Jessica Wilson
Jessica Wilson is a creative entrepreneur and internationally recognised leader in the field of participative art for children. Drawing on her background in site based theatre, she has a history of inventing and realising ambitious projects which are situated in new locations and which change the way we see the ordinary world around us.
Jessica is frequently invited to tour her projects and collaborate with local artists and children on immersive walks, bus-based performances, and shared child/adult experiences. Her works are known for their production values, elevating children’s creativity in high-profile public outcomes. They have been presented in prestigious festivals and venues across the world including The New Victory Theatre (NY), Baboró International Festival for Children (Galway), Krokus Festival (Belgium), Greenwich and Docklands (London), Redmoon Theatre (Chicago), Art&About (Sydney), Valmieras Festival (Latvia), Artground (Singapore), Palbok Arts Centre (Korea) and Les Coups de Théâtre (Montreal).
Jessica project models have also made her a leader in low-impact touring, responding to local people and places with impactful works that don’t require touring teams or freight.
Her iconic project, I See You Like This, sees children consider a parents’ personality before creating a bizarre photo-portrait using their face as a canvas. This project has reached more than 2500 children around the world and has resulted in many gallery exhibitions, challenging the perception of children’s creative capacity. ISYLT will tour the US in 2025 including to the Lincoln Centre in NY.
Jessica’s practice is underpinned by a passion for ‘mainstreaming’ child agency and returning roaming and imaginative play to children’s lives.
In 2020 she founded Child Nation, a platform of interactive digital guides that connect children imaginatively to the world around them. With Child Nation she has been selected for two of Australia’s most prestigious paid accelerator programs; Melbourne University’s MAP and Vic Health / Launch Vic’s CivVic Labs. Child Nation has been presented in the State Library Victoria, at the Vancouver International Children’s Festival and in more than 20 other locations and is currently being developed into a public parks-based experience with the assistance of a significant Vic Health grant.
Jessica’s interest in re-framing outdoor landscapes for children, led her to create The Wayfinders in 2020. This location triggered audio experience for children under 7 years of age, uses the voices of older children in narratives that involve speaking trees, stones and rubbish bins. It has been performed at Artplay and the Abbotsford Convent and will be presented by London’s Unicorn Theatre in 2025.
As an industry leader Jessica is regularly invited to speak, most recently for the launch of ASSITEJ Singapore, Korea’s International Forum of ArtPlay, The International Botanic Gardens Congress, UNICEF’s Child Friendly Cities, and at the Asia-Pacific Games for Change Congress.
She is currently partnering with the City of Melbourne and Palbok Arts Centre in South Korea on a four-year-long cross-cultural commission which will result in a major public artwork in Federation Square for AsiaTopa 2025.
Jessica Wilson has developed a unique child centred approach that directly speaks to the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. She possesses a brilliant talent for engaging children and young people in a stunning and inclusive participatory style.
Noel Jordan, Festival Director, Imaginate, Edinburgh
I have the greatest respect for her craft, her vision and her powerful theatre making. She stands out in the arts sector because of her fiercely intelligent approach and attention to detail, her demand for excellence and her assiduous commitment to raising the expectations of and for a young audience – especially in their connection with the adults around them, creating distinct intergenerational work.
Sue Giles AM
President ASSITEJ International
I have witnessed Jessica’s unique skills in working with children to develop new ideas, to which she brings high level concept-development approaches. Her level of critical thinking and articulate communication of ideas, teamed with her facilitation and engagement skills, is something I have not seen any other artist accomplish or come close to accomplishing. Her distinctive aesthetics and high production values, along with her highly considered design methodology, set her apart to make her one of Australia’s most distinguished artists in this field.
Steph Urruty (she/her)
Creative Program Manager – Children, Families and Young People
ArtPlay & Signal, Creative City, City of Melbourne
Her standing as a leader and innovator in participative art for children is undeniable.
Aislinn O’hEocha
Executive Artistic Director
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children
Jessica has an unwavering passion for making extraordinary participatory work for and with children, that is brave and uncompromising. (She has a) dedication to creating genuine agency for children and a brilliant creative mind and ideas that seem to know no bounds.
Aislinn O’hEocha
Executive Artistic Director
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children
“magnificently surreal and gloriously cinematic…. a tightly written and brilliantly executed piece that turns the London landscape into a thriller movie, framing the city so that we see it with the eye of a cinematographer.”
— London's Total Theatre UK of PASSENGER
“A tour de force of immersive theatre”
— Arts Hub of PASSENGER
“a final sequence so spectacular it seems almost unreal that you are witnessing it live.”
— Australian Stage of PASSENGER
“Creatively, it’s a treat. Visually, it’s a new standard.”
— Time Out Chicago of DR EGG
“a brilliantly crafted story that thrusts you into a kind of live-action cinematic experience and artfully blurs the line between reality and fiction, leading you to regard the external world with ecstatic suspicion.”
— Artshub of PASSENGER
“Wilson’s visual storytelling is exceptionally strong and disciplined”
— Chicago Tribune of DR EGG
“Elegant, polished, stylish, poetic and technically formidable.”
— Vancouver Courier of DR EGG
“its makers had considered its viewers with a seriousness most adult theatre would do well to emulate.”
— The Age of HOW HIGH THE SKY
“one of the most beautiful meldings of person, object and image that I have ever seen”
— Lowdown of THE DARK
“take a dash of Ronnie Burkett, a pinch of Catalyst Theatre, some of the humour of Mid summer and just a sprinkle of quality Brecht and you have the recipe for this Australian wonderland.”
— Vancouver's Sad Mag of DR EGG
“stunningly beautiful and imagistic”
— The Australian of UNDER THE BIG SKY
“celebrates in the zaniest possible way the playfulness of children, while giving them a rather sophisticated glimpse into the world of music.”
— The Age of STILL AWAKE STILL!