Earlier this week, Bermuda-based British artist Abi Box held a private printmaking workshop for preschool students aged 3 to 5, inspired by her current exhibition Identical Days, which is on display in the BNG Project Space through to May 6.
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The children from Treetops Preschool enjoyed a look at the exhibition with the artist, who then showed them how to make simple prints from Styrofoam plates and ink.
The gallery was a hive of activity last week as the mid-term break brought in two camps, along with Bermuda’s primary and middle school art teachers for a day of professional development.
In the BNG Narrative Art Camp, ten students aged 8 to 12 explored the possibilities of narrative art making. Under the direction of Rehana Packwood, the Bermuda National Gallery’s Education Officer, students created comics and wrote stories from which they sculpted scenes with clay.
In celebration of Halloween, students also painted mini pumpkins inspired the Yayoi Kusama artworks displayed in the 2019 exhibition What’s Poppin: Pop Art and Its Influence.
With 3 of their teachers exhibiting in the 2022 Bermuda Biennial, Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation turned their attention towards the Biennial as the inspiration for their October camp. Students explored the exhibition with the BNG team and were able to learn more firsthand from featured artists and camp teachers Jahbarri Wilson and Cheryl Hastings, while also discovering work by KAF teacher Corrina Rego.
Students then worked on a variety of mixed media projects inspired by the artworks they had encountered in the gallery.
After a 2-year hiatus on school field trips imposed by Covid-19 restrictions, we worked with the Ministry of Education to devise a day of professional development for primary and middle school art teachers.
BNG trustee Mitchell Klink guided the group through a “slow looking” exhibition tour and Education Officer Rehana Packwood shared all of the online resources available for teaching, including BNG’s virtual walkthrough and downloadable kids activity books.
BNG endeavours to enrich the lives of all school children through free school tours, supplementary art classes, art camps and workshops, as well as at school presentations. For further information please contact education@bng.bm.
Are you looking to entertain the kids over the summer holidays? Escape the heat by bringing them in see our current exhibitions. Pick up a free BNG Kids Activity Book to encourage them to explore the gallery on their own.
Admission is free for children, $5 for adults (free for students, seniors and both BNG and NARM members). Bespoke activity books, aimed at children between the ages of 7 and 14, have been produced to accompany each of the three exhibitions on display, providing children with opportunities to explore the themes presented and learn new skills.
The theme for this year’s exhibition, A New Vocabulary: Past. Present. Future, asked artists to examine the seismic changes that have taken place since the last Biennial. The show brings together 43 local artists and presents a variety of media, including animation, drawing, painting, photography, sculpture and poetry.
The accompanying BNG Kids Activity Book is aimed at ages 11 to 14 and features a guided exercise on planning art, including composition, the elements of design, colour theory, and thumbnail sketching.
This exhibition focuses on a selection of striking black and white prints by local photographer Richard Saunders (Bermudian, 1922 – 1987). Saunders left the island due to segregation, moving to NYC in the late 1940s, where he went on to shoot for publications such as The New York Times, Life, National Geographic and Time.
The BNG Kids Activity Book produced to accompany the exhibition, aimed at ages 7 to 10, explores the principles of photography from how cameras work, to 35mm film and the focal point.
Henry Ward is a portrait artist. Hismethod and philosophy of painting are based on the techniques developed over the centuries by the Old Masters, however, stylistically, he seeks to blend the old with the new. In this exhibition he captures key figures in Bermuda, such as Dr David Wingate OBE, Miss Ruth Thomas MBE and Alan Burland.
In the accompanying BNG Kids Activity Book, children aged 11 to 14 are introduced to the effects of light and shadow and a step by step guide to representing the planes of a face.
Tours of all current exhibitions, for groups large or small, can be arranged with Education Officer Rehana Packwood (pictured above with kids from the AKSC and Youth Library Camps). Contact education@bng.bm for further information, or call 295 9428.
If your kids enjoy the activity books, please take a picture and tag us on Instagram. We’d love to see their work!
Recognizing the importance of art education in developing critical thinking skills, confidence and teamwork, Bermuda National Gallery with the generous support of Centennial Bermuda Foundation are offering needs based scholarships for the Art+Tech Summer Camp programme.
This year, the Art+Tech programme, which has been running since 2009, is open to 15 students per week. They will be based between the gallery and the BNG Education Satellite Space in the nearby Washington Mall, generously supported by Washington Properties. Each student will be assigned an iPad and Apple Pencil to work with.
To ensure that as many students as possible have access to the course, registration is limited to one week per student. They can choose from a variety of modules:
Animation: Students will learn the principles of animation and apply those to making short 2D animations.
Digital Painting: Students will learn colour theory and perspective as well as digital painting techniques.
Photo Editing : Using photography and photo editing techniques, this week will introduce students to digital collage and photobashing.
A selection of artworks produced in the 2021 Art+Tech summer camp programme can be viewed here.
Scholarships, which cover up to 85% of the cost of camp, are needs-based and will be assigned on a first come, first served basis. The cost of camp is $250 for BNG Family Members (or higher), and $325 for non-members. An annual Family Membership is included for non-members.
Membership includes unlimited free gallery access for up to 4 family members (2 adults and 2 children), invitations to exhibition previews and exclusive events plus priority access to all BNG education programmes.
For more information, and to register, click here.
For further information please contact Rehana Packwood, Education Officer on 295 9428 or email education@bng.bm.
Over the Easter holidays, we held a Narrative Art Camp for students age 8 to 12. Under the direction of Education Officer Rehana Packwood, students explored a variety of art mediums and learnt to make comics, create flipbooks, write and illustrate poetry, and more!
Click here for further information about BNG Education Programmes.
Looking to entertain the kids over the Easter break? We have a launched a BNG Kids Competition to encourage our youngest visitors to come in and explore the gallery.
Between now and April 10, every child who fills in a BNG Kids Activity book will be entered into a prize draw to win a Crayola Art Inspiration Case, a Family Membership to the Bermuda National Gallery, plus a BNG T-shirt, in a bundle valued at over $150.
The activity books can be picked up free in the gallery. Simply give your competition entry form to the volunteer at the front desk as you leave. Designed to encourage creative and critical thinking, there are 6 BNG Kids Activity Books for kids to choose from – one to accompany each of our current exhibitions.
The African Collection: Our People, Our Places, Our Stories: a showcase of the BNG’s permanent collection of African art, seen together in its entirety for the first time in 25 years.
Flotsam and Jetsam: The Cost of Modern Living: a photographic exhibition by Meredith Andrews, produced by BNG in partnership with KBB, which looks at the impact of single use plastics.
The Bermuda Biennial: A Retrospective: presenting a selection of artworks produced for the Bermuda Biennial which have been collected by the Bermuda National Gallery over the last three decades.
Testing Boundaries: In the Studio with Nancy Valentine and Christina Hutchings: this exhibition looks at the work of a mother and daughter and how they each forged a unique path as women and interdisciplinary artists.
A Source of Inspiration: St George’s Through the Bermuda National Gallery Collection: offering a unique perspective on life in St George’s in the 20th century, this exhibition celebrates the old town’s unique place in Bermuda’s historic, contemporary and artistic landscape.
Par-La-Ville Sculpture Park: Situated in the Queen Elizabeth Park in Hamilton, the Sculpture Park is a joint project between BNG and the Corporation of Hamilton which displays Bermuda’s National Sculpture Collection.
There are 2 prizes to be won – one for the 8-11 age category and one for the 12-14 age category. The winners will be notified on Monday April 11. Good luck!
For further information on this, or any of education initiatives, please contact BNG Education Officer Rehana Packwood at education@bng.bm.
We will be running an Easter camp from April 4-8. The theme of this year’s camp, for ages 8-12, is narrative art. Join us as we make comics, create flipbooks, illustrate poetry, and more!
Our camp will be limited to fourteen students who will be based between the gallery and the BNG’s pop-up satellite space in Washington Mall.
The cost of camp is $250, and a BNG Family Membership is required. Please e-mail our education officer, Rehana Packwood, at education@bng.bm for more information.
Recognising that children are one of the groups to have been hit hardest by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the majority of schools across Bermuda still closed to in-person learning, we have produced a selection of free BNG Kids activity books to accompany our current exhibitions.
Books can be picked up in the gallery, or downloaded from our website. Entry to the gallery is free for children. Families can also explore a range of artworks in the Par-La-Ville Sculpture Park, a joint project between BNG and the City of Hamilton.
Are you juggling remote learning? Why not pull the children away from the screen and bring them in to see The Shadow Land: Cape Dorset Prints from the Bacardi Collection. The exhibition focuses on prints produced by the first generation of full time artists based at Cape Dorset, in Canada’s Arctic territories, which is widely considered to be the epicentre of contemporary Inuit art.
We have produced a new BNG Kids activity book to accompany the exhibition to encourage children, age 11 to 14, to explore the artworks on display and experiment with print making. Stuck in quarantine? You can view the exhibition online and download a free copy of the activity pack to print off at home.
Click here to download the BNG Kids activity book.
This summer, over 60 students attended the BNG Art + Tech summer camp programme. Under the direction of new Education Officer Rehana Packwood, students aged 11 to 14 explored a range of digital art making techniques, from animation and photography to digital painting and collage.
Each armed with an Apple Pencil and iPad, students worked from a newly opened pop-up satellite education space across the road from Bermuda National Gallery, generously supported by Washington Properties.
To celebrate, we have brought together a selection of student works created over the course of the summer in an online exhibition which will run though to the end of September.
Digital art making was a new to most of the students who attended the Art + Tech summer camp. The programme, which ran over the course of the summer, was divided in a series of different modules which allowed the children to focus on a specific area of interest. These included digital art fundamentals, animation, photo editing & collage and digital painting.
We will be launching a Drawing for Animation after school programme this fall. For further information email education@bng.bm.
