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Children from the Browning Early Learning Centre, Radford College.

What is art?
Radford Early Learning Centre

Children from the Kindergarten at Browning Early Learning Centre at Radford College, Canberra, looked at images of art, and had a discussion about what they believe art is.

What is art?

• Ruby 
  Art is things you draw and paint.
• Alyssa
  Art is special painting that people paint.
• Grace
  If they do it carefully and then it goes really nice, it is art.
• Dylan
  It is something very special, if you break it, it’s not nice to break it, if people make it you take care of it.
• Callum
  Like it’s someone’s writing, like adults do on the computer.
  

Is writing art?

• Jude
  Yes writing is good, like a picture.
• Ethan PW
  Everything people do is art, when you draw, spin on a wheel or do sculpture — messy things, it is still art.
• Jemima
  Art is a special thing, you feel sad when it breaks.
• Flynn
  It is not nice to scrunch other people’s art up.
• Bonnie    
  'You can do art again and again. It makes you mad if people scrunch it and you have to do it again.
• Lily C         
  'When you do something really good it is art.
• Christina     
  'Someone makes it; it does not have to be special to others.

Individual comments:

• Alyssa
  Painting carefully.
  
• Lily C
  Drawing that is really good.
  
• Henry
  Art has colours in it.
  
• Claire
  Art is something people make, it is special, some people like it and some don’t. You need your hands.
  
• Christina
  Art is very delicate to people but not to other people. Everybody has mistakes. You learn from your mistakes, even grownups learn, that’s how you learn it.
  
• Jude
  If it looks artish, it is art.
  
• Ruby
  Art is a thing, it is not magic.
  
• Lachlan
  Art is a beautiful drawing you do for your Mum and Dad. You have to learn how to do art.
  
• Douglas
  Art is something special to people.
  
• Callum
  Art is made of paper and people draw it and paint it and they think really hard. They can use a computer.
  
• Lily S
  Nature because it is beautiful, trees are important to us, if we didn’t have trees we wouldn’t have paper and we wouldn’t be able to draw. You can peel it off a tree.
• Sarah
  Art is a very special painting that if you lost it they would be desperate to find it. It looks beautiful, you need to paint it.
  
• Maxine
  You see it in a museum, if it is in a museum it is art.
  
• Lewis
  Something you do ... it goes in an art gallery.
  
• Samuel and Kate
  Writing — black and white letters like Chinese letters ... a big sentence.
  
• Rebecca
  A photo is not art … it is a photo.
  
• Kate
  Only adults can be artists ... Adults are good at holding things; you have to be good at holding things to be an artist.
• Isobel
  Art is something that is beautiful that you draw, paint with pencils or make with wood. I am an artist, I have a canvas.