Education
To book lessons, arrange tours or simply find out what the Gallery can offer your school, contact our educator:
Susie Cox
(+ 64 3) 941 7373
schools@christchurchartgallery.org.nz
We run art education for schools. Let us help your class discover art with hands on learning experiences based on our exhibitions and works in our collection.
Our art education programmes offer students first-hand experience with real works of art whilst developing their creative and critical thinking skills. We make links to the English, social science and arts curriculum as well as providing 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.
Art lessons take 90 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 educator, Susie Cox:
(+64 3) 941 7373
schools@christchurchartgallery.org.nz
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: 35 students
Available 23 February – 14 July
Discover Julia Morison’s fantastic collection of 100 clay heads. Are they monsters? Robots? You decide! In the Education Centre, students will learn how to manipulate and control clay as they make an alter ego of their own. This lesson will challenge your students to think creatively and explore the properties of clay.
The clay is air-dried and must be taken on the day or picked up later by arrangement.
Julia Morison Headcase, 21 2015. Glazed stoneware, paint, tacks. Courtesy of the artist
Lesson time: 90 Minutes
Class Limit: 35 students
Your class will discover Christchurch artist Philip Trusttum's large and dynamic paintings of toys in the exhibition Trusttum: Just a Glimpse. In the Education Centre, students will create their own bright works of art using pastels and dye. Each student will draw a section of a classic toy that can be stuck together to make a large jigsaw-like collaborative painting.
Philip Trusttum Amer 2006. Acrylic on canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, presented by the artist 2009
Lesson time: 90 Minutes
Class Limit: 35 students
Students will explore more than a century of landscape painting in Aotearoa New Zealand. Your class will tour the exhibition spaces, examining colonial, impressionist, modernist and abstract representations of the land, discovering how painting has evolved over time. In the Education Centre, students will create their own cubist landscape work of art.
Doris Lusk Summer Storm near Wanaka 1962. Oil on canvas board. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, transferred from the Christchurch Town Hall, 2010
Lesson time: 90 Minutes
Class Limit: 35 students
Available until 9 June
Students will explore the exhibition Eileen Mayo: Nature, Art and Poetry and look at how the artist depicted native New Zealand birds in her art. They will then be guided through the process of creating their own drawing. In this lesson, your class will learn to use marks, texture, colour and tone to create a finished drawing of a native bird. This lesson will fit well with many topics of study, such as Māori mythology and the environment.
Eileen Mayo Black Swans 1983. Screenprint. Ngaire and George Hewson collection
Lesson time: 90 minutes
Class Limit: 35 students
Your students will tour the exhibition Gordon Walters: New Vision and our historic collection and look at a range of artworks that feature Māori motif and design. The class will learn about common shapes and patterns and how they are used. In the Education Centre, students will make a colourful collage using the motifs and shapes they have learned about. This lesson is a good introduction to Māori design and ideal for junior classes.
Gordon Walters Te Whiti 1964. Enamel on hardboard. Private Collection, Auckland. Courtesy of the Gordon Walters Estate
Lesson time: 90 Minute
Class Limit: 35 students
Available from 20 May
Your class will tour the exhibition Wheriko – Brilliant! and discover how artist from New Zealand and around the world create works of art using light. They will look at how artists use cut out shapes, shadow and colour to create striking effects. In the classroom they students will use different colours and textures to create a glowing lantern of their own.
Students working, 2014
Lesson time: 90 minutes
Class Limit: 35 students
Available 6 April – 28 July
Years 3 and up
$4
Become photography superstars! Your class will explore American artist William Wegman’s photography in a guided tour of his exhibition Being Human. His photos of Weimaraners have made his beloved pet dogs, May Ray and Fay Ray, famous. In the Education Centre, your students will work in pairs or small groups. Using props and costumes they will create photos that tell a story in a single image. The photographs the students make will be printed off at the end of class or posted to school after the visit.
William Wegman Leg Ladder 2004. Colour Polaroid photograph. Courtesy the artist. © William Wegman
This exhibition has been produced by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, Minneapolis/New York/Paris/Lausanne, in collaboration with the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū
Lesson time: 90 Minutes
Class Limit: 35 students
Available from 20 May
How can you bend a beam of light and make it into art? Your class will explore the exhibition Wheriko – Brilliant! and discover how artist play with light, shadow and colour to make sculptures, photography and paintings. In the classroom they will create a brilliantly colourful, light-activated sun catcher. A fun lesson for young and old.
Student creating a sun Medallion.