New Zealand is that country where children and young people build their own valuable art collection…
In 1987 Magda Van Gils of Muka Studio in Auckland started the “Muka
Youth Print Project”.
The concept was and is simple but also revolutionary giving people under
19 the freedom to judge, choose and own original works of contemporary
art.
Works of art used to belong primarily to the adult world, first of all they were simply too expensive for young people, and adults wanted to judge about their quality, in most cases that was a judgment about money value. No wonder that in such a scenario children and youths seldom showed a real interest in the arts, it was not their thing.
Magda’s initiative changed this by two simple measures: - make the works less expensive - and most importantly : keep adults at bay Artists working at Magda’s lithographic studio were prepared to create original prints exclusively for people under 19.
A smaller image size (20x10cm on an 18x28 sheet of Archival Arches 88),
and relatively larger editions (maximum 150)
lowered the costs dramatically.
And so in November 1987 the first Muka Youth Print exhibition was
staged at the home of Muka Studio under the title “No adults allowed”
Every year a new collection of “Muka Youth Prints” by leading artists
has been organized under that title, not only in Auckland but also at
most public galleries from Invercargill to Northland.
Later it also became “Volwassenen verboden” in Belgium and, Holland,
“Keine Erwachsenen” in Germany and “Kunst for Unge” in Denmark.
This year New Zealand’s under 19 see the 27th Muka Youth Print collection and still no adults are allowed. But during these 26 years about 50 000 original works went to young art lovers in New Zealand alone. More than 100 leading artists from New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, the US, Japan, Vietnam and Korea have created works specially for this project More and more people who twenty or more years ago, as a child, started their art collection at the Muka Youth Print exhibitions now bring their children to the event. And every year more grandparents realize that Muka Youth Prints constitute the ideal, long lasting and precious Xmas present for their grandchildren.
