by the streets of Paris, get your hands dirty at Dudley House during our Festival of Brights! Join us to shape and mould your very own clay creation – it could be a cute cottage, a quirky dwelling, or whatever sparks your imagination.

Tuesday, 2 April 2024
10am - 11am (3-7 years old)
11:30am - 12:30pm (3-7 years old)
1pm - 2pm (8-14 years old)

$12

Closed

Paris Paste-Ups with Frankie O’Toole

Do you love to MAKE? 

Come create PARIS with us!

Using all the colours and a lot of cardboard, tape, and glue, we will make the famous buildings of Paris. Giant size constructions decorated by all the kids involved in the workshops.

At the end we will have an amazing display for everyone to enjoy who visits Dudley House. 

Wednesday, 3 April 2024
10am - 10:45am (3-7 years old)
11:30am - 12:15pm (8-14 years old)
1pm - 1:45pm (open age)

$12

Closed

Paris Street Mural

Children join us to celebrate the joy of artistic expression at the Education Team’s Festival of Brights! In response to the Bendigo Art Gallery's captivating exhibition, Paris: Impressions of Life 1880-1923. Our workshop invites participants to contribute to a vibrant Paris streetscape mural. Dive into a world of creativity using stamping, drawing, collage, and textures to infuse the mural with life and colour. This collaborative project promises to be both playful and community-driven, making it a perfect opportunity for artistic minds.

All sessions suitable Suitable for children 3-15 years of age (parents of children 3-7 can sit with children on a family making table)  

Thursday, 4 April 2024
10am and 1pm

$12

Closed

Open Range Art 

Discover the excitement of Open Range Art, surrounded by our Paris inspired Community Mural. A free program where your creativity comes to life in 30-minute in a session. Using a mix of recycled and new materials, join us for an inspiring artistic adventure. 

Don't miss out – make a booking and let your imagination roam freely with Open Range Art! 

Friday, 5 April 2024 and Tuesday, 9 April 2024 (repeat sessions)
11am, 11:30am, 12pm, and 12:30pm
30 minutes per session

FREE

Closed

La Belle Époque Sketch Salon

Join us for a family friendly and fun drawing session as we draw a clothed life model who will be wearing costume from Paris’ La Belle Epoque period!    

Would you like to dress up too? You’re welcome to come along in period costume or bring your outfit along and put it on when you arrive. Our model Bridget Farmer will be striking a pose, but if you feel inclined, perhaps you might even pose too!

Please note:
*This is a family friendly session open to anyone aged 10 and up.
* Pencils, paper, clipboards provided, but you are welcome to bring your own sketch book and graphite pencil if you prefer.
* This is a non-tutored drawing session – our model will pose – and the rest is up to you! 

Saturday, 6 April 2024
10am-11am family session (open age) 

$12

Closed

Click here to join the adult session at Drury Court Bendigo Art Gallery

Carnival of the Animals: Creating Collage Creatures

Join Bendigo Art Gallery’s Lena Mitchell for an explorative journey into a musical movement from Parisian composer Camille Saint-Saëns masterpiece work: ‘Carnival of the Animals’. We will listen to a movement, explore characters through drama, and create our own artistic response! 

Families will have three works to choose from and children’s interests can guide which one you choose:

• The Swan: Do you ever wish you were as majestic as a swan? Join us as we listen to ‘The Swan,’ explore the swans of Paris, and create swans of our own!
•  Aquarium: Join us as we listen to the Aquarium movement and imagine the aquatic life in the waters of the river Seine.
• Fossils: Can you imagine a time before Paris existed when dinosaurs roamed France?  Come with us as we listen to ‘Fossils’ and explore what would happen if dinosaurs lived in Paris now! 

Monday, 8 April 2024
10am – 10.45am (Aquarium) 
11am – 11.45am (The Swan) 
1pm-1.45pm (Fossils) 

 $12

Closed

Wish You Were Here: Watercolour Postcards from Paris!

Bring your family along and be Inspired by the enchanting streets of Paris, In response to The Bendigo Art Gallery exhibition, ‘Paris: Impressions of Life 1880-1925'. Join us for a unique experience of designing and drawing your own postcard. 

The postcard becomes a canvas for your creativity, and you're invited to write a heartfelt message before sending it off to a friend.

Thursday, 11 April 2024
10am - 11am
1pm - 2pm

$12

Printing the Pigeons of Paris with Bridget Farmer

Join printmaker Bridget Farmer in creating a flock of pigeons to fly over Paris!

Participants will use printing and stamping techniques to create two pigeons – one to take home, and one to add to the exhibition created throughout the City of Brights school holiday exhibition!

Join us and let your imagination soar.

Wednesday, 10 April 2024
10am - 11am (3-7 years old)
11.30am - 12.30am (8-14 years old)
1pm - 2pm (open age)

$12

Nat Bartsch: Family Concert in Dudley House Gallery

Join us for this very special event! Aria nominated pianist, Nat Bartsch has performed on Play School, with the Teeny Tiny Stevies, and with some of Australia’s most well-loved musicians in Australia and across the world. But Nat is best known for her Aria nominated lullaby album, ‘Forever, and No Time At All’, which people of all ages and stages of life are moved and soothed by.

Bring your family to see Nat perform a selection of her music in the wonderful surrounds of Dudley House Gallery (surrounded by children’s artworks).

Book now and don’t miss out on this unique opportunity!

Friday, 12 April 2024
10am – 10:45am

$5 children / $10 Adults

Nat Bartsch: Relaxed Concert in Dudley House Gallery

This very special ‘Relaxed Performance’ is specifically suited for audiences with sensory sensitivities, and provides an environment for children and adults to have flexibility to be relaxed.  This includes adjusting the performance to the audience, make necessary changes to volume, and inviting attendees to stim, move, stand up, draw, or move to a quieter space if needed.

Nat will play soothing, repetitive pieces she has composed herself. Some of her songs are lullabies from her album Forever, and No Time At All, which might help you feel relaxed. Other songs are from her album Hope, which might make you feel hopeful.

Nat Bartsch is a twice ARIA-nominated Australian pianist and composer known for her ethereal, meditative, and lyrical music. Her music deftly walks across a spectrum from neoclassical to jazz, also dipping into the worlds of chamber music, children’s music and post-rock. Nat is proudly neurodivergent.

Individuals and community groups are welcome to join us for this performance.

Friday 12 April 2024
11.30am –12.15pm

$5 children / $10 Adults

City of Brights Children’s Exhibition Finale

Come and admire the final showing of the work that our emerging artists have created throughout the ‘City of Brights’ holiday program in this unique, collaborative, and cumulative exhibition.  Then we invite the participating families and community to come and take home a piece of Paris, as we deinstall the City of Brights Children’s exhibition. Come and choose your favourite piece and take it home - it might be something you’ve made, or something else entirely! We’ll be sad to see it go but happy the work is going to appreciative homes. 

Saturday 13 April 2024
10am – 12pm: Come and see the exhibition finale
12pm – 2pm: Take home a piece of Paris

Dudley House, 60 View Street, Bendigo