GoMA Visit

Wednesday 27th March
This week's session was about Gallery education and how beneficial a class trip to an Art Gallery can be for a child.

The Gallery education workshop was run by Martin Craig who led us to the offices in the Gallery where we were introduced to what we were going to be doing through images on a Powerpoint and an explanation on the GoMA's aims for Gallery education and which age groups have attended.  He told us that it was mostly classes of Primary 4s or 5s that attended the educational workshops and that last year they had not had a single Secondary school class through the doors.

After the introduction he showed us all an example of a sketchbook that a child would complete if they were taking part in the Gallery workshop and explained that we would be creating something similar throughout the morning session.  So were given paper, a pencil and a clipboard and given three questions to begin our sketchbooks:

• What different materials could you use to create a piece of art?
• What words could you use to describe a piece of art?
• What artists can you name?

Since it has been a while since I've had to think about these aspects of art I really struggled with these questions especially the last one, only being able to think of four artists then and there.  However as soon as we were led to one of the Gallery rooms I was able to think of others.

In the Gallery our first task was to look around and choose at least three artworks that we either liked or disliked, artworks that made an impression on us then make notes on them looking at the four key areas of form, mood, process and content.  We were given fifteen minutes to complete the task which for a class of Primary 4/5s is enough but for our class I felt that we could have benefited from more time so that we could have analysed the artwork and reflect on it more.  The three artworks that I chose were:

• The Way Things Go - Peter Fischli

• Hamlet in a Japanese Manner - Eduardo Paolozzi

• Dank Anvil - Rob Churm

I chose all three of these pieces because they made me stop and look and appealed to me whether it was because they were cleverly constructed, bold and colourful or visually striking.  (See next post for sketchbook pages with notes on all three of these artworks).

After the fifteen minutes we were all brought together and a few people volunteered to speak about what artworks they had chosen and why.  I feel that it was valuable to hear other people's views especially when they contrasted heavily with my own thoughts.  I also feel that this would be good for a class of children as the less confident or those that have not grasped fully what is expected of them can hear what other people in their class have thought and then can use these ideas to develop their own thoughts on the artworks.  Afterwards we were split into groups of three and our task was to choose one of the three artworks we had looked at in the previous task and tell the other people in our group our thoughts on it and were to be filmed so that it could be documented.  This is what the pupils are expected to do when they attend a Gallery workshop at the GoMA so that the class teacher has a sketchbook for each child and a video clip which can both be used as evidence of their learning.  This collaborative learning that was incorporated throughout the workshop is an effective learning tool and is mentioned throughout the Scottish curriculum, (CfE). Scottish Government (2011) states that: “learning is frequently most effective when learners have the opportunity to think and talk together, to discuss ideas, question, analyse and solve problems” therefore this form of learning is highly effective and enables pupils to gain knowledge and skills from the workshop that they may not have been able to gain by themselves.

Jennifer chose a Peter Fischli artwork called 'Masterbine' which was a photograph of high heel shoes used to construct a 3D circular shape.

Bill chose a Scott Myles piece called 'The Past From Above' which was three oversized manilla document folders in the colours pink, purple and red.

I chose the Eduardo Paolozzi sculpture called 'Hamlet in a Japanese Manner' as that was the piece that I felt I had the most to talk about.

For the conclusion of the workshop we gather in the office room again and Martin Craig showed us a few pictures and video clips of the Primary classes taking part in a similar workshop to what we had just completed.  He explained that the pupils are given resources at the end of the workshop to expand their sketchbooks such as photographs of the artworks in the Gallery and information on the artworks or artists therefore developing the sketchbooks as evidence of learning.

Overall I found the GoMA visit to be highly useful as it would be a great resource for a class of pupils and the evidence gathered during the workshop would be great when it comes to assessing the pupils on the Art and Design Curriculum for Excellence experiences:

http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/myexperiencesandoutcomes/expressivearts/artanddesign/index.asp  [Education Scotland 2011].  The workshop also met some of the aspects of CfE such as active learning, working collaboratively and learning outside the classroom so it is a rich resource for learning and developing skills in these aspects.


References
Education Scotland (2011).  My Experiences and Outcomes.  Available at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/myexperiencesandoutcomes/expressivearts/artanddesign/index.asp. [Accessed 28th April 2013]

Scottish Government (2011).  Available at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningteachingandassessment/approaches/activelearning/index.asp.  [Accessed 28th April 2013]