I have always been a visitor to the National Art Gallery.
When I was an art student, I used to frequent the old building, which is now the Majestic Hotel Kuala Lumpur. I also have an appreciation for the current building along Jalan Tun Razak. I think it is just the right size for a gallery.
It is not as big as MoMA, or my personal favourite, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. But it is a good showcase of the art we have here in Malaysia.
I have always wished more people would visit. Many don't even know where it is.
The usual landmark given is “near Istana Budaya, opposite IJN, next to National Blood Centre.” Not exactly the easiest landmark to remember for an art gallery.
Fast forward a few years, and CreaTee had the opportunity to conduct our DIY T-shirt design workshop at Balai Seni Negara as part of the Merdeka celebration.
This year's theme was Cinta Buatan Malaysia.
Originally, we were supposed to have a stand-alone workshop, but after a little reshuffling, we were added to the weekend celebration programme instead.
Fourteen free spots were made available to the public, and they filled up pretty quickly.
We started promptly at 10.30am. We had arrived about half an hour earlier to set up, and some of the participants came early too.
The younger ones were beginning to get a little restless, so we got them to sketch while waiting for everyone else to arrive.
That bought us some time.
The lobby at the National Art Gallery is a great space for events. It is the first thing people see when they walk in, and people on the upper levels can also look down and see what is happening.
My only complaint would be the sound system. If it were clearer, more people around the gallery could hear what was happening and perhaps be tempted to come down and take a look.
Once we started, we explained the different materials and the process, then went around helping each child with their design.
As with all our workshops, we quickly remembered that every child approaches the activity differently.
Some followed the stencil closely. Some modified it. A few decided they didn't need the stencil at all and preferred to go completely freehand.
That's fine with us.
The stencil is there as a guide, not a rulebook.
Some children need more help, while others are quite happy experimenting on their own. Part of running a workshop is knowing when to step in and when to get out of the way.
For the next hour and a half, the lobby was a controlled chaos of drawing, coloring, squeezing 3D paint and trying very hard not to get paint everywhere.
Some kept their designs simple, while others discovered the 3D paint and decided that more was definitely more.
But everyone was enjoying themselves.
Once they had finished, we brought the children up on stage to talk about their T-shirts.
We usually get a few shy ones at this point.
Not this group.
Almost half of them wanted to talk about their designs.
And that is one of the things I like about our workshops. It is not just about making a T-shirt. The children make choices, express an idea visually and then, when they are ready, communicate that idea through words.
The T-shirt is really just the starting point.
There was something quite special about doing a children's art workshop at the National Art Gallery.
I had spent years visiting the gallery as an art student, looking at other people's work and finding inspiration.
This time, I was there helping children create their own.
Same building. Very different role.
And perhaps that is what I like about art spaces. They don't always have to be places where we simply look at art.
Sometimes, we get to make it too.
It was a great day at National Art Gallery / Balai Seni Negara.
And I still hope more people will find their way there.
Even if the directions are still “near Istana Budaya, opposite IJN, next to National Blood Centre”
If you want to join is one of our workshop, drop us a line at creator@createekit.com or follow our socials to have you on our wait list. Also if you would want us to conduct any workshops for your group, let's chat.
