Children’s art recognised by UNESCO

Children across Australia, China and Vietnam will have their colourful artworks added to the prestigious UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register.

The artworks are from State Library of Queensland's Dr Barbara Piscitelli AM Children's Art Archive 1986-2016; 2020, the most comprehensive and significant resource for the study of children’s art in Australia.

Over 160 drawings and paintings, made during the COVID-19 pandemic, form part of the 2,000-strong collection. These works, which were made in 2020, illustrate how children perceived the world during the international health crisis.

Young children from Wuhan (China) and four Brisbane (Australia) kindergartens and primary schools drew and painted pictures about their everyday lives, as well as imagining what the future would look like after the pandemic.

Dr Piscitelli, alongside Professor Zhichao Chen of the School of Education, Wuchang Engineering College, Wuhan, initiated Pandemic Picture Stories (June-July 2020), which was donated to State Library in August 2020.

“Children’s views are rarely considered during times of crisis, yet children often have deep insights into current events and the world around them," said Dr Piscitelli.

“The pandemic picture stories are much more than pretty pictures – they are documents that reveal children’s ideas of a global health emergency and how to live with confusion, challenge, disruption and change."

Dr Piscitelli said the pandemic collection arouses thinking about social reality from a wider point of view and enable children’s voices and views to have a place in public conversation.

State Librarian and CEO Vicki McDonald AM was pleased to see Dr Barbara Piscitelli’s important work being recognised: "State Library inspires people through storytelling, and we know stories can be shared in so many different forms. This wonderful archive shares stories through art, giving little children an even bigger voice." 

Dr Piscitelli’s archive began in 1986 and reflects the lives of children from Australia, China and Vietnam, telling visual stories about their social worlds, human rights and futures.

The archive also contains artworks by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children living in the remotest parts of Queensland.

• Explore the collection Dr Barbara Piscitelli AM Children's Art Archive, 1986-2016; 2020
• The collection featured in the Big Voices exhibition in 2020.

Other State Library collection items on the Australian Memory of the World Register: 

• Added in 2021, the Johnstone Gallery Archive (1948–72) documents one of the nation’s first commercial art galleries and the Arthur Davenport Photographs (1955–92) documents the development of contemporary art audiences in Australia. 

• Anzac Day minute book (added 2019): details the Anzac Day Commemoration Committee’s first meeting where it was agreed that Anzac Day would take place on 25 April 1916 

• Margaret Lawrie Torres Strait Island Collection (added 2008): stories from the Torres Strait Islands, genealogical information on many Torres Strait Island families, slides and photographs, artworks, and research material 

• Manifesto of the Queensland Labour Party, 1892 (added 2008): a handwritten foundation document of the Queensland Labour Party 

• The Convict Records of Queensland 1825–42 (added 2009): records that document the penal settlement at Moreton Bay 

• James Tyson Papers (added 2017): surviving records of the creator of one of Australia’s greatest pastoral empires