Polyglot’s residency at Furlong Park School for Deaf Children culminated in two spectacular exhibition/installation performances; on Thursday November 26 for parents and friends and Friday December 11 for the Minister for Environment Heritage and the Arts, Peter Garret. For both of these shows the kids were the cynosure of the event, clad in outlandish costumes of their own devising, confidently escorting people through the tangible maze of paper and image and assisting people in the creative process themselves before breaking though a paper screen and stepping forward to sign and mime in front of an appreciative crowd.

For Polyglot, this project has been the launching pad for new processes and styles of performance, engaging children and parents in a different view of creative expression. Over two terms Deaf and hearing artists worked with the kids; exploring, improvising and making and finally transforming the whole school into a pathway of newspaper, drawings, huge paper balls, shadow screens, puppets, landscapes and video pictures and stories from Furlong and from our Cambodian connection with Epic Arts in Kampot.  It was a project that not only gave the children a chance to flex their imaginative muscles but also re-visioned the way that we do these residencies – truly a journey of discovery.

Polyglot artists were continually inspired and moved by the process with the kids aged from 5 to 12; inspired by their ideas, creative engagement, personalities and individual expression, set in a culture of visual and physical communication.  These kids have variety of challenges ahead of them; they are resilient, find fun in everything and have buckets of energy. 

This project is one of the most satisfying we have ever undergone. There are a few reasons for this.

The open process:

working with the children’s own discoveries, shaping events by watching, listening and learning and being in a constant state of wonder.

The Principal and staff of Furlong Park:

fascinated, flexible and communicative and always with the children’s interests at heart.

The Deaf Culture:

total immersion in another world, with language, emotion and a different way of approaching tasks.

The Cambodian connection:

being able to set up a relationship between two Deaf cultures through art. Thank you especially to Jodee Mundy and Heath McIvor for going to Cambodia to work alongside Jai Hartnell and the Deaf young people in Kampot. Thank you to all the artists and production crew,  to the Polyglot staff, the Furlong park staff, to Robyn Lawrence the Principal, to Epic Arts and the artists in kampot and to the children who have turned our worlds inside out.

Thank you to Arts Victoria and the Australia Council for the support of this extended school residency.