In early July the IMA hosted nine budding young art critics for our three-day Art Enquirer program, presented with Flying Arts Alliance.

The participants—senior high school students from regional Queensland, New South Wales, and Brisbane—were given tours from curators and gallerists of a number of Brisbane’s key galleries. Stops on their cultural tour included: Edwina Corlette Gallery, Jan Murphy Gallery, Metro Arts, Mitchell Fine Art, Philip Bacon Galleries, QUT Art Museum, and the IMA galleries.

The group were treated to a studio visit with artist Vernon Ah Kee, and a tour of the studios of artists Dale Harding, Ross Manning, and Sandra Selig with Milani Gallery’s Amy-Clare McCarthy.

After a full schedule of talks and arts writing sessions, the group were able to let their hair down at our First Thursdays Femioke event and tried out their curatorial skills, directing a self-organised hotel art crit session.

The students will produce texts reflecting on artworks of their choice, to be compiled into the third edition of Art Enquirer, due for publication late October.