CPD in London

As often as possible we like to rush up to London after work to attend the range of education based events for teachers at various galleries and museums, you can see our write ups of events we've attended, here. There's everything from CPD and INSET sessions, to workshops, curator tours, preview evenings and invites to private views, a particular favourite of ours as the cost of visiting exhibitions can mount up! The other day it struck me as I was hunting for some new things to attend that I have to look through each gallery site individually then navigate through their websites to find the education/teachers section, not always an easy feat! Wouldn't it be handy if there was a list somewhere that linked to all the specific pages? So here it is! Our run through of teacher events in and around London! We've got a mixture of free and paid events, we're always on the hunt for the free ones but if your department can spare the ££ why not get on some of the exciting paid courses out there! 

The Photographers Gallery

The photographers gallery is brilliant! It's worth getting on their mailing list as they send out monthly emails with links to various resources as well as information about upcoming events and workshops. I recently attended a INSET workshop session there (blog post HERE!) and we all make a habit of attending the private views for new exhibitions, it's always a great crowd, good talks, resources and a nice selection of free drinks! A nice chance for a semi-work based evening out with colleagues.

National Gallery
Offer paid inset sessions and it's worth signing up for the mailing list as every time there's a new exhibit they post out a teachers private view invite. They're normally for 2 people so if there's a few of you in your team you might want to all sign up! They also do free tours for trainee teachers, check the website for updates! Also they aren't teaching focused but they do some interesting events every Friday from musical performances to guided tours as part of the Friday Lates programme.

National Portrait Gallery
They have a good range of free events categorised by level. You can find details about the primary ones HERE and the secondary ones HERE. They do some really good twilight and day sessions, if you don't mind giving up a Saturday, which are free and practical, like life drawing and oil painting later this year, we're attending both!

Fashion and Textiles Museum
If you've got the ££ they do some interesting short courses aimed at students (I think) but if you need to brush up or your a beginner on illustrator and similar programmes they could be worth your while! They also do teachers evenings each time there's a new exhibition but again they're not free unfortunately. We've not been to any before but I'm gonna go and check out the upcoming 'Future of Knitwear' evening in April, I'll put a post up all about it after the event!

Saatchi Gallery 

They have a great schools programme and a good range of online resources for teachers. They also do teachers evenings - a chance to discuss work, go to talks, etc! They update details for the evenings, here. 

Tate 

They do some good free private views for the main exhibitions which can include talks, workshops and free resources so well worth a visit if you can make it! Although occasionally these are paid events, but it's much cheaper than it would be for a full priced ticket and it normally includes a drink! They also do a range of paid courses, again we've never been but if your departments got the budget, why not! I've only had positive experiences with any Tate organised days/evenings I've been to so I've no doubt they would be engaging! Portfolio Advice Day is an annual event which I would recommend to any year 13 teachers - you can take your students along too! I've posted about it previously! 

Whitechapel Gallery

Whitechapel have an interesting programme, which is a shame for all of us outside of Tower Hamlets as their CPD is only available to teachers in that area. They do offer some other stuff to us outsiders though! There's a pilot scheme running this year for Artist/Teacher co-mentoring, education open evenings and the famous first Thursdays - not teacher focused but a great chance to see some great art, events etc in the East end! 

Royal Academy 

Offer paid workshops and free tickets to private views - there's a max of 4 per institute! There's normally a curator talk and a chance to grab some resources, posters and extra info about the exhibition! 

V&A

They do a few different paid options, tailored INSET sessions and also the V&A Sanctuary, you can find out them here. There's also they Friday late's on the last Friday of each month (except December!) which are a great chance to see life performances, fashion, debates, one off displays and installations, special guests, workshops, DJS, late night exhibition opening and there's a bar and food too! 

We hope you've found the list useful and if you've got any other suggestions that we've missed out drop us an email or leave a comment below!

- Claire ❤

Review: INSET at The Photographers Gallery

Last Thursday I was fortunate enough to be able to attend an INSET workshop at The Photographers Gallery. The two-hour session was a workshop led session with designer/illustrator Karen Lacroix in response to their current exhibition Perspectives on Collage. The session aim was to introduce us to methods that would allow us to bring collage to the classroom. The session began with Karen Lacroix introducing her own incredible work and talking us through the different collage processes she uses within her own practise. We then moved on to creating our own work using the 'publication as process' technique (you can see my piece in the video below!). As if this wasn't inspiring enough Karen had also put together an additional worksheet with a range of different collage techniques to be tried - I won't go into detail but keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks as I'll be trying these with my own students and will be posting the results! As well as the workshop we were also given a wonderful, albeit brief, tour of the exhibits led by staff which took us through the key pieces in the exhibit, particularly those which related to the work we'd just been creating. If you get the chance to attend an INSET workshop at The Photographers Gallery I would jump at it! It was a brilliant event and I left feeling exciting and inspired about the prospects of using collage in the classroom!
- Claire ❤