Education

We have initiated a new programme, working together with schools, colleges, community and special interest groups and the gallery, to make connections between art and environment. In an age when our environment is fragile and threatened, we need to pool our creative skills to understand it better – the first stage in improving attitudes and practices.

 The river Purfleet used to silt up badly and in the 19th Century was notorious as a 'stinking drain'. Now, reeds are allowed to grow in profusion to provide a good habitat for ducks and moorhens who live there.

Think globally, act locally is one of the original mantras of the environment movement. For us this means that big ideas must have a local impact.  But it can also work the other way around, very small local events and occurrences can have huge repurcussions. Our education programmes, resources and workshops start from these beginnings, connecting small observations with larger concepts.

 Cover pictures for the education pack

Cover pictures for the education pack

 The texts for the first education pack. These will be used as starting points to develop new approaches to the environment through art.

The texts for the first education pack. These have been used as starting points to develop new approaches to the environment through art.

Art and environment education workshops

Our programmes start from each exhibition theme, including past exhibitions, each of which has inspired a different approach. We begin by exploring the local environment and issues pertinent to the immediate surroundings, and then go on to consider the implications for wider concerns. Careful observation, discussion, drawing, writing, is at the heart of it.

 Workshop in progress with a group from West Norfolk MIND

Trash Art workshop, March 2018

 MIND workshop in progress, adding comments and titles
MIND workshop in progress, adding comments and titles

We held a workshop in March 2018 together with members of West Norfolk MIND, exploring both the exhibition TrashArt, Sculpture and Assemblage by Jan Eric Visser and aspects of the local environment. By the end, people were noticing new aspects of the surroundings and its heritage with greater clarity and precision. The grain of wood, rotting wood in the water, the mouldings around windows, the steps on the quay, cobbles, colours of bricks.

 Materials set up for Art and Environment workshop
Materials set up for Art and Environment workshop

Join us in developing new education programmes

If you are involved in teaching, do join the programme. To begin with we are prioritising secondary schools and colleges, but teachers of primary age and pre-school children are welcome to come along to discuss what we might do for the future. Make contact via the form here.

The first education programme launched in November 2017 .
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