Engage Explore Enrich
A new tour and workshop program is developed for the Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer exhibitions, providing the opportunity for your class to visit our gallery at least four times each school year. Our school programs are designed to incorporate core competencies and learning standards from the BC Curriculum and come with a comprehensive Teacher's Guide, available both in print and online.
Studies have shown that facilitated programs at art galleries can enhance students' creative and critical thinking skills, as well as impact them in four specific ways:
QUESTIONING // Students ask more complex questions
MULTIPLE INTERPRETATIONS // Students are more accepting of multiple interpretations
PHYSICALITY OF ART // Students are more likely to think about art in terms of its material properties
EMOTIVE RECALL // Students experience greater emotive recall of the program
OFFERINGS FOR STUDENTS + CLASSES
Teachers Guide
This is an in-depth booklet containing background information about the artist, exhibition, related vocabulary and suggested pre/post visit activities. It is intended to be a teaching tool used to enhance the students’ experience and to extend the learning outcomes covered within the gallery tour. The guide is provided to teachers prior to any scheduled tour.
Guided Tour
A guided tour is tailored to the needs and grade level of the group to ensure the most opportunities for engagement are provided. Tours target appropriate areas of BC curricula and are designed to challenge students through critical thinking, close observation, and thoughtful analysis of the works in the exhibition.
Art Workshop
This is a hands-on activity related to the techniques, concepts, and works of art in the exhibition. This is an opportunity for students to experience art making with a variety of media and reinforce specific concepts introduced on the tour. Activities range from drawing, painting, and printing to mixed media, sculpture, and collage.
Winter
School programs are available for this exhibition from Oct 5 - Dec 20, 2023.
Exhibition on view // Dick Averns Illuminating Language
Illuminating Language is a survey exhibition, spanning thirty years of text-based art by Dick Averns. Addressing a range of topics including social justice, conflict, natural resources, and mental wellness, Averns’ practice is multi-faceted. Audience engagement occurs on multiple fronts including public art, performance art, a stint as an official war artist, and social practice.
Not confined nor demarcated by media, Averns uses humor, guile, wit, and conceptual rigors to unsettle the status quo; quietly nudging at new ways of understanding. Performative video takes viewers inside election rallies held by Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton; stark photographs reveal life under harsh military conditions in the Middle East; and, a series of neon and backlit text sculptures provide an alluring and seductive, yet at times unsetling, reality of twenty-first century.
BOOKING OPTIONS
Self-Guided Tour (Flexible)
Available for all grades.
Looking for flexibility? This is a self-directed option for you and your students. Please book ahead of time to make sure we can accommodate your class as well as to receive the appropriate Teacher’s Guide to prepare for your visit.
$2 per student // Suggested donation
Tour Only (45 minutes)
Available for all grades.
Explore the current exhibitions, and engage with interactive activities in the Gallery spaces along side the gallery educator. Teachers are welcome to provide an in gallery worksheet or activity that accompanies the tour.
$2 per student // Suggested Donation
Guided Tour + Workshop (75-90 minutes)
Available for all grades.
Explore the exhibitions, engage with interactive activities in the Gallery, and create your own art inspired by the artwork on display.
$80 // $50 for Subsequent Visits
Customized tours and workshops are available and can be developed to explore topics and techniques that are particularly relevant to your group.
For more information and further questions Contact:
Sierra, our Learning and Community Engagement Curator
Email: education@vernonpublicartgallery.com
Call: (250)-545-3173
Booking Information
• All in-person tours can accommodate a maximum of 30 people
• All cancellations must be made at least 2 weeks in advance
• Supervisor-to-student ratio for preK-7 is 1:8, all other groups must have a minimum of one supervisors
• Payment is due upon arrival with Visa, MasterCard, cash or cheque (payable to the Vernon Public Art Gallery)
Homeschool and Alternative Learning Program rates are available for all school programs.
Please contact our School Programs Coordinator, Sierra, for details and to discuss options.