The Courtauld Public Programmes works with local schools, colleges and community groups to offer a variety of experiences and opportunities for young
people outside of formal education. We aim to engage students with the research and academic thinking that personifies The Courtauld Institute of Art. Featured below are details about focussed workshops taking inspiration from aspects of the temporary exhibitions at The Courtauld Gallery.
Building Blocks: London 2010
The Big O Gallery
Beyond Bloomsbury: The Omega Project
Paths to Fame: Turner Watercolours from The Courtauld
The Courtauld Cezannes
Renoir at the Theatre: Looking at La Loge
We also have forged long term links with Hospital and Special Schools, to find out more about the various projects working with hospital and special schools click below:
Hospital and Special School Projects
BUILDING BLOCKS: LONDON 2010
For this project we worked with National Diploma art and design students from BSIX Sixth Form College in Hackney. The project was produced in response to the The Courtauld Gallery’s exhibition, FRANK AUERBACH: LONDON BUILDING SITES 1952-62.
Led by The Courtauld Gallery Public Programmes team, the students made several visits to the Courtauld exhibition to explore Frank Auerbach’s (born 1931) remarkable group of paintings of London’s post-war building sites. Auerbach was fascinated by the spectacle of the city emerging from the debris of the Second World War and combed London’s numerous building sites with his sketchbook in hand. Back in his studio he used these drawings to create paintings which he worked and re-worked over many months. The result was paintings with thickly built-up surfaces, more than an inch deep, of great energy and visual power.
Click on an image to enlarge
Having learnt about the exhibition, the BSIX students visited major building sites across London, producing sketches and gathering source material as Auerbach would have done over 50 years ago. The contemporary building sites the students visited will shape the landscape of London over the coming years and included the Shard building site, located near London Bridge, and the Olympic site in Newham.
Over a period of six weeks the students then produced various art works including those displayed here, taking inspiration from the sites they visited and aspects of Auerbach’s creative process, such as the working and
re-working of an image to build up layers of information.
Images from a display in the Gallery Cafe of works by students from BSIX, made in response to the
Frank Auerbach: London Building Sites 1952-62 exhibition.
To download a copy of the Auerbach Teachers' Resource pack click below
FRANK AUERBACH: LONDON BUILDING SITES 1952-62 TEACHERS RESOURCE
With thanks to the MACE group for their kind assistance with the project.
The Big o Gallery
A year 5 student committee from the Oasis Academy Shirley Park Primary Phase in south London worked with The Courtauld Institute of Art Public Programme Department during the spring and summer terms of 2011 to put together their own online exhibition.
Visit the online exhibition
BEYOND BLOOMSBURY: THE OMEGA PROJECT
To accompany the Beyond Bloomsbury: Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19 exhibition, The Courtauld Gallery education department worked with year 7 and 8 students from Cumberland School in Newham and artist Gilly Hatch to produce hand printed linen bags that were sold in The Courtauld Gallery shop. All proceeds from the bags were then donated to the art department at Cumberland School.
The Omega Workshops were
established in 1913 by the
painter and influential art critic Roger Fry, the Omega Workshops were an experimental design collective, whose membersincluded Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant
and other artists of the Bloomsbury Group.
Well ahead of their time, the Omega Workshops brought the experimental language of avant-garde art to domestic design in Edwardian Britain. They were a laboratory of design ideas, creating a range of objects for the home, from rugs and linens to ceramics, furniture and clothing – all boldly coloured with dynamic abstract patterns. No artist was allowed to sign their work, and everything produced by the Workshops bore only Ω (Omega) the last letter in the Greek alphabet.
To download the teachers pack for the exhibition please click below
Beyond Bloomsbury: Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19 Teachers' Resource
The students from Cumberland School visited the exhibition to learn about the Omega Workshops and the ideas the artists involved were exploring. The students then designed abstracted patterns which they cut into lino and printed onto linen bags.
The students worked in groups of 3 or 4 and all decisions were made collectively. Like the Omega Workshops these bags are also anonymously stamped, however the students bags are stamped with the letter A, the first letter in the western alphabet.
The bags were on sale in The Courtauld Gallery shop for over 3 months and in total raised £300 which was donated to the art department of Cumberland School. Each bag was unique, hand printed and individually numbered.
Click on image to see an enlargment of the bags.
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Paths to Fame: Turner watercolours from The Courtauld
To accompany the exhibition of watercolours by Turner The Courtauld Gallery Education worked with 50 Year 10 pupils, from Central Foundation Boys School in Islington. All the students are working towards their GCSE in Art and Design. This project took place over 10 weeks and included visits to the Gallery, creative workshops in the Learning Centre at Somerset House and continued in school.
Visit the online exhibition of watercolours and watercolour experiments produced during the workshop
Joseph Mallord William Turner was an innovator of techniques and an ambitious business man. Turner continually adapted the way he worked developing his practice to something he described as "simply painting atmosphere". For the project we took inspiration from Turners experimental nature and over the course of the 10 weeks encouraged the students to develop their ideas and to think creatively and experimentally whilst working with watercolours and water based inks.
The project started by investigating techniques and traditional methods of working with watercolour. The students experimented using resists and a number of different watercolour mediums such as gum arabic and special watercolour papers. From these experimental images the students further developed ideas back in the classroom, also developing their technical understanding using inks as well as watercolour on wet papers. The students were then encouraged to produce 2D in camera animations onto paper making marks using the techniques they had been investigating. The final sessions then gave the students the opportunity to experiment further with animation and 3D drawings.
To find out more about Paths to Fame: Turner Watercolours from The Courtauld click here.
Turner schools project kindly sponsored by
The Courtauld Cezannes
A poetry project inspired by the Courtauld Cézannes
working in conjunction with Ruth Padel, writer in residence
at Somerset House and Year 10 students from Cranford Community College, Hounslow.
To accompany the Courtauld Cézanne exhibition Year 10 pupils
from Cranford Community College visited the gallery and wrote poetry works inspired by paintings in The Courtauld Collection, taking inspiration from the Courtauld Cézanne exhibition and the letters Cézanne wrote to Emile Bernard the students wrote their own letters to paintings from the Courtuald and then based poems upon their thoughts, Ruth encouraged the students to begin their poems with the line “I have come here to this place..”
The students read their poems as a performance to the rest of the group.
The Card Players
I have come here to this timeless, soundless game,
To get away
Silence dominates the room,
Joined by wisdom and tension,
Bonded with the heavy darkness of the bar
And the intensity of the game,
Swirling in an invisible mist
The empty wine bottle stares at the game,
And sits as the equilibrium,
Both hands holding the same amount of cards,
Twenty – six each
A red siren flashes,
Attempting to grab their attention,
Then the night attempts to interrupt
It throws water down,
Banging on the weak windows
Causing the pedestrians to make noise,
But no
They handle their cards carefully and wisely,
Seeming effortless, looking expressionless
Like handling a stack of fifty pound notes,
Paying each other slowly and studying the note carefully
With the occasional glint in their eyes
Of anxiety and excitement
The dream of victory and the dread of defeat
Which will it be?
It has been a long night,
And a long game awaits them
Sobya Shaikh
Llisten to Sobya read a variation of her poem
Inspired by
The Card Players
c.1892-5
Paul Cézanne
Listen to Ahmed Gannat read his poem
Inspired by
Lac D'Annecy
1896
Paul Cézanne
The Autumn affect of Argentile
I have come here to this echoing, silent place,
To get away; from normal life.
The white light shining upon the yellow pains, crystal blue waters,
Heart-warming with every glance,
Unattractive white factories, blackened by flambiont light.
The leaves as yellow as the sun,
Light falls on it like, a ball thrown with rage.
Looking at those beautiful Paines,
Lovely yellow leaves, sending a shiver down my spine,
Enriched by blazing white light,
But ruined by the undestrictive factories,
Shadowing like an indestructible beast upon me,
Beautiful, ugly just the way it is.
Neel Mishra
Inspired by
Autumn effect at Argenteuil
1873
Claude Monet
Woman at a Window
I have come here to this empty waiting room,
To get away.
The atmospheric room filled with tension and ponder,
Skeleton chair lay unwanted, unnoticed in front of her.
I squint.
Try to solve the blur, it doesn’t clear; who is she?
Is she even there? She could be... She could be a vague figure of my imagination
The sun glares through, judging her as if reading my mind. Judging her existence, her value in life.
Scratched dust marks print the floor.
I wave…weave in front of her.
No change, no reaction just the endless rhythm of her undecided head.
I wave again and again; she continues to snap her head.
Like a lonely woman awaiting her untrustworthy husband;
Like a lonely room seeking life;
Like the spirit of the woman there once was.
Simran Kahlon
Inspired by
Woman at a Window
1871-72
Edgar Degas
Listen to Cyrus Mwangi read his poem
Inspired by
Moroccon mounting on horse
1864
Eugene Delacroix
Find out more about the Courtauld Cézannes exhibition
Ruth Padel was writer in residence at Somerset House 2008/9. To find out more.
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Renoir At the Theatre: Looking at La Loge
A photographic project inspired by Renoir at the Theatre: Looking at La Loge. Working in collaboration with photographer Marysa Dowling and Eatlea Community School.
Artist photographer Marysa Dowling and Year 10 students from Eastlea School, Newham, London visited the Renoir at the Theatre exhibition which was followed by a series of workshop investigating ideas of identity and view points.
The group had the opportunity to visit the Royal Box in the Royal Opera House where they made drawings of each other. Back in school the group devised scenes and tableaux relating to the sense of being looked at whilst looking at others. The workshops took place over a number of days and investigated a number of techniques from storyboarding, digital photography to tableaux painting and medium format photography.
GallerY Of Final Images
A girl collapses in the arms
of her friends at a nightclub; they hope it is nothing serious. To those in the distance it looks like they are dancing.
Masked figures stalk the land looking for victims to consume. The villagers stare in horror, held back by the masked figures they are helpless, unable to get involved.
An argument in the playground is started over nothing. Rival groups stand and stare, each waiting for the other to make the first move.
A wedding. The bridesmaids pass their respect and best wishes onto the bride with small flowers they have picked outside the church, each one giving the bride words of love and encouragement.
A naughty boy is sent out from class, he sits on his own waiting for something, perhaps he is waiting to find out his punishment, and perhaps he is waiting to find out why he did what he did.
Find out more about Renoir at the Theatre: Looking at la Loge
ANIMATING ART HISTORY
Animating Art History is a new widening participation partnership between The Courtauld Institute of Art and University of the Arts London. Twenty eight young people aged 16 – 19 took part in the innovative course which combines art history and animation.
