Get ready for an artistic adventure these summer school holidays! NGV Kids on Tour is back this January with free school holiday art activities for kids across Victoria, including making a playful cat and dog ear headband, illustrating a Kusama-inspired pumpkin, and creating fashion designs for paper dolls. The 2025 NGV Kids on Tour marks the largest ever program to date with more than 150 venues participating across metropolitan and outer metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria, from Thomastown to Colac, Mildura to Swan Hill, Eltham to the Yarra Ranges. The Tour will reach galleries, libraries, hospitals, migrant resource centres, community hubs and more.
Coinciding with the NGV’s summer exhibitions Yayoi Kusama and Cats & Dogs, NGV Kids on Tour celebrates the work of local and international artists and designers, as they draw inspiration from the colour and vibrancy of nature and the world around them.
In celebration of the Cats & Dogs exhibition, children can design a Furry Friend Headband, a set of cat or dog ears inspired by their own beloved pets or furry animals in their lives that they can take home and wear.
Kids across Victoria will also be able to enjoy the work of iconic Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama in the Lots of dots with Yayoi Kusama activity and children’s book. Pumpkins have appeared in Kusama’s artworks since a young age growing up on a seed and plant farm, and this drawing activity invites children to add their favourite colours and designs to dots on a pumpkin and write a short poem about the humble fruit. While young ones will be able to spot big dogs, little dots and shiny dots in Lots of dots story time sessions.
Melbourne-based fashion designers and sisters Fatuma and Laurinda Ndenzako from slow fashion label Collective Closets celebrate the beauty and history of the African continent through their designs. The designers have developed the Fashion, Culture & Creativity with Collective Closets activity where kids and families will create paper dolls and design their own vibrant clothing for the dolls to wear.
Children will learn about bogong moths in the drawing activity developed by Dr Deanne Gilson, a proud Wadawurrung woman living on her ancestral Country of Ballarat. In the activity Bogong Moths with Dr Deanne Gilson, kids will discover fascinating facts about the special Australian insect including how it avoids predators and its important place in our ecosystem.
NGV Kids on Tour also invites teenagers to learn about the creative practices of emerging artists and build skills for their own art portfolios through an activity developed with Gamilaroi Yinarr weaver and textile artist Sophie Honess.
Designed especially for teens, the Make a Pompom with Sophie Honess activity invites participants to create a bush flower-inspired pompom using yarn, embroidery thread and colourful felts to use as accessories on bags or key chains.
Colin Brooks, Minister for Creative Industries, said: ‘Australia’s most popular gallery delivers again with the return of these incredible, free kids programs, ensuring kids of all ages can continue to learn, create and have a whole lot of fun over the school holidays. No matter where you live, the free NGV Kids on Tour and NGV Kids Summer Festival programs are just two ways we are providing more Victorians with access to quality, free creative experiences this summer.’
Tony Ellwood AM, Director, NGV, said: ‘In 2024 the NGV Kids on Tour program reached over 10,000 children across Victoria. This summer the Tour once again extends free art-making activities to kids and families throughout the region through partnerships with over 150 participating venues. The NGV is committed to ensuring all young Victorians have access to enriching creative experiences whether that be at the Gallery or through the Kids on Tour program visiting their local community.’
The NGV Kids on Tour program aims to share the joys of art and creativity with children and families across Victoria by partnering with community-minded venues and organisations over the summer holiday period. NGV Kids on Tour takes place in January 2025 at venues across regional and metropolitan Victoria. For individual program dates visit the websites of the venues listed below.
NGV extends sincerest thanks to Event Partner Officeworks, for their generous support of NGV Kids on Tour 2025.
NGV programming for children and families at the Gallery this summer includes Yayoi Kusama’s The Obliteration Room, 2002 in the Children’s Gallery and the NGV Kids Summer Festival running from 11 – 17 January 2025. The Festival offers free events for families at NGV International and The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, including hands-on workshops and activities inspired by NGV’s newest exhibitions, Cats & Dogs and Yayoi Kusama.
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