Workshops/Tours

School children creating artworks with coloured paper in the modern and contemporary galleriesAvailable throughout the year

Choose from a range of activity sessions, all of which:

  • Last 1 hour 45 minutes (maximum).
  • Include practical activities led by artists/educators
  • Are cross-curricular in approach and wherever possible, cross-cultural
  • Are based on the permanent collections and often on current special exhibitions


Workshop for Autumn 2009 - Its so Surreal

To coincide with our Special Exhibition, Angels of Anarchy: Women Artists and Surrealism, 26 September 2009 – 10 January 2010.

We take you and your students on a surreal journey around the gallery using the exhibition’s key themes and works from our permanent collection to explore Surrealist concepts and develop students’ analytical and critical thinking skills.

Cost: £65 (20 student’s maximum).

We really enjoyed the exhibition and workshop last week - I think that the students really got a lot out of it. We're hoping that we might be able to find some time to come again on a self- directed visit before the exhibition ends - there was too much to see in one go. It really is an excellent exhibition - we're so lucky to have it in Manchester.

Tutor, Tameside College

More information about It's So Surreal


Thinking Visually

Open your eyes, follow the artist’s gaze and engage your senses to explore ways of seeing, feeling and understanding. Working individually and collaboratively, students use objects to create dialogue, discover meanings and form their own interpretations of images and artefacts in the gallery.
More information about Thinking Visually.

Capturing Nature

Students discover how artists have been inspired by nature, research still life, costume, paintings and ceramics and record their responses. In our studio they explore mixed media and experiment with wax trapping techniques.

Gallery Tours

We’ll tailor guided tours of the gallery to your group’s needs. All our tours are led by a gallery educator, who will take you through the building – introducing highlights of the permanent collection, destination galleries and current special exhibitions.
More information about Gallery Tours.

Getting to Know the Gallery

Join our interactive tour, where students will discover the history of our building and a selection of works of art that complement the founding and development of Manchester’s art gallery. A mixture of discussion and exploring drawing techniques will provide a creative basis for future gallery visits.
More information about Getting to Know the Gallery

Picturing Landscapes

Use the gallery’s collections to research how artists have developed and produced landscape paintings throughout the last century. In the studio students collect and explore observational drawings of Manchester’s ever-changing cityscape using print techniques.
More information about Picturing Landscapes

Portraits and Identity

Investigate relationships between people and objects through a range of artworks in our permanent collection and special exhibitions. Students use critical studies to inform analysis and photography and alternative drawing techniques to document observations.
More information about Portraits and Identity

Sculpture with Susie MacMurray

Practising artist Susie MacMurray introduces students to traditional and contemporary artwork, using her own artistic processes and the gallery’s collection. Students explore unusual materials and a range of methods. Drawing and sculpture become entwined using wire, withies and wool.
More information about Sculpture with Susie MacMurray

Who’s in the News?

Explore people, power and perception through the cult of celebrity. Debate historical and contemporary ideas of fame and notoriety. Students create unique mixed media montages that transport Victorian depictions of women into the 21st century.
More information about Who’s in the News?

Exploring Shakespeare

In these two workshops, writers and drama specialists use artworks depicting dramatic scenes to bring Shakespeare’s plays to life. Both workshops can be extended with a visit to the Royal Exchange Theatre. More information on request.

  • Macbeth
    Students visit scenes from Macbeth using imagery in artworks from our collections, focusing on Shakespearean language and exploring themes of ambition, loyalty, power and relationships.
    More information about Macbeth
  • The Tempest
    Again using imagery in artworks, students visit scenes from The Tempest, focus on Shakespeare’s language and explore themes of shipwreck, sorcery, betrayal, revenge, forgiveness and love.  

More information about The Tempest

         
To make a booking or for further information please contact us.
Tel: 0161 235 8842
Fax: 0161 235 8899