Category / Young Farming Champions

by Action4Agriculture

Grain industry sponsors next crop of Young Farming Champions

We have some exciting news

Australia’s leading grains research organisation, the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), is joining forces with Art4Agriculture as a sponsor for the 2014 Young Farming Champion program.

This also means schools participating in the Archibull Prize will have the opportunity to understand the interconnectedness of the landscape, their health and the Australian farmers who produce their food and fibre and showcase the grains industry on their artworks and through their blogs   

Our new partnership with GRDC and the next generation of grain growers will propel Wheat quoteAustralia’s grain industry towards a more innovative, rewarding and vibrant future as part of an exciting new partnership announced this week.

GRDC will join Australian Wool Innovation, MLA’s Target 100 campaign and Cotton Australia and Pauls and sponsor rising stars of the grain industry to become Art4Agriculture Young Farming Champions (YFC)

Their YFC will tour schools across Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, sharing the story of agriculture and sustainable food and fibre production. Grain Young Farming Champions will become respected youth spokespeople for the grain industry, encouraging consumers to be proud of and support Australian farmers.

GRDC Program Manager Capacity Building Kathleen Allan says the GRDC is very pleased to be an industry partner in the Art4 Agriculture program in 2014. “Art4Agriculture is an exciting initiative that provides professional development opportunities for young people in the grains industry and increases awareness amongst school children of the importance of agriculture and the range of career opportunities in the sector,” Ms Allan says.

“The GRDC invests in a range of skills and capacity building activities that are aimed at supporting current and potential future members of the Australian grains industry to improve their capacity to lead, learn, change, innovate and advance the industry,” she says.

At Art4Agriculutre we believe agriculture’s young people are the future. Without them we lose a generation of leaders, innovators and workers who may seek opportunities elsewhere.

We would like to congratulate GRDC on being a leader in engaging, nurturing and building the capacity of young people in the grains industry.

For more information on the Art4Agriculture Young Farming Champion program visit: http://www.art4agriculture.com.au/yfc

by Action4Agriculture

Judges visit the home of the Koalas

Day Ten of the Epic Archibull Judging Tour of 2013  and the last day! One last school to see before we can sleep for quite a while! We are back in country New South Wales and it is dry and HOT!

School Thirty Seven was Gunnedah High School

On a last rip to Gunnedah we met the dynamo that is Kate Mathieson who is very very committed to providing great agriculture experiences for her students and with the support of Cotton Australia was able to bring  the Archibull back to Gunnedah High School

Gunnedah High School Kapas (12)

This year the students have named their Archibull “Kapas”!  (Name derived from name of the unginned cotton or the white fibrous substance covering the seed that is obtained from the cotton plant.)

On one side of Kapas we see cotton before the harvest. In a clever collage made from cotton and about cotton, we see a pictorial timeline of the cotton plant’s growth. Underlying these images is the water, which is so essential to the industry. We also see the environmental factors which affect cotton growth, as well as what can be made from 1 bale of cotton.

Gunnedah High School Kapas (3)

On the other side, we see cotton after the harvest. We see its export to the world, its production, and the variety of ways that even the by-products of cotton can be used so that nothing is wasted.

Gunnedah High School Kapas (1)

On her neck and chest are multicoloured handprints of students from the school from years 6 to 12, parents and members of the community. These are present to show the importance of community to the cotton farming industry. On her rump and underneath is a collaged patchwork of unusual cotton fabrics which also represents the community which they live in. It is a patchwork of towns and paddocks. This is further reinforced by the logos of local cotton companies and producers on her udder, as well as the schools emblem and that of Cotton Australia.

 

Gunnedah High School Kapas (11)

A very big thankyou to all schools!

Thankyou for your beautiful work, for your enthusiasm, and for all the work you have put in. It is appreciated and truly wonderful. We hope you have enjoyed the programme and learnt something.

You can see all the finalists here

by Action4Agriculture

Judges visit the Beef Capital

Day Nine of the Epic Archibull Judging Tour of 2013 saw us thoroughly exhausted, we are in Rockhampton now. It is a beautiful day and we are ready to continue our judging at Rockhampton Regional Library. What an amazing building that is

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School Thirty Five was Rockhampton State High School

“Archi” literally tells this schools beef story!

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It is written clearly on her side so that everyone knows exactly what she is saying and what she stands for. It works well, and was very popular with the library patrons.

Rocky High Story of Beef

On the other side of “Archi”, the story centres on the unique beef supply chain. This story, rather than being told through words, is told through imagery and the tactile surface of the collage. The beef story starts with a timeline starting with cattle on the farm and:

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“progresses into the 3d representation of grain paddocks and truck transportation. The production part of the story ends at the abattoir where the cattle are processed.”

The imagery connects well with the story on the other side and creates a nice balance of writing, images and 3dimensional features.

On Archi’s grassy green base and legs are the subtle handprints and names of the students that contributed to the creation of this clever Archibull.

by Action4Agriculture

4500km to finish and two states to go

As you can imagine after travelling 4500km and then having to collate all the points for the big day I got a little behind sharing all the highlights from the schools.

So its time to bring you up to date Days 7 to 10 saw us tackle another two states

School Thirty One was Theodore Primary School

“Archicotton” is very special to the children of Theodore Primary who created her. She has ventured everywhere around the school and has even had tea with the principal! A very sociable Archie!

Theodore ACT (121)

Theodore ACT (149)

Theodore PS P1030560

She takes the form of a model on the catwalk – smooth and perfect skin, beautiful long eyelashes, sparkles on her feet, and plenty of bling!

However, it is her amazing coat of many colours which is her most beautiful feature.

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Not only does it stand out visually and contrast beautifully with her ebony skin, but it also tells us alot about the cotton industry in Australia. It is a precise patchwork made from a variety of richly coloured cotton fabrics.

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The coat has then been cleverly collaged with a variety of cotton facts and imagery. The patches and images have then been outlined with multicoloured Jewels (perfect for any model!)

Theodore PS P1040026

This coat, and the fact that it is removable, will allow the whole school (including the Pre-school), to play with and learn from Archicotton- both as a cow and as a representative of the cotton industry. Well Done!

 

Day Eight of the Epic Archibull Judging Tour of 2013 saw us fly to Brisbane to tackle our third state in three days!

School Thirty Two was Bulimba State Primary School

“Giselle la Mucca” is as bright as a button!

Bulimba State School (14)

She is unusual and interesting and incredibly tactile. Made from an interesting combination of painted finishes and photo and button collages, it is her tactile surface that really stands out.

“We liked how the buttons have different textures and we want people to touch it.”

Bulimba State School (4)

The button collage of hundreds of buttons, is reminiscent of Aboriginal dot painting. Its subtlety and intricate patterning gives a beautiful depth to the colouring.

She tells the story from city to farm:

Bulimba State School (10)

“the city side demonstrates events and places that are important to us, River Fire, the Storey Bridge and the city skyline. These are all things we see from our school. We used bright colours on the country side as we felt that the country was ‘fresh’ and ‘full of life’ while the city is not so bright during the day but at night has lots of lights on in the buildings.”

Bulimba State School (12)

by Action4Agriculture

Selling the farm

selling the farm

Thinking about a career in agriculture or thinking about showcasing a career in agriculture by sharing your story?  Well we have the perfect vehicle for you

Art4Agriculture Young Farming Champions

One of the great outcomes each year when we review the Archibull Prize Exit surveys is to see how much impact our Young Farming Champions have on the students and teachers.

Part of the program connects schools with Young Farming Champions – who are based all over the state (some in and around capital cities) and have found their way into agriculture through many different and interesting avenues.

This year alone we have agronomists, meat marketers, cotton growers, wool classers and auctioneers, wool producers, veterinarians,  dairy farmers, beef producers and grazing land management officers… to name a few! And they all love talking about their jobs. You can read a little more about them here

We ask the students participating in the Archibull Prize the questions “Do you think agriculture is interesting?” and ‘Do you think agriculture is a good career choice for a young person?’ and the results are a resounding yes

Expressions of interest are now being called for the 2014 Young Farming Champion!

Art4Agriculture’s Young Farming Champions program for 2014 will train a team of 12 young farmers from regional Australia to actively engage with students in their local schools. The student groups will enter their project work to win the ‘Archibull Prize’.

Our Young Farming Champions will also have the opportunity to participate in a comprehensive and diverse array of initiatives offered by our supporting partners. These events will provide a platform from which to develop, build and strengthen the capacity of the Young Farming Champions and allow primary industries to develop key farmer-to-stakeholder and farmer-to-consumer relationships.

Through their involvement in Art4Agriculture school programs our Young Farming Champions will be able to directly market their food or fibre industry and its diverse career pathways to a captive and relevant audience.

The legacy of the Young Farming Champions program is to create an Australia wide network of enthusiastic young professionals and build their capacity to promote Australian agriculture as a dynamic, innovative, rewarding and vibrant industry.

The program connects young people from different food and fibre industries. They get to see their similarities, they find common ground, they realise each has issues that are just as challenging, and they learn how they can help each other.

They see the agricultural community can be designed by their choices. They see the future is not out there; it’s not happening to us – we’re the creators.

If this is you email me Lynnestrong@art4agriculture.com.au for an Expression of Interest Form or read me here

by Action4Agriculture

The 2013 Grand Champion Archibull Prize winner is

 

Its now time to reveal the Winner of the Grand Champion Archibull for 2013

 

The judges have travelled over 4500km to talk to the students and view their artwork. They have spent 1000’s of hours reading blogs and reviewing PowerPoint and video entries and now the points have been collated.

 

The awards venue has been found, the finalists have been announced, the herd rounded up and loaded, invitations sent, community fund raising events have been held to fly rural students to Sydney, Young Farming Champions have packed their bags to take the road trip, special guests will be there and tension is mounting    .

 

Now in the spirit of building that tension even further before we make the big announcement lets take a quick reflection on why it all began

 

Everybody has to eat, everybody needs to wear clothes, everybody needs to have shelter. Yet like many other people around the world Australians tend to give very little thought to the origins of where our food and fibre comes from let alone the people who grow and produce it.

 

As passionate producers and loud and proud producer AGvocates the team at Art4Agriculture found this sad but also exciting.

We saw this disconnect as a great opportunity to jump in and join the next generation mosh pit of bright minds and ideas for unbridled thinking and questioning and come up with new ways of having powerful conversations and forging new boundary-busting connections between producers and consumers.

 

What better way to do this than tap into areas that agriculture wouldn’t normally reach through art and multimedia and leverage off Australia’s most famous art prize

 

Hence the Archibull Prize was born.

 

Each year the Archibull Prize Awards and Exhibition Ceremony brings bright young Australian minds and their big ideas together to share agriculture’s story through art and multimedia

 

Each year the ideas get bigger, the innovation seems apparently unparalleled and the technology mind-blowing

 

Without further ado it gives Art4Agriculture great pleasure to introduce the winners in all three categories and the Grand Champion Archibull for 2013

 

1.The  Champion Primary School Archibull Prize Winner is Gwynneville Public School Gwyneville Public School with Claudia Whythes-001l

The Gwynneville team with Claudia Wythes  from AWI

Gwynnevill PS

Gwynneville Public School, Wollongong  artwork entry Baa Baa Bovine

Visit their amazing blog Moo2Ewe

2. The Winner of Champion Archibull Prize (Program B) is Trangie Central School

Trangie Central School with Sara Leonardi McGrath

Trangie Central School with Sara McGrath

Trangie Central School

Trangie Central School with their artwork masterpiece combination of technology and innovation

Trangie Central School John Bull (30)

Visit the Trangie Central School blog here

Watch their video entry here

DRUM ROLL

The winner of the Champion Archibull Program A and the Grand Champion Archibull Prize for 2013 is Shoalhaven High School

Michael Bullen Sara McGrath Shoalhaven High School

Shoalhaven High School with A/G Director General of Department of Primary Industries Michael Bullen and Sara McGrath

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Visit the Shoalhaven High School Blog here

Watch their award winning video here

To view the event video and see all the action

Once we have all the official photos we will load all the results

Congratulations to all the schools and students involved you have all done agriculture very proud

Some great pix by Sally White from The Land can be found here’

To see the winner of the People’s Pick visit here

by Action4Agriculture

Pick the winner of the 2013 Archibull Prize

The big day is tomorrow for all our finalists involved in the 2013 Archibull Prize.

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14 Schools have been selected based on their artwork to send their cows the Awards and Exhibition ceremony

Now its time for the Peoples Pick.

Who will you chose to win the 2013 Archibull Prize

Click on the pictures to see the cows in full glory 

 

by Action4Agriculture

Whole of community involvement at Boorowa Central School makes a great story as part of day 7 of Archibull Prize 2013 judging journey

Day 7 took us from Junee to Boorowa and School’s Twenty Nine and Thirty with Boorowa Central School (Primary) first up

“Patchetta” is bold and colourful and tells a wonderful story about wool.

Boorowa (12)

She has multi coloured ‘patches’ with images and information which is relevant to various sectors of the wool industry in Australia. The content of these sectors was driven by the research groups that the class was divided into. These sectors included: What can wool be made into; Different types of wool; A photo collage; A timeline of the wool industry in Australia; Shearing tools; Different places that sell wool; Fleecy and Woolly facts; and Scarf felting.

Boorowa (16)

Each group did their research work, and then designed their own ‘patch’ on “Patchetta” to tell their story. The combination of these patched stories gives a wonderfully complete picture of the wool industry.

Boorowa (32)

The felted scarf is colourful, beautiful and very well made! The perfect accessory!

Next up was School Thirty: Boorowa Central School (Secondary)

“Archibella Milkshake Boo” very much has her own personality. Her unusual name was the result of suggestions from the school community. “Archibella” (because she is a female Archibull!) and “Milkshake” were the two favourite names chosen by the school, and “Boo” stands for Boorowa.

Boorowa (40)

Her personality shines through everything on her, but particularly is reflected through her makeup and the flamboyant socks (from Crookwell), her scarf and her horn decorations.

This school took a unique approach to their Archie:

“though our fibre was wool, we decided to tell our wool story with the assistance of the beef meat cuts, to translate the connection between the cow canvas and the fibre we were allocated. In the various cuts of meat, the Boorowa Central Archibull team translated their interpretation of what wool meant to the township of Boorowa.”

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by Action4Agriculture

Junee spins us a yarn on Day 7 of judging 2013 Archibull Prize

Junee High School and its feeder primary schools – Junee Public School, Ilabo Public School, Eurongilly Public School and Junee North Public School tackled the wool industry for the 2013 Archibull Prize

The 4 primary schools were involved in the painting of the mini Archie “Micron” who is very unique. Never before have we had a little calf that has been such a team effort! Each school was assigned one quarter of Micron and could decorate her in any way they chose.

Junee PS (56)

Each story is remarkably different, with a different stylistic approach and emphasis, though all are firmly embedded in the wool industry.

Junee North Public School created a vibrant woollen patchwork effect, to take us visually ‘from the catwalks to backyards’, and looks at the multitude of products created from wool. A patch of actual knitted wool, complete with knitting needles, finishes the picture.

Ilabo Public School highlighted the importance and significance of the environment to the wool industry. They also identified some of the features that are critical to sheep and to wool production, including feed and water.

Eurongilly Public School showed us a timeline of wool production – from wool on a sheep, to wool in packs leaving the farm. They feature actual samples of wool and of a wool pack.

Junee Public School created a visual narrative of the wool consumer. Shown through black and white imagery, the consumer is literally surrounded by everything that has been considered when creating and buying a woollen product.

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Great collaborative effort to all four schools!

School Twenty Eight: Junee High School

“Meria” gives the phrase ‘riding on the sheep’s back’ new meaning!

Junee HS (7)

The name “Meria” represents all Merino sheep (and other sheep too!), with an ‘A’ for Australia at the end. She tells us all about the wool industry in Australia.

She starts on the farm (as you would expect!) and gives us a pictorial timeline from sheep on the farm, to the shearing shed and its operation (which you can open and peer into), and then to the transportation of wool away from the farm.

Junee (17)

She then continues the story on her other side, with the processing, the export of wool to the world and the final products. A spinning wheel spins a thread around these stories linking them together.Junee HS (2)

Riding on her back, under the shade of the tree (that becomes her tail) are a pen (made from shearing combs) of woolly sheep waiting to be shorn. On the knitted patchwork of paddocks underneath, stands the shorn sheep (including the lone black sheep of the family!).

Junee HS (6)

Her face tells us many of the colloquial sayings which revolve around the wool industry, such as ‘clipped by the shears’ or ‘pulling the wool over my eyes’.

Junee (60)

This cow definitely knows how ‘to spin a yarn!’

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by Action4Agriculture

On Day 6 Archibull judging we saw and talked a lot of bull

School Twenty Six of the Epic 2013 Archibull Prize judging road trip saw Wendy and Lynne visit Trangie via Dubbo for the first time

Trangie Central School’s “John Bull” is a MACHINE! Lights, sounds and action! He is a very clever cow who can teach you a lot about the cotton picker and its processes. He is the King of the Paddock!”

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John Bull (like his namesake John Deere) is integral to the cotton industry, and focuses in particular on the technical aspects of the industry. He is based on the revolutionary John Deere 7760, which is the most advanced cotton picker available. His paint is even authentic John Deere paint! Very authentic!

He uses actual yellow cotton picker ‘boots’ at the front to pick the cotton and to discard the trash. The circuitry on his sides represents the technology and microchips that help machinery such as this to run. The iPad embedded in his side adds to this and tells even more stories about cotton.

Trangie Central School John Bull (8)

Cotton is caught at the front, picked and sorted as it moves through the cow, to emerge briefly on its way to the catcher where bales are formed. The bales are held, and then dropped at the end of the row.

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Movers and Shakers in Cotton

In this case, the cotton bales are very unique and show the process from a mini raw cotton bale, to refined and then to one made from cotton products. This bale also shows logos of local cotton groups and producers, as well as sample pouches of the stages of cotton production and the by-products.

Trangie Central School John Bull (14)

All that is left to tell of the cotton story from Trangie is the postcode of where John Bull was made and where he lives – 2823 written proudly on his side!

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