Pupils get lessons in art from National Gallery team

More than 230 pupils from East Boldon Junior School enjoyed workshops led by two arts facilitators from the National Gallery, as part of an Art Road Trip, a year-long programme of learning activities and events that celebrate creativity and the arts, delivered by a travelling art studio.

The National Gallery’s bicentennial initiative aims to programme 200 creative public engagements and work with people across the UK to bring art and ideas inspired by the National Gallery’s collection to the heart of their communities.

Run with the help of The Cultural Spring, the Art Road Trip brought with it an inspiring and inventive art studio on wheels, full of high-quality art materials, ideas and creativity.

Over a two-week period, The Art Road Trip visited various venues across Sunderland and South Tyneside, the two boroughs where The Cultural Spring works to increase levels of engagement with arts and culture.

East Boldon Junior School was one such venue. National Gallery arts facilitators Alex Bowie and Jo Conybeare led workshops exploring floriography, the language of flowers, through the study of three paintings.

Tim Shenton, headteacher at the school, said: “The children loved the workshops. Young people these days are so busy they don’t have time to look at art properly. Through the workshops, they spent ten to 15 minutes just looking very carefully at a painting.

“It was astonishing how much detail in the paintings they picked up. After looking at the paintings and examining them for some time, they then turned their backs on the artwork, and it was amazing how much of the paintings they’d remembered.

“The facilitators also spoke about our senses and how we can use them to appreciate art.

“To have such experts lead the sessions was a great experience for our pupils, all of whom attended one of the workshops. After a day full of sessions, we invited family and friends in for a talk on floriography led by Alex and Jo. More than 70 attended.”

Emma Scarr, Project Co-ordinator at The Cultural Spring, said: “We’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with the National Gallery team and the feedback we’ve had from the Art Road Trip workshops has been brilliant.

“We’re very grateful to our ten venues for stepping up and taking part in what has been a wonderful, memorable and exciting project. Some of our workshops have been open to the public, like the one for family and friends at East Boldon Junior School, while others have been closed sessions.

“The programme of events and activities was designed to reach people and places who otherwise would not have ready access to art, with the aim of introducing new audiences to art, the National Gallery and to local creative opportunities.”

Earlier this year, and in advance of the visit, The Cultural Spring took 15 Community Champions and venue organisers from across Sunderland and South Tyneside to meet the Gallery’s Learning Team at its Trafalgar Square home in London.

The group was given a tour of the National Gallery’s collection and had the opportunity to discuss the Art Road Trip’s programme. Each member of the group took an object with them which had a personal story behind it, and which they then had to link to a painting they’d seen at the National Gallery.

To find out more about the National Gallery Collection visit https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/collection-overview   and if you would like to read more about Art Road Trip and the Gallery’s NG200 Bicentenary celebrations https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/across-the-uk/art-road-trip

The Cultural Spring was launched in 2014 and is funded by Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places project. It aims to increase participation in arts activity in Sunderland and South Tyneside, and its partners are University of Sunderland, Sunderland Music, Arts and Culture (MAC) Trust, Sunderland’s Young Asian Voices (YAV) and The Cultural Spring Charity.