B.

Students will take away an appreciation of art and consider a selection works that can cover a range of subjects, styles, media and purposes. The works viewed will be a selection from our current exhibitions. Students are expected to discuss and question what they see. Tours can be tailored to all levels.

Bookings essential.

Download our Gallery Guidelines below.

Our lessons often book up fast but you are always welcome to bring your students on a self-guided tour of the Gallery. We have a wonderful resources for the Te Wheke: Pathways Across Oceania exhibition which you can use to guide your students through the spaces. Check out all of our current exhibitions here. 

Please ensure you go over the Gallery Guidelines with your students so that they are aware of expectations in the Gallery spaces.

Email schools@christchurchartgallery.org.nz and let us know when to expect you. so we are able manage any clashes with events and other tours. 

Looking for things to do at home or school? Take a look at these worksheets and activities.

Pacific Printmaking
He Waka Eke Noa
Waka Huia

Explore our set of colouring activities based on works from our collection - check them out here. 

Have a go at curating your own exhibition with the works in our collection using My Gallery 

We would love to see your work when it's done - take a photo and send it to schools@christchurchartgallery.org.nz or tag us on social media!

Discover the wild new mural on our forecourt with your class from Kāi Tahu artist Xoë Hall which celebrates atua wāhine. Dancing across the bunker are Hine-tītama, the flashing red dawn, who becomes Hine-nui-te-pō, the night queen and receiver of souls in the afterlife. Mahuika, atua of fire, appears with her flaming manicure, shining light on the future and the past. Inside the Gallery students will compare Xoë's work with how other artists have represented atua before heading to our education centre and making an artwork which represents a Māori atua of their choosing to take back to school.  

Available until 3 July

Take a self-guided tour of our exhibition Te Wheke: Pathways Across Oceania. Student workbooks are available to support students while they explore the spaces - download a copy below or email schools@christchurchartgallery.org.nz to organise a printed class set.

All About Te Wheke

Wheke means octopus in te reo Māori. For many cultures around Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa / the Pacific Ocean, this resourceful, resilient, adventurous creature is a symbol of early voyages of exploration and migration from the Polynesian homelands of Hawaiki. Its long tentacles stretch out across the ocean to Tonga, Kiribati, Hawaii, Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and Aotearoa New Zealand. In this selection of art from the Gallery collection and beyond, Te Wheke offers a way to understand how we are connected across time and place.

In Aotearoa, conventional art history tells the stories of art that ties us to Britain and Europe. The art in Te Wheke looks in a different direction – from the Pacific outwards. Artists reach back to Polynesia and out into the world beyond, finding connections that are old and new.

Oceania is large and glorious. Like the octopus, it connects us along Pacific pathways with ideas of navigation, belonging and identity. Te Wheke opens up conversations about the journeys, tensions and connections that shape our past, present and future.

Available until 3 July

Your class will compare how artists have portrayed the land through a selection of landscape paintings on display in the Gallery. During the tour, students will consider why each location was chosen, how each work has been composed and explore how artists use light, colour and mark-making in their work. In the Education Centre, students will create their own layered watercolour painting of a local landscape to take back to school. 

Available until 3 July

Pushing a stone up a hill alone is no fun. Francis Upritchard’s arresting new sculptures, pottery and paintings – made with help from collaborators across Aotearoa – recall the solitary punishment of Sisyphus, but instead endorse the power of collaboration to meet even the most daunting challenges. Your class will take a guided tour of the space before heading to our Education Centre to create a sculpture of their own!

Available 2 April – 7 August

Students will tour the Gallery and explore a range of Pacific artforms including woodblock, Tivaevae and Tapa. During the tour they will make recordings of patterns and motifs used in the work they see. They will use their drawings to create their own Polynesian print. Students will be working individually and in groups during this lesson.

Available until 3 July

Take a guided tour of our exhibition Te Wheke: Pathways Across Oceania. Students will discuss a range of artists' work and explore ideas of navigation, belonging, identity and how we are connected across time and place. Students will then use a range of materials to create a pictorial map of their own identity and journey through the Gallery using collage, colour and pattern.

Available until 3 July

Māori Moving Image ki Te Puna o Waiwhetū champions film, animation and video art made by several generations of Māori artists. From emerging talent to celebrated favourites, this exhibition is a rich gathering of works that explore time, politics, language and place. Take a guided tour of the exhibition with your students, have a go at some karaoke and finish by making a thaumatrope (wonder turner) in our education centre!

Available from 4 June - 26 October

Take a tour with your class through the Gallery spaces and discover drawings and prints from our collection. During the tour students will learn about different printmaking techniques and make recordings which explore composition, line and mark-making. In the Education Centre students will use their recordings to create a dry point etching and print their work on a card to take home.

Available until 18 September

Top Art is an annual touring exhibition featuring a selection of the NCEA Level 3 portfolios that achieved Excellence in Visual Art in the previous year. Five streams are covered: design, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture.

Top Art provides an opportunity for secondary students and teachers to gain an understanding of what is required to achieve Excellence at Level 3. It also allows members of the public to see the high quality art being created in schools.

This year the exhibition will be held in the Education Centre at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū from 2-9 August

Book in a time for your class to visit – email Bianca van Leeuwen schools@christchurchartgallery.org.nz

To find out more visit - 

https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/ncea/subjects/visual-arts/top-art-exhibition/

https://www.facebook.com/NZQATopArt