Acton School meets Gainsborough's House

Pictured above are images from a visit made by Liam Beeton, Education Officer of Gainsborough’s House, to Acton Primary School a month or so ago. With Liam's help Gainsborough’s House organises a good number of these ‘outreach’ events, not just to schools but to pensioners’ groups and also to people with learning difficulties.

The Acton event was a great success. During two school assemblies children had the opportunity to see lots of different works by Gainsborough and express their own opinions about them.

A number of workshops were then held at which children created model landscapes using techniques that the artist himself is known to have employed. They used items such a sticks, stones and broccoli to set the scene, and then painted their own landscapes. Some children tried on replica costumes from the House and then painted their own self-portraits.

It seems that the event went down so well that pupils and teachers were inspired to actually visit the House, and an unexpected group of no less than 86 pupils arrived the following week. Luckily there were plenty of staff and volunteers on hand to show them around!