Public Programmes

The Courtauld Public Programmes works with local schools, colleges and community groups to offer a variety of experiences and opportunities for young people outside of formal education. We aim to engage students with the research and academic thinking that personifies The Courtauld Institute of Art. Featured below are details about focussed workshops taking inspiration from aspects of the temporary exhibitions at The Courtauld Gallery.

Making Art History Contemporary

Building Blocks: London
The Big O Gallery
Beyond Bloomsbury: The Omega Project

Sixth form students from Trinity Catholic High School engaged with art history as a means of investigating both traditional and contemporary art works from The Courtauld Gallery and the Pipilotti Rist Eyeball Massage exhibition at the Hayward Gallery. Working on details, scale and the idea of artistic influences, the students went on to create their own creative photographic responses to the exhibitions by creating series of photographs in groups.




view the project's website

For this project we worked with National Diploma art and design students from BSIX Sixth Form College in Hackney. The project was produced in response to the The Courtauld Gallery’s exhibition, FRANK AUERBACH: LONDON BUILDING SITES 1952-62.











Led by The Courtauld Gallery Public Programmes team, the students made several visits to the Courtauld exhibition to explore Frank Auerbach’s (born 1931) remarkable group of paintings of London’s post-war building sites. Auerbach was fascinated by the spectacle of the city emerging from the debris of the Second World War and combed London’s numerous building sites with his sketchbook in hand. Back in his studio he used these drawings to create paintings which he worked and re-worked over many months. The result was paintings with thickly built-up surfaces, more than an inch deep, of great energy and visual power.





















Click on an image to enlarge

Having learnt about the exhibition, the BSIX students visited major building sites across London, producing sketches and gathering source material as Auerbach would have done over 50 years ago. The contemporary building sites the students visited will shape the landscape of London over the coming years and included the Shard building site, located near London Bridge, and the Olympic site in Newham. Over a period of six weeks the students then produced various art works including those displayed here, taking inspiration from the sites they visited and aspects of Auerbach’s creative process, such as the working and re-working of an image to build up layers of information.


Images from a display in the Gallery Cafe of works by students from BSIX, made in response to the
Frank Auerbach: London Building Sites 1952-62 exhibition.

To download a copy of the Auerbach Teachers' Resource pack click below

FRANK AUERBACH: LONDON BUILDING SITES 1952-62 TEACHERS RESOURCE

With thanks to the MACE group for their kind assistance with the project.

A year 5 student committee from the Oasis Academy Shirley Park Primary Phase in south London worked with The Courtauld Institute of Art Public Programme Department during the spring and summer terms of 2011 to put together their own online exhibition.












Visit the online exhibition

To accompany the Beyond Bloomsbury: Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19 exhibition, The Courtauld Gallery education department worked with year 7 and 8 students from Cumberland School in Newham and artist Gilly Hatch to produce hand printed linen bags that were sold in The Courtauld Gallery shop. All proceeds from the bags were then donated to the art department at Cumberland School.

The Omega Workshops were established in 1913 by the painter and influential art critic Roger Fry, the Omega Workshops were an experimental design collective, whose membersincluded Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and other artists of the Bloomsbury Group.

Well ahead of their time, the Omega Workshops brought the experimental language of avant-garde art to domestic design in Edwardian Britain. They were a laboratory of design ideas, creating a range of objects for the home, from rugs and linens to ceramics, furniture and clothing – all boldly coloured with dynamic abstract patterns. No artist was allowed to sign their work, and everything produced by the Workshops bore only Ω (Omega) the last letter in the Greek alphabet.

To download the teachers pack for the exhibition please click below

Beyond Bloomsbury: Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19 Teachers' Resource

The students from Cumberland School visited the exhibition to learn about the Omega Workshops and the ideas the artists involved were exploring. The students then designed abstracted patterns which they cut into lino and printed onto linen bags.

The students worked in groups of 3 or 4 and all decisions were made collectively. Like the Omega Workshops these bags are also anonymously stamped, however the students bags are stamped with the letter A, the first letter in the western alphabet.

The bags were on sale in The Courtauld Gallery shop for over 3 months and in total raised £300 which was donated to the art department of Cumberland School. Each bag was unique, hand printed and individually numbered.

Click on image to see an enlargment of the bags.

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Animating Art History is a new widening participation partnership between The Courtauld Institute of Art and University of the Arts London. Twenty eight young people aged 16 – 19 took part in the innovative course which combines art history and animation.

We also have forged long term links with Hospital and Special Schools, to find out more about the various projects working with hospital and special schools click below:

Hospital and Special School Projects

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