News

Winter Down-Under School July 2006

Planning has commenced for an intensive five-day southern winter/northern summer school to be held at Dromkeen in July 2006. This will consist of three streams, one designed with an academic focus, one with a teacher focus, and one with a creative writing/illustration focus. The program will be lead by authors and illustrators, teacher educators, and children's literature specialists with international reputations including Professor Perry Nodelman (author of Words About Pictures).

Negotiations are currently taking place with several universities for this program to be given course credit. We are interested in discussing this further with any interested institution.

Dromkeen is an historic homestead in rural Victoria, which houses a unique collection of original art works and manuscripts of Australian picture books past and present. Situated in the small town of Riddell's Creek (about an hour's drive from the city centre of Melbourne and thirty minutes from Melbourne International Airport) the house is listed with the National Trust and is surrounded by twenty-five acres of garden and grasslands, gum and wattle trees. A family of peacocks roams around the homestead (and sometimes inside it!) at will.

Accommodation will be limited, so early bookings are advised. Accommodation will not be included in the Winter Down Under School price, but there will be a choice of places to stay, and it will be arranged by the organisers.

Dromkeen is situated near many scenic and literary landmarks, including Mount Macedon and Hanging Rock, the latter made famous in the book (and later film) Picnic at Hanging Rock (the book was written by Joan Lindsay and the film directed by Peter Weir).

For further information contact:
Dromkeen
1012 Kilmore Road
Riddells Creek 3431
Victoria Australia
Ph 61 3 5428 6799
Fx 61 3 5428 6830
Email dromkeen @ scholastic.com.au
www.scholastic.com.au

ACLAR Conference
The Australasian Association for Children's Literature and Research (ACLAR) presents its biennial conference. July 16-17 2004 Sydney, Australia. The conference theme is 'Imaging Childhood'. CREA is a partner in organising this conference which will be held at the UTS city campus.

K-6 Creative Arts Syposium 17-18 June 2004. (PDF, 30k)
CREA is hosting this AIS symposium for teachers. Includes a range of plenary sessions and workshop  choices from the four strands of creative arts. Places still available.

New Research
CREA's Dr Anne Bamford is conducting innovative new research involving the use of the creative arts to address adolescent learning issues. Her co-researchers are Reg Newitt from the NSW Department of Education and Training and Jan Irvine from the NSW Ministry of the Arts. The project has the support of the DET and the Ministry for the Arts as well as the Australian Theatre for Young People, Musica Viva in Schools, the Western Sydney Dance Action Program, Campbelltown Bicentennial Gallery and Bathurst Regional Gallery. For more information about this exciting project see a recent media clipping.

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