workshop information pack

Key Stage 1 & 2 School Workshop Information
Making Stories without Words!
FREE 21st,22nd,23rd,28th,29th & 30th June 2016 10am-12.30pm
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A tour of the exhibition ’Arms of the Portland Vase’ by Sarah Danays’ will encourage children to look
carefully using a variety of activity sheets. These will give the children clues about how to look at the work
and how to develop their own tastes and judgements. The sheets will focus on aesthetic awareness in
relation to colour, texture, pattern, shape and structure.
A practical session will follow, taking place in our refurbished Education Room.
The children will work with facilitator and writer Lisa Shipman to create their own storyboards based on
the stories depicted on the Portland Vase. By using storyboards as a focal point the children will create
engaging and imaginative comic strips featuring the heroes and heroines of Greek Mythology.
They will:
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Find out about the mythological stories depicted on the Portland Vase.
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Explore how using pictures can tell a story.
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Plan and create ideas in groups for a story inspired by the Portland Vase.
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Children will create their own storyboard/comic strip featuring characters and stories from the
‘Portland Vase’.
If you would like to book this workshop for your school please contact Dayle Green, Education &
Engagement Manager: 01909 501700 or [email protected].
Welbeck, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, S80 3LW
[email protected] / www.harleygallery.co.uk
+44 (0) 1909 501 700
Exhibition Information
Sarah Danays’ Arms of the Portland Vase
18th June– 14th August 2016
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Sarah Danays is a Los Angeles based sculptor and photographer whose work is inspired by gesture and
antiquities – notably broken ones.
To mark the opening of the new Gallery to house The Portland Collection, Danays has chosen to
celebrate the Harley family’s most famous purchase: The Portland Vase. Standing less than ten inches
tall, the deep blue Vase with white low-relief frieze is considered the world’s finest complete example of
Roman cameo glass and estimated to have been made during the reign of Emperor Augustus, between
27 BC and AD 14. Purchased by the Duchess of Portland in 1784, it has been on permanent exhibition
at the British Museum since 1810.
To create a template for the sculpture installation, the artist enlarged the architectural frieze of the Vase
by seven times to find they matched the vertical proportions of The Parthenon frieze. The resulting super
-minimal composition, which strips away the remainder of the Vase’s scene to isolate the arms of the
six adult characters, reveals a very contemporary gestural stand-off within the group.
Danays’ Arms of The Portland Vase are not facsimiles. Her figurative sculpture makes no attempt to be
anatomically correct – indeed, these mysterious three-quarter life size stone limbs are anatomical
anomalies.
By exaggerating the already remarkable physical proportions of the arms of the original Vase – where
complex foreshortening and perspectives achieve animation, form and depth on a gently convex surface
– and hand carving them in-the-round as full sculptures, her work celebrates the genius of its anonymous
makers and enables a re examination of the Vase’s secret.
To find out more about Sarah visit www.sarahdanays.com
Welbeck, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, S80 3LW
[email protected] / www.harleygallery.co.uk
+44 (0) 1909 501 700
Visiting Us
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This workshop is suitable for Key Stage 1 & 2 children. We welcome visits from school staff prior to the
workshop and the Education and Engagement Manager would be happy to give you a tour of the
exhibition and education facilities. Workshops are free, but places are limited so please contact the
Education & Engagement Manager to book a date. Bookings are taken on a first come first served basis.
Sessions are suitable for a maximum of 30 children, plus teaching staff.
There is ample coach or minibus parking in the car park. Please note we do not have a playground/picnic
area, however we do have an indoor space ( Education Room) for the children to eat lunch. If you would
like to stay for lunch after the workshop please request this on booking. Please bring along old shirts/
aprons for the children if session is practical. Risk assessments are available on request.
The Gallery is situated on the Welbeck Estate, with its entrance located on the A60 Mansfield Road,
approximately 5 miles south of Worksop. There is a large car park adjacent to the Gallery. The Gallery is
accessible for wheelchair users.
The Education & Engagement Manager will welcome your party at the Gallery doors when you arrive at
10.00am and take you on a tour of the exhibition before being guided up to our Education Room for the
workshop.
Welbeck, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, S80 3LW
[email protected] / www.harleygallery.co.uk
+44 (0) 1909 501 700