- Thursday, 27 June 2024
- Thursday, 4 July 2024
- Thursday, 11 July 2024
- Thursday, 18 July 2024
About
By quite literally following in the footsteps of a number of artists in our collection over the course of four weeks, we will reflect and explore our shared experiences of London and the outdoors, through an accessible range of creative responses in a friendly and informal way. The combination of time onsite in the Gallery, creative exercises, and time outside walking, will enhance your understanding and connection to London. We will be grounding the course in the art and experiences of artists such as Hogarth, Le Brun, Turner, Pissarro, Monet, and Bonheur, who lived or spent significant amounts of time in London and reflected it in their work.
Three of the weeks will be onsite at the Gallery, and one week will take place offsite in central London. There will readings and exercises for further contemplation between sessions as well and all materials for the course will be provided.
As this course does involve an offsite walking tour, please email education@nationalgallery.org.uk to alert us of any access needs, or if you have any questions about the course prior to booking.
All materials will be provided.
Week 1 - Introduction
In the first week, we will be onsite at the National Gallery exploring how galleries and museums relate to walking and movement. Through an investigation of architecture, social history, promenading, class, and the development of cultural institutions, we will consider how we move through and interact with public spaces. Room by room, we will briefly explore phenomenology, history, and experience walking through the Gallery. In the first session we will also introduce some of the artists whose practice, work, and footsteps we will be following over the next couple of weeks.
Week 2 - Storytelling and the environment
In our second week, we will focus on personal storytelling in the lives of the artists we are highlighting in the course, as well as your personal experiences of London. Building on the previous week, we will embark on a series of creative and collaborative exercises in the Gallery. Through the activities, we will reflect on historical and contemporary interpretations and experiences of movement and environment.
Week 3 - Tracing their footsteps: Walking Tour
For the third week, we will physically follow in the footsteps of artists such as Monet, Hogarth, and Bonheur by tracing their steps in central London through a leisurely walking tour. We will explore techniques that contemporary walking artists use in their practices, whilst also exploring historical connections. We will begin and end at the National Gallery and the route will be shared in advance of the walking tour.
Week 4 - Final reflections and activities
Our final week will allow us to reflect on and play with our discoveries, notes, drawings, and previous exercises created throughout our course. Based in the Gallery for this final session, we will use accessible artistic materials and methods to document the many layers of the experience of walking and moving, including the historical, phenomenological, artistic and personal.
Your Tutors
Fiona Alderton is a Gallery Educator and storyteller at the National Gallery. With a background in performing, she writes and leads sessions for adults and children, including commissions for various organisations such as the National Portrait Gallery, Dulwich Picture Gallery, and the Royal Opera House in London.
Jenny Staff is a Gallery Educator at the National Gallery and a visual artist who creates drawings, cyanotypes and sculptures. She runs workshops with a variety of groups in multiple settings, including galleries and museums. She works around the premise that 'Play is Process', creating an open and playful environment where the creative process is facilitated and explored. She also undertakes creative mentoring, training and action research, working with teachers, museum and gallery staff and other artists.
Caroline Miller is the Courses and Events Programmer at the National Gallery where she develops online and in-person courses that expand access and engagement for the National Gallery’s audiences both nationally and internationally. Caroline previously worked in roles in the education and curatorial departments at the Royal Academy of Arts, Harvard University’s Dumbarton Oaks Museum, Glenstone Museum, Opera di Santa Croce, and the Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Building on her interdisciplinary background in art history, fine art and neuroscience, much of her research and work explores material history, artist studio practices, and the concept of the artist as a collector.
In their footsteps: Artists in London
- Thursday, 27 June 2024
- Thursday, 4 July 2024
- Thursday, 11 July 2024
- Thursday, 18 July 2024
Tickets
Standard: £120
Concessions: £114
Concessions are for full-time students, jobseekers, and disabled adults.