The children of Clarendon Children’s Centre are sharing the work they have created in collaboration with Artists Louise Samuelsson and Cressida Crossley, in the 2024 Artists in Residence Project.

With time, space and technique guidance from our adult artists, these talented child artists were able to explore, discover, reflect and mindfully engage with the various sustainable, wild and colourful media.

Through the Artists in Residence Project, children aged 1 to 5 years have learnt that Art gives everyone the opportunity to freely and uniquely express themselves .

Resident Artists:

Cressida Crossley is an experienced educator with over 30 years in various educational settings, from Kindergarten to Year 12. As a qualified Individual Needs teacher and educational consultant, she specializes in supporting children with learning challenges, including Autism, ADHD, and Dyslexia, within mainstream schools. Cressida, who also paints daily in her Port Melbourne studio, found her time as a Primary School Art teacher to be the highlight of her career. She reflects on the joy of watching children explore their creativity and describes her involvement in the Artist in Residence program at CCC as the best experience of 2024. In this year’s portraits children aged 3-5 years were we asked to draw, reflect and revisit their own images; the journey and the great sense of achievement and understanding these journeys created will be shared in the Exhibition.

Louise Samuelsson is an emerging textile artist, illustrator, and arts worker from Sweden but has been living in Melbourne since 2018. She specializes in both abstract and representational mixed-media embroidery and soft sculpture. This is her second year doing the Artist in Residence with CCC and her focus has been on letting the kids experiment with colour through painting and printing techniques on carton, paper, and fabric.