Bush Studio – Georges River Environmental Education Centre
Students from Years 3 to 12 enrolled at NSW public schools are invited to participate in a suite of immersive visual arts programs with Georges River Environmental Education Centre. Opportunities to observe, interpret and respond to their immediate environment at Liverpool Powerhouse will inform students’ artmaking practice across a variety of mediums.
Georges River EEC is located in South Western Sydney on the banks of the Chipping Norton Lake. Its parkland locations provide access to inclusive and accessible walking trails through expansive parklands, Cumberland Plain bushland remnants, riverside lookouts, and a nearby beach area popular for picnics and fishing. We offer multiple sites to maximise learning opportunities for investigating national parks, bushland reserves, waterways, mangrove forests, sandstone geology environments, Cumberland Plain woodland, urban environments and school grounds. Our outdoor classrooms inspire, encourage awe and wonder of the natural world, elicit curiosity and critical thinking, build confidence and a deep appreciation for Country.
Nestled along the banks of the Georges River, Liverpool Powerhouse sits on land that has long been a place of gathering, storytelling, and creativity. For thousands of years, the Dharug, Dharawal, and Gandangara peoples cared for this Country, using the river and its surrounds as an important site for fishing, ceremony, and connection.
Gallery
Years 3 to 6 visual arts workshops
Dates
- Years 3 and 4 students: Wednesday 28 October 2026
- Years 5 and 6 students: Thursday 29 October 2026
Venue: Liverpool Powerhouse
Cost: $55 per student
River impressions HPGE primary visual arts workshops provide opportunities for students in Years 3 to 6 to develop visual artmaking skills in response to the environment and exhibitions on show at Liverpool Powerhouse. The one-day workshop is delivered in collaboration with a local artist and Liverpool Powerhouse, utilising art education experts from the gallery and the Arts and Initiatives Unit within the Department of Education. Workshops will focus on process-based experimentation facilitated by professional artists and school teachers with specialised skills.
Facilitator: Emily Besser
- Schools may select up to 8 students per school.
- It is the responsibility of the school to organise student drop-off to and pick-up from the Liverpool Powerhouse.
- The classes are led by arts facilitators with the support of Georges River EEC staff. Each school is required to provide a school teacher, member of the executive or SLSO to attend the event for medical administration, behavioural management and safety.
Years 5 and 6 Creating with Country workshop
Dates
- Wednesday 25 November 2026
Venue: Liverpool Powerhouse
Cost: $55 per student
Creating with Country is a Years 5 and 6 Creative Arts HPGE program for Aboriginal students, led by Dr Shannon Foster, D’harawal Saltwater Knowledge Keeper, artist and interdisciplinary creative practitioner. Students explore Country as a source of knowledge, story and creative inspiration through walking, observation, storytelling and artmaking.
Working with Dr Foster, students investigate natural materials, colours, textures and forms before developing their own creative response to Country through activities such as watercolour, natural mark-making, stringing, assemblage and sculpture.
The program supports creative thinking, cultural connection and the development of individual artistic practice.
HPGE domains: creative, intellectual.
Facilitator: Dr Shannon Foster
- This program is for Aboriginal identified students
- Schools may select up to 8 students per school.
- It is the responsibility of the school to organise student drop-off to and pick-up from the Liverpool Powerhouse.
- The classes are led by arts facilitators with the support of Georges River EEC staff. Each school is required to provide a school teacher, member of the executive or SLSO to attend the event for medical administration, behavioural management and safety.
2027 Years 9 to 12 creative practice workshop
Date: Wednesday 24 February 2027
Venue: Liverpool Powerhouse
Cost: $55 per student
Bush Studio creative practice workshop provides an opportunity for students in Years 9 to 12 to work alongside artist Nicole Barakat, who will lead students through a workshop supporting the development of new strategies for their creative practice. Using the metaphor of a garden, students are invited to engage in fun, open-ended, intuitive and experimental processes, in a supportive and safe setting.
- Schools may select up to 8 students per school.
- It is the responsibility of the school to organise student drop-off to and pick-up from the Liverpool Powerhouse.
- The classes are led by arts facilitators with the support of Georges River EEC staff. Each school is required to provide a school teacher, member of the executive or SLSO to attend the event for medical administration, behavioural management and safety.
All Arts Units programs are inclusive. If support is required to participate in the Bush Studio – Georges River Environmental Education Centre program, please email lily.ferres@det.nsw.edu.au so we can assist.
