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Wonderful Pictures wasfunded by Phase 2 of theDfES Museum and Gallery’sEducation Programme, viaResource and the LondonMuseum Agency, withadditional support from theFriends of Dulwich PictureGallery.

For more information aboutWonderful Pictures pleasecontact The EducationDepartment at DulwichPicture Gallery, GalleryRoad, London SE21 8AD.Telephone 020 8299 8731Email:info@dulwichpicturegallery.org.ukwww.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

Back cover

Wonderful Picturesinvolved:• 52 children aged 9–10and their teachers

• A Project Co-ordinator• 4 Gallery teachers• 5 artists, an IT specialistand a calligrapher

• Gallery staff from theEducation, Exhibitions,Press and MarketingDepartments, the ShopManager, the PictureFramer, the Front ofHouse Manager, GalleryAttendants and the Director.

• Children’s BBCprogramme SMart

• Withers – a firm of solicitorsin the City of London

• Sainsbury’s supermarket• The Southwark CityLearning Centre IT Suite

• The Mayor of Southwark• The Rt Hon Tessa JowellMP, Secretary of State forthe Department ofCulture, Media and Sport

It happened alongside thenormal weekly EducationProgramme of:• 18 schools sessions ofGallery tours, practical artworkshops and follow upoutreach sessions

• 8 sessions of publicprogrammes for adults,children and families

• 5 outreach sessions atcommunity sites

All personally taught.

FundingWonderful Pictures wasfunded by Phase 2 ofthe DfES Museums andGalleries EducationProgramme, via Resourceand the London MuseumsAgency, with additionalsupport from the Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Dulwich Picture Gallery is an independent galleryand receives no centralGovernment funding.

For more informationabout Wonderful Picturesplease contact:The Education DepartmentDulwich Picture GalleryGallery RoadLondon SE21 7AD

Tel: 020 8299 8731education@dulwichpicturegallery.org.ukwww.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

Design: SteersMcGillan LtdPhotography: Len Cross©Dulwich Picture Gallery 2004 Charity No: 1040942

WonderfulPicturesWonderful Pictures was a partnership projectbetween Dulwich Picture Gallery andBessemer Grange Primary School.

Eight months of intensive discovery andcreativity culminated in an exhibitioncreated and curated by two Year 5 classesof 9–10 year-old children.

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Dulwich Picture Galleryhouses a magnificentcollection of seventeenthand eighteenth centurypaintings. Fine art is oftenthought to be ‘difficult toget into’ but the EducationDepartment constantlyseeks new methods todispel that notion.

Bessemer Grange Primary School is an innercity, multi-cultural schoolon a large housing estate inCamberwell in the LondonBorough of Southwark.

Wonderful Pictures wassomething completelydifferent.

For the children, whatmade it special was thatthey took the lead. Theywere involved in all the tasksnecessary for putting onan exhibition for the publicin a high-profile gallery.

This gave the children asense of ownership,responsibility and pride intheir achievements.

Aims: What did wewant to achieve?Wonderful Pictures aimed toshow the benefit of cross-curricular learning throughcreativity, to demonstrate the value of new and broad experiences, and todemonstrate spin-offs suchas increased confidence,self-esteem and positiveattitudes of the pupils.

The project sought to enrichthe children’s understandingof a world beyond theconfines of school.

The teachers hoped to usethe project to transcendthe restrictions of the National Curriculum.

The Partners and the Project

The Gallery’s collection ofportraits provided the idealstarting point to exploreissues of identity and image.

Picture detectivesEach class was divided intosmall groups for personal,face-to-face teaching withGallery teachers.

The focus was on learningto look, how to interpret theartists’ messages in theportraits and how to ‘read’a picture. The childrendiscussed body language,expression, gesture, statusand symbolism in relationto image and identity.

Throughout this introductoryperiod the children beganto form relationships withthe project co-ordinatorand the team of Galleryteachers.

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Focus on Identity

In school the children workedwith six of the Gallery’steam of professional artiststo learn new art skills.They developed their ownideas about identity – howthey are seen and how theywould like to be seen.

They explored a widerange of media andlearned new and unusualtechniques from the experts,including a textiles artist,a puppet maker, an ITspecialist and a calligrapher.

In total 21 creative artsessions took place at theGallery and at school.

“Children who once viewedart as an easy lesson to sit back and chat in,or immediately gave upbecause they sawthemselves as people whocould not draw, are nowproducing art work to beproud of and are willing totry any new technique.”

Class teacher

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Focus on Creativity

“I rushed home to tell my mum that wemade felt and I explained how we doneit. When I learnt how to do it I felt happyand I want my mum to see all my workin the gallery.”Cengiz

“I think I’vechanged since wedid the art work.”Amy

“I can maybe teachmy brother thesetechniques and dosome more myself.”Enoch

Felt PortraitsThe children made self-portraits, and from thesedrawings they developedpieces of felt. Theydiscovered that felt is madefrom the fleece of sheep,and that making felt is acomplicated process.

For the background gauzyfleece was laid out, severalthin layers one on top ofthe other. For the facialfeatures, the children cutpre-made coloured felt intothe shapes they needed andapplied them as a collage.A soap and water solutionwas applied to soak thefleece. Each wet piece wasrolled up tightly in a toweland manually rolledbackwards and forwardscausing the fibres to entwineand mat together. Eachpiece was rolled 400 times.

The children embraced thehard physical work withvigour. They used stitchingto decorate their portraitsto add colour and texture.

PastelsThe children discussed howartists often portrayed theirsitters with objects whichdescribed their personality.Each child made a drawingfrom a Gallery portrait,then added in their ownfavourite object. Theseranged from skateboards,and computer games toteddy bears, bringing the400-year-old charactersinto the twenty first century.

Using high quality pastelsthe children worked on alarge scale in vivid coloursand learned how to mixthem todepict texture andpattern.

MonoprintsThe children were asked tobring in something fromhome which they felt wasimportant to them. Theydrew each other holdingtheir favourite objects. Thedrawings were photocopiedand placed on a thinlyinked surface. When thechildren traced over theirdrawings, the pressure pickedup the ink underneath,resulting in a single print,called a monoprint.

Art and Science:A Day in The Life ofa 17th Century Artist The children learned howartists in the 17th centuryhad to make their ownpaints from raw ingredients.

Cochineal beetles andbuckthorn berries wereheated with alum and sodato make red and yellow.Verdigris, a turquoise colour,was made by exposingcopper to vinegar. A richred earth from Somersetwas used to make brownand soot was used for black.They experimented with arange of binders – egg, oil,animal skin glue, and gumfrom acacia trees – to maketheir pigments into paint.

The children were amazedthat colours that could beextracted from suchunexpected ingredients,and were disgusted thatthe beetles are still used asa food colouring.

The children drew selfportraits. Compass pointswere used to prick holesalong the lines. Charcoaldust was rubbed throughthe holes to paper laidunderneath. This method of reproduction is called a ‘cartoon’.

The natural paints werethen used to colour theself-portraits.

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Techniques and Media

“This is brilliant,totally magical,we have to get thistechnique intoschool somehow.”Class teacher

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Pen and WashGallery portraits were usedas the basis to explore theexpressive power of colour,shape and line. Using alimited palette the childrenlaid down transparentwatercolour washes. Thenwith pen and ink theyadded a variety of lineartechniques to describetextures and the details ofclothing, hair and jewellery.

The children worked withenormous care andenthusiasm to developthese difficult techniques,achieving some beautifulresults.

3D Model Heads Inexpensive materials wereused to create lively 3Dself-portraits. The childrendiscussed their possiblefuture careers which rangedfrom footballers, actresses,singers, to a scientist,basketball player, bouncerand barrister. They chose a variety of materials todress their future modelselves, some bringing theirown outgrown clothes andwool to create hairstyles.

T-Shirt DesignsUsing paper torn or cutfrom magazines they usedcollage techniques to buildup images of themselves.

The idea was to use coloursand shapes that they feltreflected their personalityresulting in a wonderfulrange of abstracted images.

Each finished collage piecewas scanned and printedon to transfer paper readyto be ironed onto t-shirts.

CollageThe children wrote a list oftheir favourite things. Theidea was to concentrate onwho they were, rather thanwhat they looked like. Letters,textures, colours and imagestorn from magazines andnewspapers were thematerials in these personaland abstract statements.

Life DrawingA quick drawing session usedtheir improved observationskills to capture the essenceof the sitter, in this caseDesmond Shawe-Taylor, theDirector, posing in the Gallery.

“I liked doing the print work withDave as it was something I hadnever done before in my small life.”Judah

Every Gallery departmentwas involved as the childrenlearned about what happensbehind the scenes of anexhibition.

The Press and Marketingteam made a display ofpublicity materials andtaught the children how to write a press release to“sell” their exhibition.

The Framer demonstratedframing techniques in hisworkshop and talked aboutconservation and gilding.

They learned from thewarders about how theGallery runs and aboutcustomer care.

They explored the shopand talked about sales tothe Shop Manager.

On Gallery tours childrennot only learned about thepictures, they were alsoshown the computerisedlighting, humidity andtemperature control system.

Throughout the Galleryvisits children looked,listened, asked hundreds ofquestions and made diarynotes for future reference.

The Director’sInvolvementThe Gallery’s Director gavethe children advice on howto prepare their speechesfor the opening night, andhow to give tours of thepaintings. He explained thedecision-making processwhen hanging an exhibition.He demonstrated hispersonal interest in theproject by addressing aschool assembly – this waskey to involving the entireschool.

The handling of theexhibition was treated in thesame way as all exhibitionsat the Gallery. The Curator’steam planned the displaywith the children and theartworks were professionallymounted and framed.

Every child was representedin the final exhibition.

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Creating theExhibition

1 Showing the GalleryDirector around theexhibition

2 Meeting the Framer

3 Last minute instructionsbefore the Private View

4 At the Southwark CityLearning Centre IT Suite

5 Practising speeches forthe Private View

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Cross-curricularBenefits

Speaking, Listening and WritingSpeaking, listening andwriting blossomed duringthe project. The childrenfollowed instructionscarefully, spoke to a widerange of artists and Gallerystaff and threw themselvesinto role playing to prepareto guide family and friendsaround the Gallery and theirexhibition. The children metso many new people, itexpanded their world andtheir vocabulary showed it.

They wrote captions fortheir exhibition work anddescribed their Galleryexperiences in diaries. Theymade up stories based onthe life of a warder usingideas developed from theirmeetings. They wrote tocelebrities such as DavidBeckham, JK Rowling andRolf Harris to invite them to the Private View, andreceived prompt replies.

The literacy strategiesaddressed were vocabularyexpansion, prescriptivewriting, creative writing,and persuasive writing.

HistoryThe children learned aboutpeople and places from thepast, as well as the historyof the Gallery. They alsodiscovered the materials,methods and processesinvolved in painting in the17th and 18th centuries.

IT and DesignA professional graphicdesigner went into classand helped the children todesign posters and flyers.At the nearby SouthwarkCity Learning Centre theyused IT programmes toproduce their own.

And more...Maths, problem solving,media training, publicspeaking, speech writing,Citizenship and PSHE(Personal, Social andHealth Education), healthyeating and food technologywere also covered.

They also worked in groupssharing ideas for thePrivate View invitation card,and then commissionedthe designer to create itusing their own text.

“Come to the private view of magnificentchildren’s art – you will be gob smackedand never forget it!” Kalifa

“See some fantastic and amazingoriginal art done by 10 year olds. They’vestudied the old masters and have madethe paintings funny.” George

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Filmed for TVThe children were excitedto be filmed for someweeks for SMart, a BBCchildren’s art programme.They learned how to expressthemselves in front of atelevision camera andsoon overcame any camerashyness. As they met anincreasing number of newpeople they became relaxed,confident and articulate.

Catering for the Private View The children formed acatering committee todiscuss refreshments forthe Private View. Theydecided on biscuitsdecorated with faces torelate to the portrait theme.

At the local Sainsbury’sthey compared the price ofhome-made biscuits withbought ones – this gave thechildren quite a surprise.

All 52 children made anddecorated an enormousquantity of biscuits. Moremaths was involved asingredients were weighedand cooking times workedout during an intensivehome economics session.

Young enterprise – an unforeseen spin-offThe children’s beautifulcollage self-portraits on T-shirts were sold. Childrenlearned to take orders(size, image, colour) anddeal with money.

85 T-shirts were bought,not only by their familiesbut also by exhibitionvisitors. The Gallery Curatorwas the first to buy one. Theschool were delighted withthe small but useful profit.

ExpandingHorizons

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Private ViewThe exhibition was openedby the Rt Hon Tessa JowellMP, Secretary of State forthe Department of Culture,Media and Sport, and theMayor of Southwark.The children received andintroduced the Minister andthe Mayor. They confidentlyserved refreshments, readtheir speeches, sold T-shirtsand showed guests aroundthe exhibition. Children’sBBC filmed it all.

Parents, friends, teachers,colleagues and governmentministers mingled well intothe evening. The Gallerygrounds were buzzing withthe children and their oftenlarge extended familieswho were filled with pride attheir children’s achievements.

For three weeks the childrenwarded the exhibition at theweekends on a voluntaryrota. They took leaflets anddistributed them to visitorsexplaining who they wereand all about WonderfulPictures. The general publicwere charmed by theseassured, polite andenthusiastic young guides.

Teacher’s Comments“The building of confidenceand breaking down ofbarriers and fixed attitudeshas transferred across thecurriculum as children nowbring ideas of design andfantastic presentation toeverything they do, and bestof all the golden questionis back on the agenda“Miss, can I…?” Of coursethe answer is yes.”

“Interesting to see suchconfidence – trying to bedifferent. So often I findthese children valuesameness above all elseand are incredibly reluctantto follow ideas. Both theyand their parents believethat anything different willbe attacked, bullied... Artis not just an art thing, buta psychological shift.”

“These children have fewmale role models andrelated well to the maleartists they met. The boysnow think art is ‘cool’.

“There has been a hugegrowth in awareness of theeffects of body language,leading to greater awarenessof what goes on in schoolinteractions, which has inturn affected behaviour.”

TheExhibition

Comments fromthe Visitor’s Book

“Wonderful Pictures indeed.If only all children couldbenefit from such anexcellent project.”

“Marvellous – lively guidedtour from one of the youngartists.”

“Stunning original work; aninspiration and an exampleto educators everywhere.”

“Being a teacher, counsellorand mother, all I can say is you brought me to tears and laughter!”

“A joy to see how art has opened up children’screativity.”

“The artists seem to havedeveloped suchconfidence!”

“This is really groovy!”

“A most uplifting experience,full of hope and excitement.”

“Difficult to believe thesebeautiful pictures are thework of 10 year olds.”

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The exhibition featured inthe school’s Ofstedinspection and the schoolwas commended in thereport for the partnershipnature of the project.

Children’s BBC programmeSMart featured the childrenin creative sessions andorganising the exhibition.

The exhibition also went on show at Withers – aLondon firm of solicitors.Withers have an art andcultural assets section and their magnificentcontemporary office complex is ideal for display.The senior partners took a keen interest in theexhibition, describing it in detail to visiting clients.

Withers sponsored asecond Private View andfor the children a trip tothe City in a luxury coachto view their show followedby a party.

Wonderful Pictures was acommunity project, involvingchildren, their families,their teachers, professionalartists, a local supermarket,the mayor of Southwark,a BBC film crew, a firm ofsolicitors and all the staffand volunteers at DulwichPicture Gallery.

The children benefitedtangibly from the intensityof a project which tookover their lives. Workingalongside so many differentartists was a valuableexperience in itself. Eachvaried in approach, use ofvocabulary, expectations,personality, and eachinteracted with the childrenin different ways.

The project also had anoticable effect on theirfamilies. The Gallery willnow always be a placewhere these children andtheir families know theyare welcome.

Comments from theVisitor’s Book at Withers:“Lovely pictures! Meetingshave never been moreinteresting”

“A wonderful show. Thepictures really brightenedthe walls of our law firm.”

“Can’t believe that merechildren did this”.

Summary

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