Our last network meeting for the year is titled ‘Nothing without joy.’ With that in mind, we would like to invite you to celebrate our connections and networking throughout the year and engage in a playful excursion TO MIKE Hewson’s ‘Keys under the mat’ interactive exhibition in the Tank at the Art Gallery of NSW.
Mike Hewson has reimagined the Tank as a combined park, playground, construction site, and common space, A sculptural neighbourhood where we can all meet, play, CREATE, PERFORM, explore, discover and find joy
It was constructed from thousands of salvaged objects and materials, as an experiment in participation, a spirited act of reclamation and regeneration, a radical rework of the legacies of modern sculpture, and a provocation about what a truly welcoming art museum might look like.
Mike Hewson welcomes us all to use the artwork as our own – ‘the key’s under the mat, make yourself at home’
LOCATION: ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES, NAALA BADU BUILDING, LOWER LEVEL 4, NELSON PACKER TANK ON GADIGAL COUNTRY
DATE: WEDNESDAY 3RD DECEMBER 2025
TIME: 6:00 PM—8:00 pm. Meet us by the statues at Naala Badu outside. We’ll head in and explore together. We hope you will Join Us afterwards for our celebration picnic and discussion in the outdoor garden designed by Jonathon Jones, where we will share a picnic.
Please bring something to share.
How to get there and where to park: Bus 441 – Departs from the York Street side of Queen Victoria Building (Stand D) and drops off near the Art Gallery. Returns to Queen Victoria Building, picking up outside the Art Gallery.
Courtesy bus – During Art After Hours on Wednesday nights, a courtesy bus departs from the bus stop on Art Gallery Road in front of the Art Gallery every 20 minutes from 7 pm until closing. Stops include various locations in the city near public transport hubs at Town Hall (Castlereagh St and Park St), Martin Place (Macquarie St) and Wynyard (Castlereagh St and Hunter St).
Train – St James and Martin Place stations are both about A 10-minute walk.
Parking–Meter parking on Mrs Macquaries Road and other streets around the Art Gallery.
Parking stations – There are several car parks near the Art Gallery. The closest is the Domain Car Park, $12 after 5.00 pm.
Acknowledgement of Country
In preparation for the meeting and our discussion at the picnic, we would like to share the following provocations:
‘An environment that responds is an environment that teaches.’
According to Malaguzzi, every child born into the world represents a challenge, an interrogation. A kind of adventurer who may venture a thousand unforeseeable paths. He has within himself the possibility, ‘the possibles’ of being different from how we know him. This is his freedom and his responsibility, the one that growing imposes on him’ (Hoyuelos, 2013, p. 65). This image of the child is one that we should consider in relation to the current image of the educator, most of whom are finding themselves in unknown and uncharted pedagogical waters. Educators have the possibility and perhaps freedom now to choose which of the thousand unforeseeable paths they will venture down. There are many strategies for educators to embrace the unknown, but whichever they choose, could they include the values of engagement, enchantment and joy? https://reggioaustralia.org.au/reframing-learning-a-pedagogy-of-joy/
The pedagogy of play is about bringing together children’s innate drive to play with educators’ goals for learning, in ways that are ‘joyful, meaningful, actively engaging, iterative and social.’ These are the five characteristics of playful learning. (Project Zero)
We will also share our ongoing reflections on our last meeting, the Mosaic of Marks exhibition, at the Marrickville Library, and ask for a shared insight into what 2026 could look like for Thinking Differently Together.
We look forward to seeing you, Virginia, Victoria, Paula and Deb.
