Our special guest of honour at the Archibull Prize Awards and Exhibition Day was Sara Leonardi- McGrath.
Sara McGrath and Young Farming Champion Richie Quigley announcing the Archibull Prize 2012 Winner
and the winner is …. James Ruse Agricultural High School
Sarah had some exciting news for the schools in the audience and we are ecstatic to announce that eight of our 2012 Archibulls will go on exhibition at MCLEMOI GALLERY, Sara Leonardi-McGrath’s contemporary art gallery, in Sydney next month.
Sara with some of the team from Tuggerah Lakes Secondary School, Berkeley Vale Campus whose cow will be on display her gallery from Jan 15 to 25th 2013
I was first contacted by Sara on twitter just after the launch of the Australian Year of the Farmer. We had coffee and it was clear she was a great admirer of women in the farming sector and was keen to promote Australian farmers in a hands on way.
Sara is keen to promote Australian farmers using her unique talents and Art4Agriculture couldn’t be happier
It is also highly evident that Sara was passionate about the development and education of next gen and enabling young people to reach their full potential. Excitingly for me and the team, Sara felt Art4Agriculture offered her a unique opportunity to deliver her vision for the promotion of our farmers and development of youth using her area of speciality the arts sector.
At that time Sara was spending every spare moment searching inner city real estate for the prefect place to open her art gallery and in June this year she opened MCLEMOI GALLERY at 45 Chippen Street, Chippendale.
MCLEMOI GALLERY – a unique space to exhibit the “Archibulls”
The gallery is known for representing Australian and international, established and emerging contemporary artists; and it certainly is a unique space to exhibit the “Archibulls.”
Sara has been in contact all year and is a huge supporter of the program and is always interested in our progress and the students’ artworks. We are thrilled she has invited the Archibulls to MCLEMOI. Sara is a great believer that educating our children is the most important role we have as a society. “While MCLEMOI’s main focus is on exhibiting Australian and international contemporary art, we are also committed to creating a sense of community and learning. We choose to support initiatives that focus on education, specifically in the arts. Providing an opportunity for these students to have their works exhibited in a commercial gallery, introduces them to professional artistic practices and hopefully instils in them a stronger interest and knowledge with art and culture” Sara said
Sara considers the fact that their artworks explore agricultural concepts builds an even more compelling reason to showcase their works. “Children need to be better informed when choosing what to eat as well as understanding where our food comes from. This is a vital first step in making informed choices. If we at MCLEMOI are able to encourage even one child to look further into the arts, if even by exploring other artists we work with; then we believe we have achieved our goal of fostering a generation of people who will also have a love and appreciation for the arts. This may only be achieved through exposure and creating an opportunity to be involved in the arts through galleries, whether it be commercially or not” Sara said
Hopefully the students will have an opportunity to explore the Museum of Contemporary Art and the White Rabbit, which are only stone throws away from MCLEMOI, while they are in Sydney .
We thank Sara for agreeing to host the Archibulls and invite you to visit them in Sydney.
The Archibulls will be on display at MCLEMOI GALLERY from 15 – 25 January 2013.
The gallery is open from Tuesday – Saturday, between 11am – 6pm at 45 Chippen Street, Chippendale.
Exhibiting schools are:
· Model Farms High School
· Macarthur Anglican School
· James Ruse Agricultural High School
· Cranebrook High School
· Tuggerah Lakes Secondary College, Berkeley Vale Campus
· Winmalee High School
· Hills Adventist College
· De La Salle College Caringbah