7th February 2024
Saatchi Gallery Workshops
We would like to thank Daler-Rowney for sending us boxes full of amazing art resources, including big canvases, sketchbooks, paints and so much more!
Part of our Charity mission here at the Saatchi Gallery is to offer free tours and workshops to schools, home-educated groups and community groups. We were glad to be able to use the art materials for the workshops inspired by our ‘Season of Sculpture’ shows.
For our Season of Sculpture (15th of November 2023 - 22nd of January 2024) we engaged with more than 3,600 learners! 2,077 of those learners took part in our workshops and had the opportunity to create artworks inspired by our exhibitions. Thanks to Daler-Rowney, we had ample use, variety and quality of art materials and resources and this made the experiences of all participants immersive and creative.
These are just some of the groups that we had the chance to work with during the Season of Sculpture:
Home Educated Groups
Two of our home educated groups are entering the Arts Award this Year! The children used the resources and sketchbooks to note down their thoughts, ideas and keep track of the artistic progress during our workshops. The beautiful colourful glitter-paper that we received from Daler-Rowney was the perfect thing to use in the collage workshop. Similar to Christo and Jeanne-Claude's plans for their wrapping installations, the children of the groups cut the paper into different shapes to hide and reveal different parts of their images.
Age UK K&C
Age UK K&C is another group that visits us on a regular basis and did a series of workshops inspired by the current exhibitions. One of the highlights was the beautifully messy decollage activity, where participants used their big canvases, acrylic paints, and gesso to create unique abstract artworks.
Dialysis Centre in St. Charles Hospital
Our team visited the Dialysis Centre in St. Charles Hospital and encouraged the patients to make their own small sculptures, collages and protest signs. It was a beautiful opportunity for us to make connections with the patients and we were glad to see them engaged in a different activity each week.
RENA Initiative
Another group that we are lucky to work with is the RENA Initiative, a community interest company that exists to Recognise, Empower and Nurture Artists (RENA). For one of their workshops, we asked participants to think of a matter in society that they are passionate about and encouraged them to create their own protest sign. The ladies used paints and glittery paper to highlight their personal messages in the signs, and then we all experienced some beautiful moments of them sharing their thoughts and reflections.
Yves Klein collaborative artwork
Finally, a workshop that many groups loved was painting together with their friends, and using only BLUE colour! This was inspired by the artist Yves Klein, and his anthropometrie series of work, where he only used that colour. He even mixed his own hue of blue, which is called International Klein Blue.
We asked our participants to use brushes, painting spatulas and their own hands to paint on a big piece of paper, while listening to music and following the rhythm.