Tate Exchange Archive
2017-18
Where are we? Why are we here? Where are we going?
In 2016-17 we established a new gallery, the Thomas Tallis Centre for Contemporary Art, on the back field. We worked with students and colleagues in the Support Centre for Autism and Speech and Language Impairment (SCALI). We were interested in the way that working and behaving like a contemporary artist could have a positive impact on students' communication skills, habits of mind and sense of belonging. You can find out more about our 2016-17 project below.
Our plans for 2017-18 were built on the idea of communication. How does an art gallery inform its visitors about what is on offer? How does a school do the same? There are currently two phases to our project:
- Exploring a variety of contemporary art strategies for mapping the school building and, ultimately, Tate Modern itself.
- Developing a sensory garden adjacent to the Centre for Contemporary Art with the help of a range of community partners.
Class Photo:
Fun & games in the PhotoPedagogy playground
Our collaboration with St. Peter's School in Bournemouth, under the PhotoPedagogy banner, continued this year with a two day professional Development event for photography teachers during the Spring half term.
We began with a relatively simple question: How might we create a photography classroom over two days at Tate? Following feedback from colleagues in response to this blog post, we designed a CPD event over two days at Tate Exchange. We were delighted to welcome our class of photography teacher colleagues to Tate in February to experience a combination of practical activities, artist-led workshops, expert input from Tate curators, The Photographers’ Gallery and Autograph ABP and plenty of time to share our thoughts about teaching photography.
Members of the public were invited to drop in to the space from 12 noon each day to encounter continued professional development in action as the focus between student, teacher and artist was playfully blurred and a photography classroom was exposed like never before. They could observe teachers debating the important issues in photography, developing their own practice and collaborating on the production of new ideas, all the while embracing a spirit of experimentation and play. Visitors could take on the role of classroom observers and were be invited to provide some feedback about what they had seen.
You can read our write-up of the two days here and take a look at a digital version of edition #3 of our newspaper (given out free on the day). Thank you to all our workshop leaders for their expertise and generosity, to the team at Tate Exchange, to Simon Baker at Tate for his encouragement and support, to our amazingly talented student helpers, to our wonderful colleagues who took part in our experiment over the two days, to all those who contributed words and images to our newspaper and to WEX Photographic for their sponsorship.
Interested in our 2016-17 project? See below.
Members of the public were invited to drop in to the space from 12 noon each day to encounter continued professional development in action as the focus between student, teacher and artist was playfully blurred and a photography classroom was exposed like never before. They could observe teachers debating the important issues in photography, developing their own practice and collaborating on the production of new ideas, all the while embracing a spirit of experimentation and play. Visitors could take on the role of classroom observers and were be invited to provide some feedback about what they had seen.
You can read our write-up of the two days here and take a look at a digital version of edition #3 of our newspaper (given out free on the day). Thank you to all our workshop leaders for their expertise and generosity, to the team at Tate Exchange, to Simon Baker at Tate for his encouragement and support, to our amazingly talented student helpers, to our wonderful colleagues who took part in our experiment over the two days, to all those who contributed words and images to our newspaper and to WEX Photographic for their sponsorship.
Interested in our 2016-17 project? See below.
2016-17
The Thomas Tallis Centre for Contemporary Art
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Can we make an art gallery from a garden shed? Inspired by Bob and Roberta Smith's Leytonstone Centre for Contemporary Art - a shed in Bob's garden - we transformed an old plot of land with weed-infested raised beds and a rickety old shed into a garden and gallery for contemporary art. We were interested in the relationship between growing a garden, making art and nurturing a community.
A group of Year 7 and 8 students at Tallis, who are supported by the Support Centre for Autism and Speech and Language Impairment, are designing and making a sensory garden and a gallery over the next three years. As they both grow together we will document the process with photographs and film. We will experiment with a range of ways to make art about the garden, about growing and nature. Our new gallery will display work made by the students alongside other innovative installations. We're hoping parents and other community partners will get involved and that plants (and art) will be exchanged between home and school. |
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On 5th April 2017, we shared what we have learned so far with members of the visiting public in the Tate Exchange space on Level 5 of the Switch House. We invited visitors to engage in a variety of activities so that they could think about creating a gallery of their own. We were delighted that artist Bob and Roberta Smith was able to come along and join in the fun. We have since shared this experience and the importance of students being able to regularly exhibit their art work with colleagues at The Photographers' Gallery.
You can build your own art gallery and have your own art world ... Everybody has culture. Everybody should have their own art gallery.
-- Bob and Roberta Smith
Tate Exposed
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In 2016-17, we collaborated with St. Peter's School in Bournemouth on our first Tate Exchange project. Year 12 and 13 photography students from both schools spent a day in December 2016 at Tate Modern, documenting the building behind the scenes. They explored those parts of the building that visitors ordinarily cannot reach: store rooms, the staff canteen, offices, corridors and cupboards. What lurks behind those pristine white walls of the galleries? Who works in the bowels of the building? Where do staff go for a quiet cup of tea?
On 6th February 2017, the students shared their photographs with other photography students and members of the visiting public in the Tate Exchange space. They offered visitors the chance to make a zine from their images, engaged them in discussion about the big ideas in photography, encouraged them to think about examples of photographs in the Tate collection and use their cameras to capture their experience with the help of some imaginative prompts. Visitors' photographs were shared on Instagram (#tateexposed) and displayed live in the Tate Exchange space. |
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This project is an offshoot of the PhotoPedagogy website, a resource for teachers and students of photography in schools and colleges across the UK and beyond established in 2015 by Mr Nicholls, our Director of Arts and Creativity. Visit the PhotoPedagogy site to read about the project in greater detail.
