Education
To book lessons, arrange tours or simply find out what the Gallery can offer your school, contact our educator:
Bianca van Leeuwen
(+ 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, Bianca van Leeuwen:
(+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.
- Understanding art in context
- Communicating and interpreting
- Developing ideas
- Developing practical knowledge
- Key Competencies
- Participating and contributing
- Thinking
- Managing self
- Symbols and text
- Relating to others
- Using language
Lesson time: 90 minutes
Class Limit: 35 students
In this lesson students discover drawings and prints from our collection and learn about different printmaking techniques. Your class will tour the exhibitions and look at a selection of prints, learning how these were planned and created. In the Education Centre students will design their own dry-point etching and print their work on a card to take home.
Charles Meryon Le Malingre Cryptogame 1845. Etching. Collection of Canterbury Museum
- Understanding art in context
- Communicating and interpreting
- Developing ideas
- Developing practical knowledge
- Key Competencies
- Participating and contributing
- Thinking
- Managing self
- Symbols and text
- Relating to others
- Using language
Lesson time: 90-120 minutes
Class Limit: 35 students
In this lesson students will explore more than 100 years of landscape painting in 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 learn to manage paint and use brushes correctly before creating their own painting of a landscape to take back to school.
James McLachlan Nairn A Summer Idyll 1897. Oil on canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, presented by the Canterbury Society of Arts, 1932
- Understanding art in context
- Communicating and interpreting
- Developing ideas
- Developing practical knowledge
- Key Competencies
- Participating and contributing
- Thinking
- Managing self
- Symbols and text
- Relating to others
- Using language
Lesson time: 90 minutes
Class Limit: 35 students
Get creative with John Stezaker: Lost World. How can we redefine the meaning of an image by changing its context? What is pareidolia? Students will explore Stezaker’s distinctive collages through discussion and a series of surrealist activities before heading to the Education Centre to create their own collage using found images.
Available until 22 July 2018
John Stezaker Mask (Film Portrait Collage) CCVII 2016. Courtesy The Approach, London
- Understanding art in context
- Communicating and interpreting
- Developing ideas
- Developing practical knowledge
- Key Competencies
- Participating and contributing
- Thinking
- Managing self
- Symbols and text
- Relating to others
- Using language
Lesson time: 90 minutes
Class Limit: 35 students
What does it mean to be a New Zealander? How can we show identity in art? Your class will tour the exhibition spaces examining a range of works and take part in activities which explore these ideas. In the Education Centre students will use a range of media to create a work which explores their identity alongside famous New Zealanders. These can be used as a starting point for further enquiry at school.
Edith Munnings Self-Portrait c. 1907. Oil on wood panel. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, presented by G E Munnings and C Munnings Christchurch, 1970
- Understanding art in context
- Communicating and interpreting
- Developing ideas
- Developing practical knowledge
- Key Competencies
- Participating and contributing
- Thinking
- Managing self
- Symbols and text
- Relating to others
- Using language
Lesson time: 90 minutes
Class Limit: 35 students
How do artists use maths in their work? This lesson explores geometric abstraction through a series of activities and discussions exploring shape and colour alongside mathematical techniques such as repetition, reflection and rotation. In the Education Centre students will create their own colourful mixed media work exploring what they have learned.
Ian Scott Small Lattice No. 54 1981. Acrylic on canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 1981
- Understanding art in context
- Communicating and interpreting
- Developing ideas
- Developing practical knowledge
- Key Competencies
- Participating and contributing
- Thinking
- Managing self
- Symbols and text
- Relating to others
- Using language
Lesson time: 90 minutes
Class Limit: 35 students
Students learn about the history of the portrait, discuss why people commission them and what motivates artists to paint one. Your class will tour our exhibition spaces examining portraits from the collection to see how different artists portray themselves and others. Students will then learn about the proportions of the face while making their own self-portrait using clay.
Ronnie van Hout Quasi 2016. Steel, polystyrene and resin. Commissioned by Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū
- Understanding art in context
- Communicating and interpreting
- Developing ideas
- Developing practical knowledge
- Key Competencies
- Participating and contributing
- Thinking
- Managing self
- Symbols and text
- Relating to others
- Using language
Lesson time: 90 minutes
Class Limit: 35 students
Your students will tour our exhibition spaces and look at a range of artworks that feature Māori motif and design. We will learn about common shapes and patterns and how they are used. In the Education Centre students will use what they have learned to design and paint their own pou or waka huia (treasure box).
James Valentine & Sons / John Powell Māori Carved Figure. Rotorua. N.Z. 1892. Albumen photograph. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 2015
- Understanding art in context
- Communicating and interpreting
- Developing ideas
- Developing practical knowledge
- Key Competencies
- Participating and contributing
- Thinking
- Managing self
- Symbols and text
- Relating to others
- Using language
Lesson time: 90 minutes
Class Limit: 40 students
Explore the exciting world of sculpture and discover an assortment of 3D art. This lesson is all about construction and 3D form. Your class will tour the Gallery, examining sculptures from the collection to see how artists work in three dimensions. They will discuss how artists choose materials and think about form, shape, size and space. In the classroom your students will experiment and play with materials to make their own hanging sculptural work. This activity can be made and displayed as a collaborative work or be done individually.
Judy Darragh Cats and Dogs (detail) 2003. Piano wire, fur, lycra and plastic found objects. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 2003
- Understanding art in context
- Communicating and interpreting
- Developing ideas
- Developing practical knowledge
- Key Competencies
- Participating and contributing
- Thinking
- Managing self
- Symbols and text
- Relating to others
- Using language
Lesson time: 90 minutes
Class Limit: 35 students
Discover the work of one of New Zealand's leading painters, Tony de Lautour in his show US V THEM. Students will explore de Lautour’s unique take on geometric abstraction, learn how these works were planned and made, and compare them to other abstract works currently on display. In the education centre students will create a work using collage, painting and spray painting techniques that explores what they have learned.
Available from 5 May 2018
Tony de Lautour Us v Them 2010. Acrylic and colour pencil on canvas. Collection of the artist
- Understanding art in context
- Communicating and interpreting
- Developing ideas
- Developing practical knowledge
- Key Competencies
- Participating and contributing
- Thinking
- Managing self
- Symbols and text
- Relating to others
- Using language
Lesson time: 90 minutes
Class Limit: 35 students
This lesson is all about colour, construction, 3D form and working collaboratively. Your class will tour the Gallery, examining Ani O’Neill’s new collaborative work in Yellow Moon as well as other sculptures from the collection to see how artists use different materials to make their work. In the education centre, your students will be given a bag of materials to experiment and play with in groups and make a 3D work together. Works can be taken back to school or photographed and deconstructed at the end of the lesson. A great lesson for imaginative play and problem-solving for kids who love to make.
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