muscle: a question of power | Activity for schools
These suggested questions are for teachers in different disciplines to customize as needed for any project work you might conduct in conjunction with a visit to the exhibition:
Click on an image below to download educational activity for your school.
Unfortunately, at the moment all of our classes are subscribed to maximum capacity. If any places in the classes become available, they will be advertised on our mailing list and allocated on a first come first serve basis.
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Children’s Art Classes
Fully Booked
We run Saturday art classes for children aged 8 - 12 years. Classes aim to build confidence, exploring techniques and materials through drawing, colour and making. The fee is €100 for 10 classes, which includes all art materials.
The time slots are: 10am - 11.30am 11.15am - 12.45pm
Teen Art Classes
Fully Booked
We run Thursday evening Classes for senior cycle students. 6pm – 7:30pm
Draw inspiration from art in the gallery - study art works up close - create your own responses - develop your ideas using drawing, print and paint.
Fee is €75 for 10 workshops, all art materials supplied.
We are delighted to welcome students to the Gallery for guided visits. Visits are suitable for students of all ages, abilities and backgrounds.
Guided visits may be tailored to the curriculum or support young people and teachers’ own exploration. These visits will encourage speaking confidently about art and the development of the students’ viewpoints.
Check out projects that our TY work experience students have made during their time with us! Each project has a unique take on past/ current exhibitions in the Gallery. Why not try out some of the activities they have created!’
Is cuma más cainteoir líofa thú, nó b’fhéidir go bhfuil deis uait do chuid scileanna a chleachtadh agus a fheabhsú. Tá go leor gníomhaíochtaí as Gaeilge ar fáil go forleathan ar na suíomhanna gréasáin ‘Learn & Explore’.
Try out our activities ‘as Gaeilge’!
Whether you are a fluent Irish speaker or want to practice your skills, there are activities ‘as Gaeilge’ available on the Learn & Explore section of our website!
This resource is designed for the Leaving Certificate art history and appreciation exam, Section III (Appreciation of Art). It focuses on the ‘gallery question’ where students are asked about an exhibition they have visited.
It is based on the online exhibition Harry Clarke Marginalia, but its structure and focus could be applied to other exhibitions you have visited, virtually or in person at a gallery, museum or other heritage centre.
The resource aims to help students, but when approaching a question on the exam paper, it is important to follow the advice and guidance of your art teacher. The marking schemes and past exam papers are available at www.examinations.ie under ‘Exam Material Archive’. This provides information on what the examiners tend to look for in completed exam papers.
Contact
We are keen to support teachers and students, if you have a specific question about an exhibition please feel free to contact us.
Scoil Bernadette is a secondary school for students aged 12 to 18 years of age. See what happened when students met with artists Rosaleen Moore and Ailbhe Barrett.
Contact
If you are interested in finding out how your school can connect with Crawford Art Gallery please contact: (0)21 490 7857 emmaklemencic@crawfordartgallery.ie
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Leaving Cert Art Resources
Click here to download an interactive PDF file with lots of online art resources from Crawford Art Gallery for Leaving Certs.
Contact
We are keen to support teachers and students, if you have a specific question about an exhibition please feel free to contact us.
In place of our annual Harry Clarke Watercolours exhibition, this year we have been busy creating a special online exhibition that explores the hidden details of the celebrated artist's work.
This will allow virtual visitors to see aspects of Clarke's work up close from the safety and comfort of their own homes, classrooms, and around the world. In some cases, for the first time visitors will encounter supplementary drawings, doodles, and annotations only found in the margins or on the reverse of his watercolour studies.
Enter the marvellous imagination of one of Ireland's most celebrated artists...
Who are the artists? Anne Cleary and Denis Connolly are Irish artists, who are also husband and wife. They are interested in the art and science of looking and they call themselves the School of Looking. See www.schooloflooking.org
When was the exhibition? October - November 2020
What does the title Invisible Light mean? Scientists have discovered many forms of invisible light, these forms of light make up the electromagnetic spectrum. For instance, infrared light (‘heat radiation’) cannot be seen by people, but it can be seen by snakes. Ultraviolet light (which can cause sunburn) is invisible to us, but not to bees.
So what was the exhibition about? The short answer is art and science; the electromagnetic spectrum.
The artists worked to imaginatively explore the electromagnetic spectrum, they wanted to bring art and science together to create artworks. They are self-described ‘science nerds'.
The exhibition Invisible Light presented 8 artworks which each investigated a different form of invisible light, from the mysterious gamma ray to the familiar radio wave. The artists collaborated with scientist researchers in the Tyndall Institute University College Cork to create the artwork. The exhibition was funded by the Science Foundation of Ireland, because they are interested in different ways that people can learn more about science apart from textbooks and they are keen to promote science to a wide audience.
School of Looking artists using an infrared camera for their artwork called Sense of Heat.
How did Covid 19 restrictions affect the exhibition? Audience participation is very important to the School of Looking artists and much of their artwork is designed to be interactive. For example, one of the artworks in the exhibition called a Sense of Heat used an infrared camera and only worked when people stood directly in front of the camera so that their own infrared image was projected on a screen.
New rules around social distance and sanitising meant that the artists had to modify the artwork displayed. The artists had planned for an exhibition space that echoed a workshop or laboratory, so that people could test, touch and experiment with forms of invisible light and ways of seeing within the gallery space.
What is a virtual exhibition? An exhibition that you can explore on screen using a computer or phone over the internet, but not physically visiting a gallery.
Denis Connolly giving a virtual exhibition tour to a school group.
How was the gallery exhibition Invisible Light made virtual?
The artists used a laptop and camera to give live tours of the exhibition through an online platform called Zoom. We called these virtual visits and they were offered free of charge to schools and groups.
7 Ray Days, these were free public talks for an adult audience live through zoom. Each talk was dedicated to a different form of Invisible Light featuring the artists chatting with a scientist researcher. People could ask questions and give feedback through a live chat function. The talks were filmed and are available on the gallery website.
The artists produced a series of videos exploring the different forms of Invisible Light from the exhibition.
Do you think it is important to go to a gallery physically to see artworks in person? Why?
What are the advantages of virtual or online exhibitions?
Do we need galleries to be physical buildings anymore?
Do you think the School of Looking were successful in creatively exploring forms of invisible light? How?
Do you find their work exciting, confusing, educational? Why?
Do art and science go together? Do you need to understand the electromagnetic spectrum / science to enjoy the artwork?
The International Museum of Women is an online-only museum that does not have a physical building and instead offers online exhibitions, can you find an online or virtual exhibition that really appeals to you?
Contact
We are keen to support teachers and students, if you have a specific question about an exhibition please feel free to contact us.
Join Aíne Andrews, a group of 2020 Leaving Cert students and artist-guide Avril O’Brien on a visit to the gallery.
Aine Andrews taught art at Coláiste Choilm for many years and is the author of Appreciating Art published by Gill Education. Aine partners with the ATAI (Arts Teachers’ Association of Ireland) to develop resources for students.
These videos aim to help students to prepare for the gallery-visit section, which is part of the leaving cert Art History paper.
Leaving Certificate Resources: Aine has written detailed resource notes to accompany her videos.
The first set of notes introduces the gallery building and some of its history.
The second set of notes gives a concise account of the gallery collection and some key artworks from the art historical to contemporary.
The third set of notes gives a useful account of a current exhibition and details a selection of artwork. All of the notes make reference to past questions on the leaving certificate art history paper.
Visual Language is a crucial form of communication. Images are powerful tools for communicating messages. People need skills to interpret these messages and have thoughtful responses. The ability to decode the language of images helps us realise that a single image may have multiple meanings. Fluency in visual language enriches our understanding of Art and the world. It influences our creativity, empathy and critical thinking.
The video and downloadable PDF suggest ways of breaking the codes of visual language helping us to understand, write and talk about artworks. A handy method called 'Visual Thinking Strategy' using three questions helps us to analyse artwork.
Click below to view the video presentation
Artwork in the video: CAG. 1828 Andrew Boyle, Millwall, 1998 CAG. 2067 Debbie Godsell, Lady, 2002 CAG. 1734 Anthony Haughey, Lie of the Land CAG. 1696 Anne Madden, Jardin de Nuit, 1932 CAG. 81 John Lavery, The Red Rose, 1923
Have you ever wondered what a Curator does? Curators have many roles in the Crawford Art Gallery working with colleagues in areas such as education, research, conservation, design and marketing. They continually develop interesting ways in which to engage the public with artworks through exhibitions, publications or events.
Check out our exhibition case study which interviews Anne Boddaert, one of the gallery Curators. Anne speaks about curating the exhibition ‘Seen, Not Heard’ (28th June – 28th October 2019). We asked Anne about what needs to be considered when borrowing work from another collection or artist and hanging the work. We also chat about the experimental playspace take-over of the upper gallery, following the phenomenal response from the public.
BE A CURATOR!
We invite you to curate your own online exhibition!
Click on this link, save a copy of the online gallery template.
Explore the Crawford Art Gallery Collection, picking a theme of your choice. Right-click to download and save the images you choose to upload to the slides on your template.
Try experimenting with the content of the artwork. Can you communicate a different message to your audience by juxtaposing two images of different meaning?
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Drawing Faces
There are many ways of approaching drawing a face. This timelapse demonstrates techniques like comparing distances, using one feature to measure others, breaking down areas into shapes...
Try something new or find your own method. Draw people around you, use photos or magazine images or take inspiration from portraits in our online collection.
Here, Avril referred to Fergus Martin’s 'Head No. 32001' from the gallery collection, which can be found on the website.
Avril O’Brien is an artist and teen tutor.
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Click on the video below to view a timelapse of the process
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Exploring Influences / A View from a Window
Develop your own artwork that says something about where you are - your place
To kick-start this project Avril looked at the gallery collection for inspiration and selected four paintings that explore views from a window. Each of the paintings have an individual mood, style and composition, that suggest different emotions and meanings.
A.M. O' Hare, Houses in Cork, with View of Shandon, 20th century.
Avril sketched the composition of one of the paintings as a starting point and then used collage to create something new. Avril’s collage used scraps of old maps for clouds in the sky, maybe because she really misses travelling, this gives her artwork an individual meaning.
You can watch Avril at work on this short time-lapse video
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Figure Drawing
We share tips and tricks for drawing a figure. Get the low down on ways of finding proportion. Stuck for art materials? Raid the kitchen cupboards for materials to create expressive mark-making.
Avril O’Brien, Artist and teen tutor, demonstrates with a portrait from the gallery in this short video and handy downloadable PDF.
Drawing is all about Visual problem-solving. Eileen Healy’s
‘Portrait of Conal Creedon’ (2007) which is part of our collection is a
stimulus for this figurative drawing video.
HANDY TIPS FOR FIGURE DRAWING
PROPORTION Sighting: comparing angles, distances and shapes. Using a unit of measurement to compare sizes.
Expression through media, mark-making
BLOCKING Build Up your drawing! Focus on: Negative and positive space (Background and Figure) Light and shadow to create form with areas of tonal value
EXPRESSION Media chosen has a big effect on the feeling your drawing transmits. Mark-Making: Use a variety of dots, hatching, scribbles, soft marks. These create your expressive language.
UNITY Tie up the whole image. Quality of line: Use thick, thin or broken line. Details: Emphasise some areas, create texture, points of interest, facial expression. Mood: Just a few marks can change the background or the lighting of your image.
MATERIALS
You don’t need a collection of traditional art materials.
Look around your home!
Paper- Paper shopping bags, baking paper, cardboard boxes,
packaging.
Media - Spices, vegetables, condiments. We used beetroot for
dramatic expression. Ground turmeric (a tiny amount added to a little water), soy
sauce, tea and coffee created a sepia tone. Think about light, medium and dark
tones.
Mark-making tools – what is in the garden? Leaves, sticks.
Around the house? Pasta, straws, biros, scrunched up tissue, string.
Click on the video below to view a timelapse of the process
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Resource Pack for Portraiture
This resource has been designed as an introduction to portraiture for school groups. Primary and post-primary teachers can use it as a starting point for lesson plans or supporting material to accompany a visit to the Gallery. It will help to develop and consolidate pupils' visual literacy and critical thinking skills, fostering a curiosity in self-representation and identity.
The first pdf resource explores portraits in the context of the Zurich Portrait Prize exhibition that took place in the Crawford Art Gallery in 2020. It examines what exactly a portrait is and how to better understand or ‘read’ portraits.
The second pdf resource looks closely at a range of portraits to create a series of case studies. These include works from the gallery collection and young Zurich Portrait Prize winners, from the contemporary to art historical. Each artwork is accompanied by a series of classroom prompts and suggestions for further exploration.
Resource Pack Designed by art teacher Liz Morrissey, this pack presents the 12 key artworks from the collection, with worksheets, visuals and artist biographies. Please find a version to download below.
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To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
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The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
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The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.