Experience the heritage of County Durham through the sketchbooks of Norman Cornish.

Come on a tour of the galleries exploring the works of Norman Cornish, focusing on his life, inspirations and themes. This will be followed by an opportunity to practice some of Cornish’s artistic techniques in a facilitated sketching workshop.

The whole visit will be led by one of the 4schools team.

Experience the heritage of County Durham through the wonderful sketchbooks of Norman Cornish.

To accompany a local artist GCSE study, develop your pupils sketching skills inspired by the works of Norman Cornish. The workshop will start with a tour of the gallery, giving the pupils a chance to explore the artworks and learn more about the artist. This will be followed by a facilitated sketching workshop.

The whole visit will be led by one of the 4schools team.

Come and explore the sketchbooks of local artist Norman Cornish, learn about the mining heritage of County Durham and complete our gallery challenge. We will then have a go at creating our own sketches of Country Durham for you to take away with you back to school.

The whole visit will be led by one of the 4schools team.

Use the stories in the art of Norman Cornish to explore how narratives work in art, and how we can express complex stories using simple shapes.

Begin the project with a tour of the Mining Art Gallery, particularly focusing on the Slice of Life exhibition which showcases some of Norman Cornish’s work. Using this tour, begin to explore the stories of individual people in his work.

On follow up visits in school, the team will build on the gallery visit to facilitate students in creating their own artwork in Cornish’s style using stories of people from their own lives – siblings, grandparents, neighbours – tell the story of someone important through art.

The work will be exhibited in the Mining Art Gallery learning room during an event for all the children that have taken part, a perfect opportunity to bring along the important people that have inspired their art.

The whole visit will be led by one or more of the education team and can be adapted to suit students with SEND.

Come on an interactive tour of the galleries and find out about the story of Norman Cornish, his life and work and handle tools of the trade.

Take part in a sketching workshop before making a collage using a variety of materials and textures to recreate a Norman Cornish Painting.

Facilitated by the Education team.

Option 1 – Exploring the extraordinary in the everyday

Guided visit to the exhibition followed by workshop response – writing

Noticing the everyday around us, describing these moments, capturing them through written word and visual images

Option 2 – Best in the world

Guided visit to the exhibition followed by workshop response – writing/drama

Exploring the skills and attributes needed to be the best we can be. Recognising the skills and attributes of Cornish through is journey as professional artist.

What are you super hero skills? What are your gold medal moments? Using a book created by Greenfield Community College students as prompts to stimulate response

Follow up options might be possible with a writer and dramaturg

In this workshop children will have a chance to look around the Norman Cornish exhibition, learning more about Norman Cornish, his life and his work. Pupils will then work with Illustrator Bethan Laker to create portraits in charcoal and sketch sticks by using expressive mark making, light and shade, measurement and line, inspired by the celebrated Spennymoor Artist.

This workshop can be used to help support any Arts Awards students who wish to ask Bethan Laker about her work and will also help to inform classes about portraiture work in general.

This will be a practical session and the group may wish to wear old clothes or bring old shirts and aprons to protect clothes.

All other materials will be provided.

In this workshop children will have a chance to look around the Norman Cornish exhibition, learning more about Norman Cornish, his life and his work. Pupils will then work with Illustrator Bethan Laker to create portraits in charcoal and sketch sticks by using expressive mark making, light and shade, measurement and line, inspired by the celebrated Spennymoor Artist.

This workshop can be used to help support any Arts Awards students who wish to ask Bethan Laker about her work and will also help to inform classes about portraiture work in general.

This will be a practical session and the group may wish to wear old clothes or bring old shirts and aprons to protect clothes.

All other materials will be provided.