HOT: Lynley Dodd: A Retrospective, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Civic Reserve, 350 Dunns Road, Mornington
Most parents and kids will be familiar with the work of New Zealand born children’s author and illustrator Lynley Dodd ‘Out of the gate and off for a walk went Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s dairy….’. Over five million Hairy Maclary books have been sold worldwide, doctor dosage with over nine million Dodd books sold overall.
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery is the only Victorian gallery (and only one of four galleries in Australia) showing Lynley Dodd: A Retrospective. The exhibition is on tour from Tauranga Art Gallery in New Zealand.
The exhibition covers over 50 years of Lynley Dodds’ work, cure from her art school sketches to preliminary drawings of the dishevelled Hairy Maclary and the colour originals from her popular children’s books. The illustrations from her latest book, there Slinky Malinki, Early Bird, also feature in the retrospective.
The exhibition covers two rooms and there are copies of various Lynley Dodd books available for people to look at in the reading area.
The most popular part of the exhibition for Lady and Baby 2.0 was the iPad mounted with an interactive version of Hairy Maclary with fun sound effects and David Tennant (ex-Dr Who) reading the text in his Scottish brogue.
Find Hotels and Airbnbs in Mornington Peninsula
It was also the only item (other than the kids books) which were at children’s height so I think the exhibition could have been improved with some directed towards kids explaining the works or posing questions to them.
We chose to visit Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery on the day they held their monthly Young at Art program for under 5s. For an hour the kids were entertained with singing and jokes and then directed to do a simple art activity afterwards. Young at Art costs $5 per child (carers free) and no bookings are required.
We had intended to eat at the gallery but didn’t realise that the cafe was a very small, basic affair. One of the gallery attendants recommended Blackbird Cafe in the town centre of Mornington, which turned out to be a great child-friendly choice. They had high chairs, a kids menu (they specialise in Turkish food but the kids menu is pretty standard), activities and were very accommodating towards us despite the inside area being quite tightly spaced.
Note that all their cakes, quiches, slices and cookies are made on site. A bonus was the small public play area just outside the cafe.
Lynley Dodd: A Retrospective closes on Sunday 21 September, the first weekend of the school holidays. Make a half-day or day trip of it and enjoy the beachside feel of the Mornington Peninsula.
Lynley Dodd: A Retrospective, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery , Civic Reserve, 350 Dunns Road (corner of Mornington-Tyabb Road and Dunns Road) Mornington 03 5975 4395
1 August – 21 September 2014
Open Tuesday – Sunday 10am–5pm (last admission 4.45pm)
Adult $4 Student/Concession/Senior/NGV members $2
MPRG members and children under 5 free
Blackbird Cafe, 2B Empire St, Mornington (03) 5976 8632
Mon – Thu, Sun: 7:00 am – 4:00 pm
Fri – Sat: 7:00am till late
Hi Joyce! I have never seen myself and my son (or our backs, at least) in a photo on someone else’s blog before! Thanks for being a big highlight in my day! If only I had known you were also at the Kids Art Day, it would have been lovely to have met you in person.
And thank you also for such a great blog. Your what-to-do posts really help me make my stay-at-home-Dadding more fun for the munchkin. You even inspired me to type up a couple of reviews from a Dad perspective.
All the best!
David
HI David, great to e-meet you! So glad to hear that you find the blog useful and interesting. Hopefully it’ll inspire more happy adventures!