Education
To book lessons, arrange tours or simply find out what the Gallery can offer your school, contact our education and learning specialist:
Bianca van Leeuwen
+64-3-9417386 or +64-27-2940137
schools@christchurchartgallery.org.nz
We run education programmes for schools. Let us help your class discover art with hands on learning experiences based on our exhibitions and works in our collection.
Our education programmes offer students first-hand experience with real works of art whilst developing their creative and critical thinking skills. We make links across the New Zealand curriculum as well as provide students with great opportunities to develop key competencies in a social context. Discussions and activities can be adapted to suit all levels.
Gallery tours and visits are free.
Lessons take 90 – 120 minutes, involve a hands-on activity and cost $2 per student.
Bookings are essential. Our programmes are popular and we can only teach one class at a time. So get in early.
To book lessons, arrange tours or simply find out what the Gallery can offer your school, contact our education and learning specialist, Bianca van Leeuwen:
+64-3-9417386 or +64-27-2940137
Installation view of Povi Christkeke by Michel Tuffery 1999
PROGRAMME
Select a programme for more information on our art lessons.
Lesson time: 90 minutes
Class Limit: 36 students
Take a guided tour through He Kapuka Oneone—A Handful of Soil, which explores the relationship between tākata and whenua – people and land – through Aotearoa New Zealand’s art history. Students will think about identity, place, history and belonging in Aotearoa before creating an artwork inspired by their own name in the Education Centre.
Lesson time: 30-60 minutes
Class Limit: 25 students
Students will take away an appreciation of art and consider a selection works that can cover a range of subjects, styles, media and purposes. The works viewed will be a selection from our current exhibitions. Students are expected to discuss and question what they see. Tours can be tailored to all levels.
Bookings essential.
Download our Gallery Guidelines below.
Download PDFLesson time: as long as you like!
Class Limit: any students
Looking for things to do at home or school? Take a look at these worksheets and activities.
Art Gallery Explorer Cards
Pacific Printmaking
He Waka Eke Noa
Waka Huia
Explore our set of colouring activities based on works from our collection - check them out here.
Have a go at curating your own exhibition with the works in our collection using My Gallery
We would love to see your work when it's done - take a photo and send it to schools@christchurchartgallery.org.nz or tag us on social media!
Lesson time: as long as you like!
Class Limit: any students
Our lessons often book up fast but you are always welcome to bring your students on a self-guided tour of the Gallery. We have a wonderful resources for the Te Wheke: Pathways Across Oceania exhibition which you can use to guide your students through the spaces. Check out all of our current exhibitions here.
Please ensure you go over the Gallery Guidelines with your students so that they are aware of expectations in the Gallery spaces.
Email schools@christchurchartgallery.org.nz and let us know when to expect you. so we are able manage any clashes with events and other tours.
Lesson time: 90 minutes
Class Limit: 36 students
Students will consider how artists use their making to reflect on what is happening in the world around them and as a voice for change during a guided tour of He Kapuka Oneone—A Handful of Soil. In the Education Centre students will create a flag which is their own call to action about something that is important to them.
Lesson time: 90 minutes
Class Limit: 36 students students
What happens when we widen our gaze beyond conventional art narratives, and what part does bravery play in making art? Zine making is one way to challenge some of the traditional ideas that we apply to art. Many artists who make zines take risks – either because their work is very personal, deals with contentious issues, or says things in a new way. Students will reimagine the narrative of one of the works in the Gallery and reinvent it in a zine to take away.
Lesson time: 90 Minutes
Class Limit: 36 students
Explore the Gallery with your students, discuss a range of artists’ work and explore ideas of navigation, belonging, identity and how we are connected across time and place. During the guided tour students will use signs and symbols to create a pictorial map of their own identity and journey through the Gallery which they will then complete using watercolour and pastel in our Education Centre. A great lesson for preschoolers and junior primary students!
Lesson time: 90 minutes
Class Limit: 36 students
Have you ever wanted to be someone else? This unforgettable selection of sculpture, video, photography and more reveals how borrowed or re-imagined identities can help us explore what it means to be human. Students will take a guided tour of Dummies & Doppelgängers before creating their own sculptural alter-ego in the education centre.
Available until 23 March 2025
Lesson time: 120 minutes
Class Limit: 30 students
Explore the world of linocut with your students on a guided tour of One O'Clock Jump: British Linocuts from the Jazz Age! These dynamic, colourful and vibrant, linocut prints explore the fast-changing world of speeding motor vehicles, industry, city life and sport during the 1920s and 1930s. After the tour students will head to our Education Centre to create their own linocut print to keep.
Available until 11 May 2025