School Workshop

All Hallows High School link up with The Lowry

30/04/2014 — Leave a comment

Lisa Teasdale – Business & Enterprise Co-ordinator, All Hallows RC talks about the relationship between All Hallows and The Lowry. “As a Secondary School in Salford, we find The Lowry to be a fantastic learning resource on our doorstep. The workshops on offer are vast and the staff are always willing to tailor activities to suit any particular area of study. The Lowry accommodated a whole year group of our pupils as part of an art enterprise event where pupils took part in a variety of workshops and then shared their work and ideas back in the classroom with their peers.  This proved to be a valuable learning experience which the pupils thoroughly enjoyed and many of them used as part of their course work.”

Lisa went on to say “more recently, our school has been lucky enough to take part in the ‘War Horse’ project which included four inspiring and varied workshops such as scriptwriting and puppetry and also tickets to watch the National Theatre production at The Lowry. This brought the story to life for those pupils studying the novel within English lessons and enabled them to understand and appreciate what life was like during World War I”

 “I have visited The Lowry loads of times with school and have done something different every time.  It is always so much fun that we forget we are actually learning!” Year 9 pupil – All Hallows RC

Image

A look inside a School Workshop at The Lowry with Artist Michelle Leigh

22/04/2014 — Leave a comment
Image

Michelle Leigh – A School Workshop Artist

In a school workshop with Michelle Leigh classes learn about L.S. Lowry and the times in which he lived whilst exploring a range of his subject matter from industrial and rural landscapes through to portraits. Classes are initially led step by step through a series of fun and engaging drawing activities. Activities are geared to develop hand and eye co-ordination, improve drawing skills, mark making techniques, colour mixing, build confidence and self-esteem. We learn how to create perspective in a landscape, how to conjure up mood and atmosphere, how to draw a portrait in proportion and to capture emotion with just a few assured marks.

Working from our own handmade looking logs; mini sketchbooks, as did Lowry, we begin with a pencil and a rubber, and see how a few pencil lines turn into a row of terraced houses, a few curved shapes turn into a figure running late for a factory shift ,or become the face of a mischievous child. A dab of the rubber creates factory smoke or a ship on water.

Up in the galleries each chooses a drawing/painting, maybe just a detail to create a quick sketch, adding a small detail from the world around us to make ‘a Lowry for modern times.’. All the while we develop our skills for observing, recording, reflecting and drawing.

Back in the art room each pupil works from their gallery drawings to make a final piece on a larger scale. We learn about L.S. Lowry’s palette and how we can mix colours to make shades and tones. A variety of media is used from charcoal, watercolour, to chalk and oil pastels. Each session is tailored to suit individual classes, to develop skills that can be built upon back at school, with the sketches and final piece making for a lively and unique exhibition back at school. These sessions reinforce drawing as an activity which is above all fun and engaging for all ages, a skill for life. Drawing gives us a chance to look at the world like Lowry did and to see the inconsequential and the ordinary as a subject to paint and draw.

Jessica Stanmen…’there are many ways to see the world and the eye never has enough seeing’.

Pownall Green Primary School create their own Lowry

07/04/2014 — Leave a comment

Image

The children in 2CR at Pownall Green Primary School, Stockport have spent some time studying LS Lowry’s painting ‘Coming out of School’.  They decided to try and recreate the painting in class.  Working in pairs they first painted the school and the row of terraced house.  When these were completed, two paintings were chosen to go onto the background of smoky buildings and chimneys.  The last pieces to go on were the match stalk men and dogs, carefully crafted by the children, which brought the picture to life.  Everyone involved in this work thoroughly enjoyed all the processes involved and the children are very proud of their version of ‘Coming out of School’

Gill Miller, PA to headteacher

Creativity thrives for local schools at The Lowry

03/04/2014 — Leave a comment

IMG_1385

Over the spring term at The Lowry we have had over 100 schools with more than 3000 students visiting us to take part in creative workshops.

Working with professional artists, school children from Salford and beyond have taken out their paint brushes, put on their dancing shoes and pulled out their best acting skills to learn through creativity.

From painting and 3D Model making to dance workshops and drama classes, children and young people from Salford to Germany have made the journey to The Lowry in Salford, to use creativity and culture as a way to inspire and excite children themselves to learn.

One Year 4 class from Willow Tree Primary School in Pendleton, Salford visited this term, to explore the world of LS. Lowry and his Industrial Landscapes of the North. Linking to history, geography and art the children worked with Jack, one of our professional artists, to get creative and produce their very own LS.Lowry inspired Industrial Landscape to take back to school.

The following month Bridgewater Primary School from Little Hulton in Salford then paid us a visit with their Year 3 class to explore their own identify through a Portraits drawing workshop with Michelle. Children learnt how to draw their own faces and took their brilliant art work back to school to share with their fellow students.

The variety of workshops this term have been so varied and exciting, from the use of art to explore ‘the Plague’ as a history topic to drama workshops to explore Shakespeare. We have thoroughly enjoyed the mix of school workshops this Spring and can’t wait to get stuck into the summer term.

For more info: visit www.thelowry.com/learning

Schools are back!

29/10/2013 — Leave a comment

Since the beginning of September we have had an amazing 1148 students take part in school workshops at The Lowry; around 10% of those have been from schools across Salford. St Sebastian’s Roman Catholic Primary School, Norfolk Street took part in an L.S. Lowry Industrial scene workshop. A Community and Education artist helped the group take inspiration from the wide variety of architecture on Salford Quays as well as the Manchester Ship Canal, and contrast it with the landscapes that Lowry painted. The group worked with our artists to create their own landscape using a variety of materials including, chalks, ink and paint. One teacher at St Sebastian’s said “The tour of the gallery was able to act as inspiration and it focused the children on the skills Lowry had. This then allowed them to develop those skills and approaches for themselves in the task set”.

The new school year has also seen the introduction of a new series of school workshops themed around the National Theatre’s production of War Horse and the First World War. We have had visits from several schools across the country coming to take part in these, whether it be a workshop in which you learn the skills of becoming Joey or taking part in a First World War object handling session and then bringing the characters that you have heard about to life.

We recently had a visit from St Charles Roman Catholic Primary School, Moorside Road in which they took part in our new Pick and Mix workshop. They requested that a one of The Lowry’s artists devise a workshop around Tudor portraits. Our artist linked their workshop to what they had been doing in class and used his skills to teach them new techniques in an inspirational environment.

To find out further details about any of our workshops please check out our website http://www.thelowry.com/get-involved/learning/learning-home/