Galleries as a learning resource.

Galleries are hugely rich learning resource offering a varied range of opportunities to enrich the student’s experience of the arts and the role they play in our lives today.

The space also offers the opportunity to contribute and to develop a young person’s ‘cultural capital’ and a lifelong passion for the arts. Throughout the world there are galleries in most major cities; collections can be found housed in classical, modernist and refurbishment transformation. It has to be noted that the type of building design shapes how the works are curated; thus influencing our understanding, perception and experience.

There are about 55,000 galleries across the world and Tate London is one of the most visited galleries!

Cartwright Hall Art Gallery and its Collections.

It was the generosity of Samuel Cunliffe Lister (1815-1906) a wealthy mill owner; he was also one of  Bradford’s first MPs, who built Cartwright Hall.

In 1870 he sold his family home for half of its market value price of £80,000 to Bradford Corporation, today we know this as Lister Park.

The design brief had three requirements: functionality, monumentality and civic pride. The hall is built in the Baroque style (a highly theatrical style from the early 17th century, Italy). There are numerous reasons for the building of Cartwright Hall; a growing enthusiasm for the establishment of art museums; the celebrations of civilisation and culture but also as an vital educational resource for the people of Bradford.

The gallery offers its audience two collections, a permanent collection which reflects the wide and changing diverse interests of the people of Bradford and a temporary exhibition of borrowed material. The building also meets today’s standards as a repository for cultural, socially and politically valuable material.

Activities in the gallery.

Working in small sketchbooks and always with pencils.

Skills & knowledge: To introduce children to working in the gallery space, to inspire.

Curator: their role is to acquire, care for and develop collections; they also arrange exhibitions and loaned artworks to interpret, to inform, educate and inspire the public.

Choose three songs / musical instruments to go with the artwork / exhibition.

Looking at the artwork, choose one of the pieces that would make a good film, eg. travel, social documentary, natural history, drama… discuss

Look at the frames – which frame would you put yourself in and why?

Take one element of the artwork, draw the contour line (outline), use the line to write words to describe what you see and how the artwork makes you feel.

Looking at the artworks, select one element and draw studies, practice three or four times – observational skill – looking

Temporary exhibition: Island to Island: a visual journey through the English speaking Caribbean.

Looking at his portraits. What rule of convention did he break? Why do you think he did this?