We recently reignited our partnership with London’s Courtauld Gallery, which had previously hosted Schools Connect Events before the pandemic. 10 of our London writers attended a ‘meeting of creative minds’ alongside the Courtauld’s Schools Learning Team.
Longstanding facilitator Francesca Beard led a morning of discovery. The aim: to enhance workshop practice by exploring how storytelling and creativity can be prompted by great works of art.
The morning’s collaborative, hands on, session saw First Story writers and the Courtauld Learning Team split into three mixed groups and explore three very different items in the permanent collection: a 14th Century bag from the Ilkhanid Dynasty of Mosul, Iraq; a pair of Marriage Chests: The Nerli Chest from 15th Century Italy; and Édouard Manet’s famous painting A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882). The emphasis of the day was to bring such artifacts to life, rather than feel it necessary to know every historical aspect of the piece.
After lunch in the Gallery’s Leon Kossoff Learning Centre, writers attended the powerful exhibition Claudette Johnson: Presence (click here for a virtual tour).
The Courtauld Public Programmes Learning Team are delighted to work in partnership with First Story connecting The Courtauld Gallery Collection and art history with budding young creative writers. Art history and art, just like writing, never exist in a vacuum and forging these connections with young people is at the heart of what we do.
Stephanie Christodoulou, Programme Manager Learning
Feedback from First Story Writers
What a treat to look at wonderful pieces of art in the company of knowledgeable people and think about how to apply what we learned to our First Story practice.
It was inspiring to see how the two artforms and education practices can really enrich one another, and to think about the different ways language, be that visual, written, or spoken, can be used creatively to tell an individual’s story.
I left with so many new ideas. It is always so incredibly enriching to get together with other artists.
it was a really fun, empowering and creatively inspiring day
It kickstarted the year for me!
Feedback from The Courtauld’s Learning Team
I came away feeling really excited for coming up witch creative responses to works.
It was inspiring to share similar and different approaches with people who are passionate about what they do.
I’ve looked at some of the artworks in new ways
Six Word Story Competition Winners 2023/24 