PERTH.- Barking Gecko Theatre, Western Australia’s longest-running professional theatre company, in collaboration with ThinkArts in India, has created a new digital initiative Isolate > Create > Connect to highlight the similarities and differences that children are experiencing right now across the globe. This will become a lasting record of how life in isolation during COVID-19 was experienced by young people.

Through a weekly video delivered by teaching artists from BGT and ThinkArts online, children aged 5 to 17 will be set a creative task inviting them to create a small artwork capturing their perspective on the world right now. Once their creation is complete, it will be uploaded digitally to the BGT website.

Each week, for 10-weeks, BGT will share the full gallery of creative contributions submitted. In doing so, Isolate > Create > Connect will create a digital scrapbook of children’s creative responses to this unprecedented time in history.

The creative tasks will take the form of writing, drawing, interviews, video, poetry, voice recording or another form of storytelling. Children will be asked to respond to the creative task and create their own artwork, with whatever tools they have at their disposal in their homes.

BGT Artistic Director Luke Kerridge said, “Although we have had to press ‘pause’ on our day-to-day life for now, creativity is always at our fingertips, and Isolate > Create > Connect is a way of tapping into that.

“BGT’s vision is for children to be courageous, creative and culturally engaged. Isolate > Create > Connect has been designed to capture this once-in-a-generation event through the eyes of children, providing them with a way of interpreting the current circumstances and responding with their innate creativity.”

“Deepening our established connection with ThinkArts in Kolkata, India, Isolate > Create > Connect allows BGT to shine a light on the experiences of children from cultures outside of Australia by inviting responses from children not only in WA, but also in India and globally. We are thrilled to have teaching artists from Kolkata on board and can’t wait to see a diverse variety of responses and voices in this project.”

Isolate > Create > Connect is free to all participants and accessed at barkinggecko.com.au. The 10-week program starts on Wednesday 29 April and children are welcome to join in at any time until its conclusion in the last week of June.