This ACCA Art File focuses on STEM in Public Art. The resource is designed as an adaptable toolkit for teachers to use selectively in devising their own units for classroom learning with extractable sections for direct distribution to students.
This learning resource aims to share how STEM dimensions are integrated into public artworks from conception, design, investigation, generation, planning and management, through to production and realisation. Public art projects require creative and STEM industries to come together to solve design problems and realise outcomes. Multidisciplinary project teams may include artists, community collaborators, engineers, architects, designers, fabricators, builders, project managers and many more individuals who rely on STEM disciplines in their careers.
This resource focuses on STEM Connections, with public art projects as a platform for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary learning opportunities. Content developed for each artwork addresses multiple STEM dimensions in line with cross-disciplinary approaches: Relationships, Pattern, Structure and Function, Systems, Measurement and Data, Models and Modelling. Artworks have been grouped around select dimensions for easy understanding and application in classroom learning. Through this document, students will be encouraged to question scale, site, material, the time in which the works are presented and how the works are interpreted through a contemporary lens.
ACCA aims to introduce students to a diverse selection of public artworks by women, acknowledging the significant cultural contribution these artists have made to the cultural landscape of Melbourne while highlighting the many creative ways in which women partake in the STEM industries. This document comes out of a need to make visible Australian women’s significant and underrepresented contributions as artists, scientists, designers, engineers and more.
The artworks selected showcase prominent female artists and represent a cross-section of time periods, mediums, scales and cultural contexts. These public artworks can be described as memorial, architectural, monumental, while others are temporary, digital or site specific. Thematically the works explore society and power, feminism, materiality, place, culture and creative expression. Many of the artists defy the status quo to challenge the role of female artists, question what is considered public art or even public space.
The eight artworks included are located across Melbourne, many in close proximity to ACCA and connected to ACCA programs: Vicki Couzens, Wurrrunggi Biik: Law of the land (2021); Maree Clarke, Barerarerungar (2023); Inge King, Forward Surge (1972 – 74); Deborah Halpern, Angel (1988); Susan Hewitt and Penelope Lee, Great Petition(2008); Rose Nolan, Screen works (ENOUGH/NOW/EVEN/MORE/SO) (2021); Keg de Souza, Nganga toornung-nge dharraga Bunjil [Looking down from the wings of Bunjil] (2021–22); Eugenia Lim, Yellow Peril (2021). The practice of each featured artist is associated with a key STEM dimension and elaborated through artwork analysis and creative inquiry activities for students.
This ACCA Art File is a good partner resource with Public Art and Unfinished Business: Perspectives on Feminism for a wider perspective on women in art, feminism and Public Art.
STEM Learning Context
The resource is designed as an adaptable toolkit for teachers to use in devising their own units for classroom learning, with extractable sections for direct distribution to students. The STEM in Public Art file will support students to engage in critical and creative thinking, and to consider the sustainable and ethical impacts of their practices in art and STEM.
This Art File uses ACARA’s STEM Connections framework to highlight how contemporary public artworks connect with relevant STEM subjects and dimensions, as well as broader capabilities and cross-curricular priorities.
Download the STEM Dimensions Critiquing Checklist
The Australian Curriculum addresses STEM through the learning areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The Victorian Curriculum looks at specific knowledge across four learning areas, Mathematics, Science, Design and Technologies, Digital Technologies. In the Victorian Curriculum levels 7 to 10, students examine Technologies and Society, analyse Technologies Contexts and critique needs for creating Design Solutions. In the Australian Curriculum, Years 7 to 10 students develop Knowledge and Understanding through investigation and analysis of technologies and designed solutions for preferred futures. They undertake Processes and Production Skills to critique, generate, select and produce designed solutions.
This resource was developed out of the ACCA Education x DATTA Vic, STEM in Art initiative which sought to demonstrate how STEM is embedded in the practices of many contemporary artists.
