Safety – Visual and Performing Arts

2. Identify hazards in the art teaching environments

There are many potential hazards surrounding the management of visual and performing art teaching environments, including:

• chemical management — some photographic processing chemicals can be identified as dangerous goods and hazardous chemicals and need to be identified as they pose significant health effects (for example, photochemicals, developer solutions or powders)
• plant and equipment — broken or poorly maintained equipment such as kilns or exposed electrical wiring can pose a serious risk to the health and safety of employees
• ladders — ladders must be free from damage, rust or corrosion
• slips, trips and falls — slippery dance room surfaces, spills on the floor, uneven surfaces, equipment on floor, slipping of ladders, getting caught in the ladder are examples where slips, trips and falls can occur.

2.1 Identify visual and performing art teaching areas to be inspected

In order to identify health and safety hazards, the Department requires principals and/or their delegate to conduct periodic inspections of their visual and performing art teaching areas, for example, art rooms, theatres, drama rooms and music rooms.

The department’s pre-populated generic workplace inspection checklists can be reviewed and amended for relevancy to the area being inspected, for example, Art Room Inspection Checklist (DOCX).

Refer to the Workplace Inspections policy for further information.