BIG kids magazine

The inaugural edition of this Australian art magazine for kids is due to be published early 2011. So far it looks like it is going to be beautiful, breathtaking and bold. BIG stands for Bravery, Imagination and Generosity – the magazine aims to promote creativity in children and create opportunities for innovative collaboration.

Jo Pollitt and Lilly Blue and Australian artists and parents who are passionate about art as a holistic way of thinking and an everyday way of engaging viewing and responding to the world. You can find out a little bit more about them here. And you can find Lilly Blue and her illustrations here and an interview with Jo Pollitt here.

I asked Jo and Lilly what we can expect in the first edition of BIG and this is what they said:

1. BIg Kids Magazine has the contemporary art world at its core, and many drawn and sculpted pathways for kids to respond, interact and participate in it.
2. Our main point of difference is that we publish the work of children and artists/adults side by side, acknowledging the importance of the conversation between the two, and the interesting outcomes when kids respond to artists work, and vice versa.
3. The theme for the launch issue is First Flight and it is full of winged creatures, feathered flocks, flying fiends and caped heroes.
4. The cover image is a collaboration between Lilly and a very cool 6year old young artist that will set the tone for a wondrous shared adventure on the BIG ship sea!
5. Artists, both emerging and established, will be featured with a related activity for children to immediately respond to. For example kids will be able to compose poetry out of  a page filled with the most delightful bird names selected from a field of over 10,000. A palate of words for a child to instantly black out and create their own ‘micro poems’ by using a black marker or highlighter.
6. People who grew up to become who they wanted to be when they grew up will feature a ballerina interviewed alongside a ornithologist.
7. Interviews with kids on their current adventures in art and the world will feature in each issue and for the launch issue we are very excited to share the wild caravan adventures of BG, who is on our Junior editorial team.
8. The junior editorial team will be introduced and we will reveal their first (currently top secret) BIG collaborative project with 6 local and international artists.
9. What’s BIG right now will be for kids to record their current interests, friends and feelings which can be kept and collected with future issues (we find it is getting harder to keep a record of the changes in the personal world of our increasingly ‘busy’ kids, and see this as a quick response, reflective and fun way to remember special times).
10. The pull out print to keep is by an Australian artist and we will feature a new artist in each issue so that kids can collect the prints to frame, or keep, or alter.
11. Also there will also be pages to colour, cut and stick and a tiny sized section of miniature worlds.

Tagged as: art, kids crafts, kids magazines, magazines