COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Since 2013, Queens Park Arts Centre has been extending its creative ethos into the wider community, with a variety of outreach projects designed to make creative connection with community groups of all ages.
For details of our previous projects, click here, or see below for our current outreach initiative.
CURRENT OUTREACH PROJECT
Introducing a brand new community outreach project from Queens Park Arts Centre: ‘Exploring Drawing through Printmaking and Mixed-Media’
ABOUT THE PROJECT
QPAC is offering drawing workshops for students in Year 1 through to Year 6, in which children will be introduced to printmaking processes and/or drawing media that they haven’t encountered before – such as chunky graphite, charcoal, inks and paint. These activities are an exciting extension of the drawing that children will have done already at school and will develop their core drawing skills – an important foundation for their future progress in arts and design subjects.
According to your budget, we can offer projects of different durations – a half-day, a full day or several days of art workshops. Teaching can either take place in school or at Queens Park Arts Centre (which can accommodate 30 pupils per session). If visiting us at Queens Park, the children will also get to see the current gallery exhibition and have an arts centre tour. Space is available at the arts centre for children to have break time and eat lunch.
Workshops are available to be booked on Thursdays and Fridays.
WORKSHOP CONTENT
Each workshop will be unique and planned to fit your time constraints, age group and any specifications around subject matter (if desired to fit in with a current area of study or theme). Children will make a finished piece of work using one or more printmaking techniques, possibly combined with further drawing or painting to make a ‘mixed media’ piece.
Below are some brief examples of printmaking techniques that can be offered – all of them will exercise your drawing muscles!
Intaglio printmaking – scratching a design into a surface and filling with ink to print.
Dark to Light Monotype – making a picture ‘negatively’ – the wrong way round.
Draw-through Monotype – drawing onto solid ink through a piece of paper.
Linocut – making printing blocks from soft, bendy plastic.
Lino printing uses sharp tools and is suitable for Year 5 and above.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
From a workshop the children will gain…
- A new printmaking skill
- Experience doing guided drawing exercises appropriate to their level of development – improving their skills in elements of observational drawing, for example how to begin to show volume, space, or structure
- Understanding how drawing is creative and not just ‘right or wrong’, by focussing on one or two specific ways they can make their pictures not just good but interesting: impactful, expressive, or communicative. Depending on the project this might be varying mark making to show feeling, energetic lines depicting movement, or carefully composed scenes that make people ask “what’s the story?”
- The chance to experiment with some elements and make decisions as part of the process of getting to their final piece
- Experience handling new art materials and understanding there are lots and lots of different ways of making drawings
- Knowledge of artists, artworks and the cultural stories around them
- An original piece of art to display or take home!
ABOUT THE TUTOR
Ellie Kirkup us an artist and tutor who leads a range of workshops at QPAC, including life drawing and an afterschool art club. She has also led mixed-media classes in local primary schools. Ellie enjoys engaging the children through their own interests and finding new ways to introduce them to different and exciting methods of drawing, printmaking, painting and sculpture.
In Spring 2021 Ellie completed a ten-week Drawing Development programme with the Royal Drawing School. She holds BA and MA degrees in Philosophy specialising in arts.
