We have initiated a new programme, working together with schools, colleges, community and special interest groups and the gallery, to make connections between art and environment. In an age when our environment is fragile and threatened, we need to pool our creative skills to understand it better – the first stage in improving attitudes and practices.
Think globally, act locally is one of the original mantras of the environment movement. For us this means that big ideas must have a local impact. But it can also work the other way around, very small local events and occurrences can have huge repurcussions. Our education programmes, resources and workshops start from these beginnings, connecting small observations with larger concepts.
Cover pictures for the education pack
The texts for the first education pack. These have been used as starting points to develop new approaches to the environment through art.
Art and environment education workshops
Our programmes start from each exhibition theme, including past exhibitions, each of which has inspired a different approach. We begin by exploring the local environment and issues pertinent to the immediate surroundings, and then go on to consider the implications for wider concerns. Careful observation, discussion, drawing, writing, is at the heart of it.
Trash Art workshop, March 2018
We held a workshop in March 2018 together with members of West Norfolk MIND, exploring both the exhibition TrashArt, Sculpture and Assemblage by Jan Eric Visser and aspects of the local environment. By the end, people were noticing new aspects of the surroundings and its heritage with greater clarity and precision. The grain of wood, rotting wood in the water, the mouldings around windows, the steps on the quay, cobbles, colours of bricks.
Join us in developing new education programmes
If you are involved in teaching, do join the programme. To begin with we are prioritising secondary schools and colleges, but teachers of primary age and pre-school children are welcome to come along to discuss what we might do for the future. Make contact via the form here.
