A range of hands-on art-making activities encouraging children to reflect on climate change and the environment will tour to more than 100 regional and remote venues across Queensland, including the Torres Strait Islands, from January to April, 2021.

Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Director Chris Saines said ‘Now is the Time: Kids on Tour’ was a project developed by contemporary Australian artist Raquel Ormella in collaboration with QAGOMA.

‘Ormella is an artist with a diverse creative practice that includes video, installation, drawings and zines. She has an ongoing interest in the many ways contemporary art can encourage processes of self-examination, political consciousness and social action,’ Mr Saines said.

‘In first developing this project, Ormella was inspired by children around the world calling for awareness and action on climate change. ‘Now is the Time’ is about engaging our youngest audiences through art on the most important contemporary issues related to the environment.

‘We have presented ‘Now is the Time’ as a major exhibition at the Children’s Art Centre at GOMA since August 2020 and we are thrilled to now be touring the main activities from the show to regional and remote centres including Cairns, Bedourie, Goondiwindi, Gympie, Ingham, Longreach, Lockyer Valley, Thargomindah and five Indigenous knowledge centres in the Torres Strait in early 2021.

‘Children across the state will be able to reflect on contemporary environmental issues and contribute to the dialogue on climate change in thoughtful and creative ways,’ he said.

‘Now is the Time: Kids on Tour’ invites children to create their own climate change placards, design a bespoke protest T-shirt, vote for what they care about, and share their climate message on collaborative drawing sheets designed by the artist. They can draw inspiration from posters with historical and contemporary protest imagery and watch two videos created by Raquel Ormella with students from Brisbane’s Junction Park State School, in which kids create their own protest song and share their views on climate action.

‘Now is the Time: Kids on Tour’ is a Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art program presented in association with the Children’s Art Centre exhibition ‘Now is the Time’ currently showing at the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane until 1 August, 2021.

Kids on Tour is a free program for regional Queensland audiences delivered by the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA).

For more information about ‘Now is the Time: Kids on Tour’ visit https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/touring/now-is-the-time-kids‑tour