Making Connections – Teachers’ Notes Overview This bookable resource delivers a stress-free self-programmed visit to Tate Liverpool. It can accommodate a class of up to 35 Key Stage 2 pupils. Making Connections provides resources and guidance for a 90 minute session in our current FREE Collection Display, Constellations on the first and second floors of the gallery. There are four activities; ‘Making connections’, ‘Making Art together’, ‘Making my own view’ and ‘Making up stories’. We have suggested artworks that you can use although the activities are suitable to adapt to a chosen topic and variety of artworks.
Pre-visit preparation
You will need to bring: l Extra adult helpers. The suggested ratio for this activity is 2 per group of 15-18 pupils l A camera to record the experience and artworks created. Photography is permitted in this exhibition but no filming, flash or tripods are allowed. l Drawing materials and clipboards. The resource includes handling objects and sketchbooks but you need to bring clipboards or hardback sketchbooks to lean on, pencils, coloured pencils, pencil sharpener and erasers. Drawing materials not allowed include: chalk, charcoal or wet materials. l These teachers’ notes.
MAKING CONNECTIONS – Teachers notes
Before bringing your class to Tate Liverpool please read these teachers’ notes to familiarise yourself with the activities. You may make a pre-visit or look online at the collection. There is also a teachers’ pack for Constellations available to download with more information about the works on display: www.tate.org.uk/liverpool
Introduction On arrival you will get: l Sketchbooks (1 per pupil) l 1 x blue bag with all the resources you need for a class of 35 for the ‘Making Connections’ activity. l 2 x grey bags with all of the resources you need for a group of up to 18 children for activities; ‘Making Art together’ and ‘Making my Own View’.
Arrival and Introduction At the information desk you can pick up the booked resource when you sign in. The entrance is a place to run through house keeping (Toilets, lunch, groups etc.), as well as briefing the class on the session ahead and expectations of gallery behaviour. Please refer to “Your visit to Tate Liverpool” for more information.
• Give out a sketchbook and drawing materials to each pupil so they can fill out the orange page; ‘Before my gallery visit’. • The sketchbooks are designed to capture all of the activities. They have a strip at the end which can be folded over and stuck in a sketchbook back at school.
MAKING CONNECTIONS – Teachers notes
Delivery – Introduction
Map and Groups Arranging groups and series of activities The gallery can get busy so we suggest that you divide your class into 2 groups of up to 17/18 pupils (Groups A and B). Spilt the class after the ‘Introduction’ and ‘Making Connections’ activity and bring the groups back together for the ‘Plenary’. • Each group leader will have a grey bag and share the resources from the blue bag for ‘Making Connections’. Constellation
7
Groups A and B can follow the suggested order of activities: Group A Group B
Making my own View 1st floor, Constellations 4 and 5
Making up Stories 1st floor, Constellation 3
Making Art Together 2nd floor, Constellation 7
Making my own View 1st floor, Constellations 4 and 5
Plenary Plenary 2nd Floor, Constellation 7 2nd Floor, Constellation 7 Group A and B working together
Constellation
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Constellation
1
Constellation
Constellation
2
4
Constellation
3
MAKING CONNECTIONS – Teachers notes
Making Connections Making Connections st 1 Floor, Constellations 1 and 2 1st Floor, Constellations 1 and 2 Group A and B working together Making up Stories Making Art Together st 1 floor, Constellation 3 2nd floor, Constellation 7
Making Connections l Constellations 1 and 2 l Work in pairs l TIME: approx. 20 mins.
You will need: l blue bag
l sketchbooks -blue page ‘Making Connections’ l drawing materials
The aim of this first activity is to orientate and familiarise the pupils with the gallery environment. When entering the gallery for the first time pupils may be overwhelmed or excited. This activity gives them an opportunity to explore the gallery in a focused way. The pupils have a list of things in their sketchbook to tick off, as well as handling objects that they can connect with an artwork from the gallery. Artists sometimes use everyday materials or subject matters you don’t expect to see in the gallery. These unusual pairings of materials help us to look at the world in a different way. This activity helps the children connect creatively with the artworks on a personal level.
MAKING CONNECTIONS – Teachers notes
Overview
Making Connections
Delivery
Prompts & Questions
• Split the group into pairs. • Ask them to find the ‘Making Connections’ page in the sketchbook. • Explain that you want them to explore this part of the gallery with their partner hunting out and ticking off some of the things from the ‘Making Connections’ sketchbook page (this includes; Find an artwork.... that’s smaller than you/ has got your favourite colour in it/makes you feel sad). Explain that you may not find something that fits your list. • As well as the tick list ask one person from each pair to choose a mystery object from the blue bag. Explain that you want them to work together as a pair to connect it with an artwork in the room and give reasons for their choice. It might be because the object shares the same colour/materials as the artwork, or it might be that the object and the artwork remind you of a memory. Stress there is no right or wrong answer. • Point out the parameters of the space. Remind pupils of the rules of the gallery introduced on arrival e.g. no touching, noise levels, etc. • As the group explore the gallery ask the adults to aid discussion. Bring the group back together and highlight some of the interesting connections made by inviting pupils to present their object, which artwork they connected it to and the reasons for their choices.
• Not finding something that fits your list could be a point of discussion: No works smaller than you? This room is full of enormous artworks that are best seen the gallery rather than a book. • What year were you born? Look at the labels on the walls next to the artworks to see if they were made before or after that date? What is the oldest artwork you can see? Which is the newest? • To broaden your potential connections to artworks it is useful to really examine all the qualities of your object. Describe your object – colour, shape, material. Does it remind you of something you own or a memory? Why were you drawn to the object?
• You could add your own key words or objects to the blue ‘Making Connections’ bag that link to a theme at school. (Don’t forget to take them back to school with you afterwards!).
MAKING CONNECTIONS – Teachers notes
Additional ideas
Making art together l Constellation 7 l Collaborative – groups of 3/4 pupils l TIME: approx. 20 mins.
You will need: l grey bag – ‘Making Art Together’ folders l sketchbooks – grey ‘Making Art Together’ page l camera or drawing materials
Overview
MAKING CONNECTIONS – Teachers notes
The aim of this activity is to work together to make one artwork. Pupils use various materials to create a floor-based picture. Throughout history artworks have been created by more than one person, art made this way is called a collaboration.
Making art together
Delivery
Prompts & Questions
• Split the class into small groups of 3 or 4 pupils. • Tell the groups that they are going work collaboratively to create a single work of art. Explain the definition of collaboration. • Hand out ‘Making it Together’ folders and let the pupils explore materials and work co-operatively together. • Ask the adults to aid by encouraging shared work. • You may wish to document this artwork by taking photographs which could be printed out and stuck in the sketchbook back at school. Alternatively, get the pupils to make a quick sketch, labelling things they may not have time to draw, like colour, material, etc.
• Discuss challenges and advantages of working collaboratively. • Ask the children to view others’ artwork and say which ones they like and why.
Additional ideas
MAKING CONNECTIONS – Teachers notes
• You could continue this back at school by making a giant class artwork using other materials and found objects.
Making my own view l Constellations 4 and 5 l Individual activity l TIME: approx. 20 mins
You will need: l grey bag - orange viewfinders l sketchbooks - orange ‘Making My Own View’ page l drawing materials
Overview
MAKING CONNECTIONS – Teachers notes
The aim of this activity is to encourage close and extended looking at the artworks. Pupils choose from various shaped viewfinders to select an area of an artwork. A viewfinder makes a drawing activity less overwhelming.
Making my own view
Delivery
Prompts & Questions
• Split your group into 2 and sit one group in front of Jackson Pollock’s, Summertime: Number 9A. in Constellation 5 and the other half in front of Joan Miró’s, A Star Caresses the Breast of a Negress (Painting Poem) in Constellations 4. • Ask pupils to choose a viewfinder from the selection and show how to use the viewfinder as a frame. Demonstrate how best to hold the viewfinder, it helps to close one eye (see picture). • Before they make their drawing get the pupils to draw the frame on their orange ‘Making my view’ sketchbook page so it fills the page. • Adults can support by encouraging pupils to look through viewfinders and only draw what they can see. • When they have finished making their drawings ask pupils to see if they can arrange them on the floor to create a “whole” representation of the artwork.
• Change view points by sitting on the floor and looking up at the artwork or standing instead. • Is your viewfinder landscape, portrait or a circle? • You can change their selected area; for detail move closer, and move further away to zoom out to see the whole artwork.
Additional ideas
MAKING CONNECTIONS – Teachers notes
l Make your own viewfinders back at school.
Making up stories l Constellation 3 l Individual activity l TIME: approx. 20 mins
You will need: l Sketchbooks – blue ‘Making Up Stories’ page l Drawing materials
Overview
10 MAKING CONNECTIONS – Teachers notes
The aim of this activity is to use an artwork as a point of inspiration for creating a history and narrative for a character/characters. By imagining what personal objects the character would own, pupils have the opportunity make a connection with the artwork and start to think about how, what and why the artist has chosen to represent a person in a particular way.
Making up stories
Delivery
Questions to Ask
• Decide how to organise your class. This could be all around one particular artwork, or in front of different artworks. • Ask them to turn to the blue ‘Making up Stories’ page of their sketchbook which has an empty bag which belongs to the character in the artwork. • Start with a group discussion about things they notice about the artwork. • You could suggest the group work with partners to choose a character from the artwork. They then take it in turn to pose questions to each other and make up the answers. • Ask pupils to make annotated drawings in the bag of things they imagine the character would be carrying.
• Sentence starting points might be what, why, where, how or who. E.g.: Where do you imagine the characters are? • Suggest opposites for the group to pick from. E.g. Old/ Young? Rich/poor? Happy/Sad? • Encourage the group to empathise with the character. What do you think the character is feeling and why? • It may be that you’ve researched a little about the artwork and you can supplement their comments with facts, e.g. ‘Well it is interesting you say this character looks sad because the artist painted it during a war’.
• You could continue this back at school by making up a story about a character. Read out or perform stories in front of the rest of the class. • On the internet get the class to research the artist, sitter or time in history the artwork was made. This could be done before or after your Tate Liverpool visit.
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Additional ideas
Plenary
You will need: l sketchbooks - grey ‘After my visit’ page l drawing materials
Overview The aim of this is to gather both groups together and reflect on what they have done and what they have learnt during Making Connections. Evaluation is vital for artists to develop, the plenary is a really important part of their session also.
Delivery
Prompts & Questions • Point out that the ‘because...’ part is really important because it gives a reason for your statement. Explain that it is really useful to think about things that they didn’t like or didn’t think went well and why. Often artists challenge themselves by trying something new or putting themselves outside their comfort zone. Sometimes their experiment fails and sometimes they discover a new way of doing something.
Artworks featured in these notes are:
Cerith Wyn Evans, Astrophotography…The Traditional Measure of Photographic Speed in Astronomy…’ by Siegfried Marx (1987) 2006 Eileen Agar, Fish Basket c1965 Robert Morris, Untitled 1965/71 Joan Miro, A Star Caresses the Breast of a Negress (Painting Poem) 1938 Albert Gleizes, Portrait of Jacques Nayral 1911 Natalya Goncharova, Gardening 1908
• Run through a reminder of everything that they have done in the Making Connections session. • Ask the pupils to fill out the ‘After my gallery visit’ section of their sketchbook. • Ask pupils to interview the person next to them to find out what they thought about their gallery visit. • Invite a few pupils to feedback what they discovered from their interviewee and encourage full and thoughtful answers.
MAKING CONNECTIONS was devised and designed by interference-art
12 MAKING CONNECTIONS – Teachers notes
l Constellation 7 l group activity (both groups) l TIME: approx. 10 mins
