Way Out West Festival
Think arts and kids don’t mix? Tell that to Jacqueline Hornjik, curator of Sydney’s only contemporary arts festival dedicated to children. By Emma Joyce
Last year 9,000 kids and their grown-ups flocked to Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre for Way Out West Festival. The four days of free creative activities is created for ages 0-12, and it includes hands-on workshops with leading Australian artists, world premiere performances and a chance to colour bomb the building using a catapult. Time Out spoke to Hornjik about this year’s theme ‘making your mark’ and connecting children with art through play.
Jacqueline, what was your favourite thing about last year’s festival? The best thing that we did last year was Tanabata: we used 103 kilometres of yarn and three kilometres of bamboo to make this incredible installation. But the one that was most meaningful for me was Stories with the Stars. I took my autistic son in there and it was beautiful. He’s still non-verbal, but he said a couple of words [during that experience]. That was a huge highlight for me.
Looking at this year’s program, what do you think will have the biggest ‘wow’ factor? I think it’ll be Pipe Dreams Green. An eightmetre-high giant sculptural tree made out of PVC corrugated piping will be ‘played’ by a company called Ensemble Offspring using leaf blowers. Kids will get to create their own roots, and we expect there’ll be cubbyhouses to explore, too.
What will be the messiest activity? We’ll have a giant catapult called The Colourpult. It’ll be a medieval-style catapult and kids can colourbomb the outside of the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. What’s on the program for bubs? We have Drop Bear Theatre Company performing Rain. There will be beautiful giant raindrops hanging from the ceiling and a cellist playing. It’s for little babies (ages 14 months and under) with their parents. It’s a really beautiful, intimate experience. Also, Colour Connect Create is a baby station where ages 0-3 can experience different things – for example, shadow puppetry.
What’s going to get kids moving? Probably our Baby
“Kids can colour bomb the outside of the centre”
Disco and Winner Takes All sessions. This time Baby Disco is curated by kids – they’ll get to pick the playlist. Winner Takes All is your ultimate hip-hop, DJ dancebattle. Whoever wins gets everything.
What’s going to make us LOL? The funniest thing will be Simon Tedeschi: Pianist and Prankster. He is an internationally renowned pianist and a really cheeky guy. He’ll read an excerpt from a book while playing Rachmaninoff! Then there’s Laser Beak Man created by Tim Sharp. He’s an autistic artist and he looks at the world from a very obvious perspective. For example, there’s a work called ‘Barbie Q’, which is 30 Barbies waiting in line for a barbecue. A lot of kids see the world that way.
Casula Powerhouse
1 Powerhouse Rd, Casula 2170. 02 9824 1121. www. wayoutwestfestival.com.au. Daily 9.30am-3.30pm. Free. Jul 8-11.