THIS Saturday January 14 the Hamilton Gallery is hosting two free sculpture workshops for children aged three to 10 led by local artist and photographer, Madi Whyte.

The emerging artist forged the large-scale sculptures reminiscent of paper clips currently on display at the Hamilton Gallery as part of their contemporary exhibition, ‘Here and Now’.

Based in Hamilton and exhibiting across Australia, Ms Whyte is influenced by her own rural upbringing on Gunditjmara Country and her early experiences with culture.

“From my early years seeing Dad welding everything from farm equipment to creative projects, I’ve been fascinated with exploring line colour and form,” she said.

Throughout my creative career to date I’ve engaged with children in hands on ways, so I’m really excited to host these workshops with the Hamilton Gallery to engage young people with sculpture and art.”

Ms Whyte will teach young creative children how to work with tactile 3D materials like wire, clay and paper in these workshops, opening up discussion and moments of play.

Ages three to seven will use age-safe materials to create unique take-home structures exploring line and form from 11am-12pm at The Hamilton Gallery, with ages five to 10 taking over the space from 1-2pm.

These workshops are part of the gallery’s most ambitious creative programs to date, with further opportunities to connect with the four South West Victoria based artists before the exhibition closes on Sunday, February 26.

On Friday, January 20, the gallery will once again host a free ‘creative mixer’, bringing together creatives of all kinds from across the region.

Free artist talks by Kathryn Ryan and Madi Whyte will occur at 11am on Saturday, January 21 and Saturday, January 28 respectively.

Ms Whyte will also host a ‘Grampians and Grazing’ photography workshop in the National Park on Saturday, February 4, followed by a visit to Paper Scissors Rock Brew Co. in Halls Gap.

The Gallery will also host a series of free art activities for ages four to 18 on Tuesday, January 24 as part of the NGV ‘Kids On Tour’ program.

Young artists can make a sculpture, a collage, a poem, a portrait, a creature, a drawing or even an anime and comic-book inspired character inspired by the NGV Kids exhibition ‘Making Art: Imagine Everything is Real’.