Art Education Projects
Employed as a Specialist with Tate since 2005, the role has involved researching, creating, planning & delivering lectures, workshops, gallery resources and tours for the general public, Tate Members and private groups of all ages. In addition to this longer projects working in collaboration with Tate staff and outside partners include:
- Look Groups – Based on the ‘Book Group’ model. Successfully using a Heritage Lottery Fund grant in 2012, the Tate team set up an autonomous network of public, art focussed, interest groups across Cornwall.
- Talking Art – A regular series of workshops based on the current exhibitions, designed and created specifically for people who are Visually Impaired since 2015.
- Tate Town Project – Part of the Heritage Lottery Funding for the successful extension to Tate St Ives in 2018 specified better engagement of the gallery with the local community. To help with this I created a series of ‘Living Sculptures’ up and over which edible plants grew and were harvested.
- First there Is A Mountain – Delivering artist Katie Patersons vision to deliver a participatory artwork inviting families on Porthmeor Beach to sculpt sand into micro-geologies.
- Hayle Youth Project – Invited by Tate to work with this group of teenagers, to transform their Youth Club garden into a useable, growing space. Together we created a willow domes, living fences and lots of good memories!
- Beach Art Explorers – An ongoing project since 2017 to connect families during the busy summer period with art and Porthmeor Beach next to which Tate St Ives stands. The activities link current exhibitions with the natural landscape.
First There Is A Mountain
Hayle Youth Project 2017
Tate Town Project 2015
Asked to join as a tutor in 2015 to specialise in outdoor landscape courses based at the historic School of Painting studios in St Ives, Cornwall. There is now a yearly programme of courses, workshops, life drawing and events for which I research, plan, create and deliver both face-to-face and online.
“What worked for me was masses of individual attention and encouragement and positive support, the opportunity to sketch outside. These 2 days have opened doors I have been longing to open. Thank you Greg” – Debs Blyth.
Although the programme changes yearly, some highlights include:
- Painting The Coast Path – A 3 day course taking participants for a walk along the stunning coast path to collect visual information in a sketchbook, then returning to the studio to transform this into more considered pieces of work.
- The Sensory Landscape – A 3 day course designed to loosen up participants approach to landscape painting and give them a sense of being within a landscape, rather than just an observer of it.
- Make Your Own Artists Materials – A 3 day course giving participants the opportunity to make their own artists charcoal using fire on the beach, ink from oak galls and oil paint from earth pigments, then use the materials they have made to create their own landscape inspired works.
- Culture Camp – With students from the Nine Maidens Pupil Referral Unit a week long programme of art activities and gallery visits which gives them the opportunity to achieve the Bronze Arts Award.
Originally invited by Falmouth College of Art PhD Research Student Annie Lovejoy in 2008 to join her on a residency in the local coastal village of Portscatho. The success of this 3 year project in engaging the local community, re-introducing local crafts (willow coppicing and traditional crab pot making) and building bridges between local businesses and residents helped me to win the Unlocking Cornish Potential award in 2011.
A working relationship with Professor Daro Montag built on this, and led to involvement with environmental art research projects through the RANE research cluster and visiting lecturer status on the Art and Environment MA course.
From being an artist delivering workshops at their Environmental “Art In The Park” event in 2018 I was invited to run a series of sold out ½ day workshops for members of the public connecting them with the natural and urban landscapes surrounding the gallery.
Wanting to connect the public to some of their more inaccessible sites, The Cornwall Wildlife Trust contacted me and together we designed a series of popular ½ day environmental art workshops. They included:
- Making Fire From Sparks!
- Making Your Own Artists Charcoal
- Create Your Own Rucksack
- Wild Art! Using A Sketchbook to Explore Nature.
Designed to connect participants with the Natural world and their place in it. I offer to take individuals, or small groups, from the outdoor studio into the woods where we make together an object, using traditional hand tools and techniques, which is then taken home by the client. Participants can choose from the following objects to make depending on season and material availability:
Longbow
Arrows
Hurdles
Garden Gate
Chair
Stool
Shavehorse
Spoon