The Screen
Learning at Mission GalleryProfile | 2012-13 Education Projects
11 February - 24 February 2013
Mission Gallery has recently refurbished the first floor and now has a dedicated education space that we are sharing with you through activities, workshops and events. Since summer 2012, Emma Rylance, our Learning & Participation Officer, has been putting together a wonderfully artistic timetable of creative and inspiring workshops for everyone to participate in. We want to continue making Mission Gallery a special place for the arts in Swansea and hope you can join us in some great workshops for children, families and adults.
Katie Allen’s exhibition last summer, ‘Nature Illuminated’ was the inspiration for children’s workshops which each explored drawing, colour, collage and pattern during the sunny afternoons.
This was followed by a series of workshops during the October Half Term. Children of all ages made ‘Mission Monsters’ with Jessica Hoad, designing and making wearable monster heads for Halloween from upcycled materials and inventing suitably scary stories, and families made ‘Mission Robots’ with Sean Olsen who transformed broken electronic toys into new mechanical creations who could create a floor painting masterpiece!
The exhibition, ‘House of Mirrors’, inspired a workshop led by the exhibiting artist Rob Olins as part of October’s Big Draw Event. Olin’s challenged children and adults to move around the exhibition and explore the colour of sound using a variety of materials and rapid sketching.
Our Christmas Art Workshops featured ‘A Magical Christmas Workshop’ for adults, with Becky Adams inspired by the poem "’Twas the night before Christmas". With Becky’s help, together with a sprinkle of snow and elf magic, the participants crated their own mixed media assemblages dipping into Becky’s own supply of vintage papers, fabrics and found objects. And to take a break from the hectic high street we offered a drop-in Christmas card and gift tag workshop, and a ‘Bring a Sketchbook’ drop-in day to draw and be inspired by the current exhibition and unique architectural space at Mission Gallery.
Cutting through Colour is a project set up for pupils involved in the Blaen Y Maes primary school’s ‘So 2 Do’ initiative. The project began during the Summer Holiday in Mission Gallery, where artist Keith Bayliss led a series of six printmaking and collage workshops. The pupils were given full and exclusive use of the Gallery during Katie Allen’s show Nature Illuminated which was the starting point for their own and collective artwork. The pupils began by creating drawings inspired by the art work presented in the exhibition and continued to make print blocks based on their drawings. The prints were then assembled into large collages and will be exhibited in Blaen Y Maes Primary School.
The project will continue during the October and February half term with a gallery visit focussing on drawing and colour whilst incorporating Mission Gallery’s handling collection.
