Gallery Sessions and Theatre Talks
Gallery Discovery Tours
An explorative, lively gallery tour, engaging students directly with works from our permanent Collection. Each session includes discussion and, if requested, directed drawing time for the whole group.
Gallery Discovery Tour: 1 hour, maximum 25 students
Gallery Discovery Tour and Observational Drawing: 2 hours, maximum 25 students
In Focus Theatre Talks
Interactive PowerPoint lectures look at works within and outside our Collection to explore a theme. Held in the Ondaatje Wing Lecture Theatre, these talks are ideal for larger classes and a great starter for before gallery visits or drawing activities.
In Focus Theatre Talks: 1 hour
In Focus Theatre Talks followed by optional drawing sessions for groups under 30: 2 hours
Further information:
- Sessions are delivered by our specialist freelance team, using discussion and resource-based activities to suit the ages, abilities and learning styles of your group.
- We can ‘tailor make' a session for you to fit a particular class project or teaching approach.
- We can offer Gallery Sessions within selected galleries upon request. Please select from: sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, centuries or contemporary portraits.
- For A-Level groups we can offer a more intensive tour, with greater emphasis on critique and analysis throughout the activity.
- For gallery drawing activities, students will be provided with free dry materials, drawing boards and paper, with our staff on hand to facilitate, give practical advice and feedback. Stools can be requested in advance.
- All sessions listed can be booked whenever the necessary rooms and staff are available.
- Please be ready to start your sessions at the booked time. Group leaders are asked to stay with their students during the sessions.
- Advanced booking is essential. Please see here for booking information and visit guidelines.
Akram Khan
by Darvish Fakhr
2008
NPG 6847
Image and Identity
Who are you?
Young people are continuously exploring how to convey to others who they are and what they feel. Our teaching staff use a variety of teaching models including object association to promote lively discussion and enquiry, exploring ways in which portraits of British achievers from our time and from history can be interpreted in terms of the sitter's own image and identity.
The Self-Portrait
Look at me, what do you see?
Discover the mood, form and process behind some of the most interesting self- portraits in our Collection. Exploring self-presentation and context, students are encouraged to enquire through a variety of learning models including discussion, object association and interpretation.
Sarah Lucas ('Self-Portrait with Mug of Tea')
by Sarah Lucas
1993
NPG P884(3)
How has photography and portrait painting influenced each other?
Students explore and make connections between a wide variety of forms and processes, considering the relationships between contemporary approaches and older works to express their own ideas and observations.
Arty Connections
Explore the artistic connections between the gallery’s wide Collection of artists and sitters, comparing and contrasting visual styles, approaches, context and content of the works on display.
Signs and Symbols
Can you crack the codes?
Artists have used the language of visual symbols for centuries, for example, a rose or a skull can suggest love or death. Explore symbolism in works from the Tudors to the contemporary collection, detecting hidden meanings and messages throughout the gallery.
The Abstract Portrait
Starting with Patrick Heron, students explore and discuss the use of abstraction in portraiture, through observing a variety of portraits.
The 3D Portrait
Students respond to a variety of sculptures in the gallery, discussing the different techniques and approaches taken by the artist to depict a portrait in three-dimensions.
20th Century Portraits
Students are given the opportunity to discuss the context and content of key examples in the Gallery’s vast twentieth-century portrait collection.
Temporary Exhibition Specials
Make the most of our temporary exhibitions and displays through In Focus Theatre Talks, which can be extended by a Gallery tour in the Permanent Collection.
Please note that it is not possible to teach in the temporary exhibition spaces, however, wherever possible, we will supply relevant worksheets and guidelines for students and provide online learning resources.
Contemporary Painted Portraits - BP Portrait Award 2011, 16 Jun - 18 Sept 2011
Glamour of the Gods: Hollywood Portraits, 7 July 2011 – 23 Oct 2011
Chasing Mirrors: Portraits of the Unseen ( Elements of Islam Inner and Outer Self), from Oct 2011
The First Actresses: Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons, 20 Oct 2011 – 8 Jan 2012
Contemporary Photographic Portraits - Taylor Wessing Photography Portrait Prize 2011, 10 Nov 2011 - 12 Feb 2012
Lucian Freud Portraits, 9 Feb 2012 - 27 May 2012
The Queen: Art and Image, 17 May – 21 Oct 2012
Please note some exhibition dates and details may change. Please see here for up to date information.
NEW: Study Days
These specifically designed sessions offer a platform for teachers and young people to gain further inspiration and research in specific areas of study through closer interaction with the Collection and practitioners.
Campaign Study Day
Supports BTEC Firsts Working with Site-Specific Briefs (Edexcel unit 18), Creative and Media Diploma Level 2 Campaign (Edexcel Unit 5) Design and Marketing courses & Business studies
Suitable for 14+
9 November 2011
ALL 10.15 - 15.30 with a break for lunch (not provided)
Students learn what it takes to conduct a successful campaign, by focusing on how the National Portrait Gallery promoted the Glamour of the Gods: Hollywood Portraits in 2011. Students work with the Gallery's Marketing Officer to examine messages, ideas, methods and aims of the campaign.. Working in small groups and assigned materials and roles, students are set a challenge in the style of the TV programme The Apprentice, gaining the inspiration and expertise to develop their own campaign to market a Gallery exhibition, recording entries in their Process Portfolio and generating ideas for their Student Project.
Chasing Mirrors Study Day
Friday 21 October
10.00 -13.45 with a break for lunch (not provided)
To promote and provoke learning and thinking skills and creative responses to the collection, specifically cultural and historical links through Muslim identity and art works on display.
Students begin the day by meeting the artist Athier Mousawi with an exclusive presentation of his work and opportunities to ask questions about his own art practise. Students then explore the Chasing Mirrors exhibition and the permanent Collection including the portrait of the freed African Slave, Ayuba Suleiman Diallo by William Hoare, 1733.
A practical art workshop, led by Athier Mousawi, follows the Study Day but has strictly limited places. To find out more go to the Practical Art workshops page.
Image and Identity Study Day
Tuesday 7 February 2012
11.00-15.00 with a break for lunch (not provided)
Working with artists to respond to students' own sense of self-image, students are encouraged to explore individual abstractions in the history of portraiture.
The day’s events include practical activities, time in the galleries, discussions and feedback, with the opportunity to interact with a variety of artists, Gallery teaching staff and other students.
Initially, specific works of art are chosen to trigger exchanges and debates, led by Gallery teaching staff in an open-ended and student-centred way, allowing discursive and multi-directional associations and contextualization.
Book your group visit
020 7312 2483
(Text Direct: 18001)
Fax: 020 7321 6662
education@npg.org.uk
