Tours and Workshops

During my time working at contemporary art organisations, I developed a range of tours and workshops designed to engage audiences with exhibitions in a way that is relevant and meaningful to them.

Alia Syed's The Ring in the Fish

P4/5 & P5 from Saracen Primary Schools and Anderston Primary School

Groups went round the exhibition space with torches and quizzes to see what they could discover. They listened carefully to the artist interviewing Indian immigrants in Glasgow. Many pupils could relate to the stories being told and were excited when they recognised objects from their culture being displayed. Pupils described the sport kabaddi (which featured in a large video work) to their classmates, and used keyboards and their breath to recreate the accompanying sound.

Inspired by the stories in the exhibition, pupils interviewed one another to learn about each other's backgrounds. Using these stories, pupils created visual collages that combined abstract patterns with their found stories.

A week later, I visited the school to continue the learning in the classroom. Pupils combined their collages into one long storyboard, where individuals' stories were concealed. Pupils used these storyboards as inspiration to make zines. The session ended by sharing our zines with each other.

Debjani Banerjee's Jalashgar

St Thomas Aquinas Secondary, S3 / St Roch's Secondary, S3 / Allsaints Secondary, S1 / Cleveden Secondary, S5/6 / Hyndland Secondary, S5/6 / Lourdes Secondary, S3 / Notre Dame Secondary, S4

Pupils enjoyed the contrast between the two exhibition rooms and were interested in how the rooms function differently from other exhibitions they have visited. They relaxed in the first room, using the ‘music room’ as intended. Pupils were interested in the imagery and use of materials in the second room. Inspired by the exhibition, pupils made a clay votive that represented our connection to Glasgow.

School of Mutants' You Have Not Yet Been Defeated

Glasgow Gaelic School, S3 / Whitehill High School, S4/5/6 / St Mungo's High School, S4

The pupils resonated with the video and sound works, drawing connections between the exhibition and events happening in the world today. While exploring the space, pupils were asked to note down one statement they saw or heard. We took time to explore the large library, an unusual sight for an exhibition, browsing and selecting publications that appealed to us. Using these as source material, pupils worked with photocopiers and tracing paper to create collaged activist zines that responded to the exhibition's themes.

Jupiter Artland's sculpture park

Community groups and primary, secondary and tertiary educational groups

As part of the learning team at Jupiter Artland, I led tours around the sculpture park and delivered workshops that combined creative making with the natural landscape, engaging a range of groups with the site's collection of contemporary art.

Jupiter+ Perth / Jupiter+ Ayr

Local secondary schools and further education groups

Jupiter+ is an off-site programme that takes contemporary art to high streets across Scotland. As part of the learning team, I co-created and delivered workshops for the first two programme iterations in Perth and Ayr, both of which responded to Rachel Maclean's work.

In Perth, pupils responded to the provocative imagery as a starting point to discuss social media use and the pressures of society. Inspired by these conversations, pupils made sculptures that gave form to these narratives. Building on this, the Ayr iteration further developed the programme, using green-screen technology to place pupils in their own local community, visualising the changes they wanted to see.

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