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
![](/media/cache/e7/8c/e78c5f8f9938c5f6bd2554571e0e8407.jpg)
Installation view of Povi Christkeke by Michel Tuffery 1999
PROGRAMME
Select a programme for more information on our art lessons.
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: 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 PDF![Students on a guided tour of the Gallery](/media/cache/95/fb/95fb3e94b52a8f6764da5276858c6412.jpg)
Students on a guided tour of the Gallery
Lesson 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!
![Geoff Dixon Blue globe / Big ark 1998. Mixed media. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 1999. Reproduced courtesy the artist](/media/cache/3b/d1/3bd1ae615c7fd105201598118a4dab7d.jpg)
Geoff Dixon Blue globe / Big ark 1998. Mixed media. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 1999. Reproduced courtesy the artist
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.
![Ivy Fife Royal Visit 1954. Oil on board. Christchurch Art Gallery Foundation Collection, purchased 1996](/media/cache/7b/30/7b3041b34cbda206c711c2b3ec3f0846.jpg)
Ivy Fife Royal Visit 1954. Oil on board. Christchurch Art Gallery Foundation Collection, purchased 1996
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!
![Maungarongo Te Kawa Rangi Takere Hau 2022. Mixed media quilt. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 2022](/media/cache/1e/3a/1e3a10898daf078b9c8548b1b9db3826.jpg)
Maungarongo Te Kawa Rangi Takere Hau 2022. Mixed media quilt. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 2022
Lesson time: 90 minutes
Class Limit: 36 students students
In this major body of new work, Cora-Allan (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Tumutumu, Niue – Liku, Alofi) reflects on her recent two-week voyage by sea around Aotearoa, from the bottom of Te Waipounamu to Te Tai Tokerau in the north. Using whenua-pigment, hiapo, and other resources from the ngahere, she documented the shapes and views of the whenua of Aotearoa from the perspective of the moana. Cora-Allan's work responds to the legacy of colonial mapping and recording practices, and early encounters between Māori and Pākehā. Students will explore this exhibition on a guided tour before creating their own mixed media work in our classroom to take back to school.
Available until 25 August
![Cora-Allan Ōtautahi (Christchurch) from the series While at sea 2023. Whenua, kāpia ink, hiapo, brass. Courtesy of the artist.](/media/cache/7e/80/7e801be01463b3d90506d8dc17270a0a.jpg)
Cora-Allan Ōtautahi (Christchurch) from the series While at sea 2023. Whenua, kāpia ink, hiapo, brass. Courtesy of the artist.
Lesson time: 90 minutes
Class Limit: 36 students
Across five decades, Ngāpuhi, Te Roroa and Ngāti Kahu artist Marilynn Webb (NZOM) dedicated herself to making art concerned with the relationships between land, sky and water. Students will participate in a guided tour of this major survey exhibition before taking part in a practical workshop in our classroom, creating a mixed media print to take back to school.
Available 8 June - 13 October
![Marilynn Webb Cloud Landscape 2 (detail) 1973. Linoleum engraving. Collection of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Purchased 1973 with funds from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery Society](/media/cache/b6/a6/b6a6061828ce6f37ddd46280d43ade64.jpg)
Marilynn Webb Cloud Landscape 2 (detail) 1973. Linoleum engraving. Collection of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Purchased 1973 with funds from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery Society
Lesson time: 105 min
Class Limit: 36 students students
Take a guided tour of From Here on the Ground and learn about twentieth-century Aotearoa New Zealand artists exploring urban, suburban and industrial landscapes. Students will discuss perspective, colour theory and why artists are drawn to these landscapes, before creating their own painting in the education centre using the Gallery windows as a framing device.
Available 18 May – 17 November
![Louise Henderson Manchester Street, Christchurch c. 1933. Oil on board. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Dame Louise Henderson Collection, presented by the McKegg Family, 1999](/media/cache/ce/04/ce04b64c9a9466cc9ba87e6c5ef2da92.jpg)
Louise Henderson Manchester Street, Christchurch c. 1933. Oil on board. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Dame Louise Henderson Collection, presented by the McKegg Family, 1999