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Schools at Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery

The gallery caters for school excursion groups from K-12. Our education programs are designed to make original works of art accessible to a wide range of audiences. Visits to the gallery provide an opportunity for students to engage with new exhibitions, the sculpture garden and the permanent collection.

The gallery offers schools:

• guided tours of the exhibition and sculpture park
• education kits for selected exhibitions
• stage 3 exhibition activity sheets for all exhibitions
• activity sheets based on the collection, including the sculpture park
• teachers' professional development days
• practical workshop for students including Intensive HSC clinics
• access to artists in residence.

School Tours

Our Education & Audience Development Officer will introduce students to simple rules in the gallery and walk them through the current exhibition encouraging them to think about the visual cues used in the artworks on display, such as colour, shape, symbols. Tours of the sculpture park are also available.

Many teachers bring large groups of students to the gallery for the day and rotate activities between the gallery and the grounds, practising drawing and utilising our various worksheets.

Tours are free of change but must be booked two weeks in advance if possible. The School Excursion Form below can be used as a basis for risk assessment procedures.

Professional Development for Teachers

The gallery holds a number of teachers' in-service days annually to complement exhibitions. These sessions develop teachers' confidence in presenting informative and engaging lessons to their students while linking to DET curriculum or policy. The next professional development day works with themes of the exhibition Made in China, Australia, as they relate to the Cultural Frame, and notions of how cultural identity can inform the production of artworks. The day’s program will feature an artist from the exhibition and a representative from DET. They will be joined by Hunter-based art educator Carol Carter, who will present Contemporary Photomedia in China, the project for which she received the NSW Premier’s Contemporary Art Scholarship in 2011. Carter's project and resulting website (www.chinaphotoeducation.com) were developed last year through research and travel in China ‘to study the use of photomedia in contemporary Chinese art and its relevance to the critical study of contemporary art practice by senior secondary students’.

HSC Teachers' Day

FRIDAY 21 JUNE 2013
9.30am – 3pm
$75 per participant
Materials, lunch and tea/coffee included
Bookings are essential for these events.

HSC Clinics for Students

Each year, to coincide with our HSC exhibition, First Class, the gallery invites established artists to conduct practical workshops for year 10 and 11 students to assist them in developing a Body of Work. It’s a great way for students to connect with artists and their practice while gaining the kind of confidence only possible through working in such an intensive way over a full-day workshop.

2013 program

Case Study publications for HSC Students

To support HSC Visual Arts study the gallery has embarked on a series of case studies of well-known Australian artists. The first in the series of exhibitons is devoted to Anne Zahalka. The exhibition project will be accompanied by a comprehensive education resource prepared by Central-Coast based art educator, Kate Caddey.

Intensive Drawing Clinics

After many successful years of running these clinics, the gallery will again be offering intensive drawing with Jane Lander for Year 11 students in preparation for their Body of Work. The clinics are designed to strengthen student’s skills and confidence in artmaking.Numbers are limited to 15 for this session so book NOW.

FRIDAY 24 MAY & FRIDAY 7 JUNE 2013
9.15am – 3pm
$15 per session, per student
Materials included
Bookings are essential for these events.

Intensive Writing Clinic

After consultation with local secondary teachers, the gallery will host an intensive writing clinic exclusively for high band 5/low band 6 students, to move them towards high band 6 results. Students will be guided by Hunter based educator, Jennifer Florey, joined by an art theorist, through the process of how to best write for sections 1 & 2 of the HSC Visual Arts exam paper, while encouraging excellence in literacy. Numbers are limited to 15 for this session so book NOW. Teachers are welcome at no cost.

FRIDAY 31 MAY 2013
9.15am – 3pm
$15 per session, per student
Materials included
Bookings are essential for these events.

Bookings are essential for these workshops. The registration form is available for you to secure your place in the workshop.