Take One Picture
Take One Picture: See the world of Canaletto through the eyes of children
Issued May 2026
4 June – 31 August 2026
The Roden Centre for Creative Learning
Admission free
This summer the National Gallery’s flagship primary school programme, Take One Picture, reimagines Canaletto’s Venice. Each year, children from across the UK respond to a single National Gallery painting, using it as inspiration for imaginative exploration across the school curriculum. This year’s painting is Canaletto’s 'A Regatta on the Grand Canal' (about 1740).
The exhibition will showcase the work of pupils from 35 schools across the UK. This typical Venetian scene is transformed through the eyes of children with a wide range of inventive projects, all coming from their own questions and ideas about the painting: who is going to win the race? What’s under the water? Why do the boats look like dragons?
This year, over 79,000 children from 362 schools have participated in the Take One Picture programme. Take One Picture aims to put art at the centre of children’s learning across the curriculum, inspiring creativity, curiosity, and a lifelong connection with artists’ work. By exhibiting a selection of the projects produced, the programme also provides a platform for celebrating children’s work, building pride and confidence in their achievements, and fostering a sense of ownership and belonging in the Gallery.
This year’s painting, Canaletto’s 'A Regatta on the Grand Canal', shows a colourful boat race taking place in Venice, Italy. Crowds of hundreds of people cheer on the gondolas as they race towards the finish line. Canaletto has captured the excitement and drama of the event, with spectators and architecture laid out in a steep angle that recedes sharply into the distance. Canaletto was born in Venice, the son of a theatrical scene painter. Throughout the 18th century, he was an artist of influence, famed for his precisely depicted and evocative views of the city.
This year’s exhibition takes place in the Gallery’s Roden Centre for Creative Learning, which opened in 2025. The Centre enables adults and children to have high-quality creative learning experiences within an inspiring setting.
Karen Eslea, Head of Learning and National Programmes at the National Gallery, said:
‘Take One Picture is a very special programme which has been central to the National Gallery’s work for over 30 years. It is completely free and open to all primary school children across the UK, reaching large numbers and supporting high quality creative learning for all. We know this has a huge impact on children’s lives and learning, and with free teacher training the project has an important and lasting legacy in schools. I couldn’t be more delighted and inspired by this wonderful exhibition – huge congratulations to all the young artists involved!’
To find out more about Take One Picture, see here: nationalgallery.org.uk/learning/take-one-picture
Sponsored by
Take One Picture is generously supported by Columbia Threadneedle Foundation.
Catrin and Tom Treadwell
John Armitage Charitable Trust
and other donors
Notes to editors
Painting caption
Canaletto, 'A Regatta on the Grand Canal' about 1740
© The National Gallery, London
About Take One Picture
Launched in 1995, Take One Picture is the National Gallery’s countrywide scheme for primary schools. Each year the Gallery focuses on one painting from the collection to inspire cross-curricular work in primary classrooms. The Gallery offers training sessions which give teachers the opportunity to learn about the focus picture and explore the pedagogy and practice of using paintings as a rich resource for child-led, investigative learning. Each year a selection of work produced by schools based on the painting is shown at the National Gallery and published on the website. In order to be considered for the display, schools submit examples of how a whole class or school has used the picture to inspire projects that are child-led and cross-curricular, and through which children have learned a new process and involved people or places in the local community.
Further information about the programme, related CPD courses for teachers, and the annual Take One Picture exhibition at the National Gallery can be found at nationalgallery.org.uk/take-one-picture
About Columbia Threadneedle Investments
Columbia Threadneedle Investments is a leading global asset manager that provides a broad range of actively managed investment strategies and solutions for individual, institutional and corporate clients around the world. With approximately 2,200 people including approximately 550 investment professionals based in North America, Europe and Asia, it manages £502bn assets (as at 31 March, 2026) across developed and emerging market equities, fixed income, asset allocation solutions and alternatives.
Columbia Threadneedle Foundation is committed to investing in the community through partnerships that create positive social impact. It focuses on charities that use education, art and sport to engender lasting social change. Common threads in its programmes and charity partners include the ability to build skills and confidence, challenge perspectives and broaden horizons.
Schools represented in the exhibition:
Anderton Park Primary School, Birmingham
Beit Shvidler Primary School, London
Bladon C of E Primary School, Oxfordshire
Cedar Road Primary School, Northampton
Dalmilling Primary School, Ayrshire
Dolphin School, Reading
Endike Academy, Hull
Grafton Primary School, London
Hayward's Primary School, Devon
Hill Top C of E Primary School and Nursery, Bradford
Hill View Academy, Huddersfield
Hill View Junior Academy, Sunderland
King's Meadow Primary School, Oxfordshire
Kisimul School, Lincolnshire
Laleham Gap School, Ramsgate
Luton Primary School, Kent
Mab's Cross Community Primary School, Wigan
Moorlands Junior School, Cheshire
Moreland Primary School, London
Morley Memorial Primary School, Cambridge
Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Voluntary Academy, Doncaster
Outwood Primary Academy Alne, Yorkshire
Park Junior School, Northampton
Peasedown St John Primary School, Bath
Prestbury C E Primary School, Macclesfield
Preston Park Primary School, London
Snaresbrook Primary School, London
St Alban & St Stephen Catholic Primary School & Nursery, Hertfordshire
St James C of E Primary School, London
St Michael's C of E Primary Academy, Birmingham
St Paul's C of E (VA) Primary School, Cambridge
St Robert's Catholic First School, Northumberland
Stockbridge Primary and Pre-School, Hampshire
Vicar's Green Primary School, London
Weston Favell Primary School, Northampton
Press enquiries
National Gallery Press Office email [email protected]
Publicity images can be obtained from https://press.nationalgallery.org.uk/