If you prefer to lead the gallery visit yourself, the Schools Education Officer will be happy to discuss your visit and may be able to arrange teaching resources for you to use. It is recommended that teachers and group leaders make a preliminary preparatory visit to the National Galleries of Scotland.
If you bring a group to any of the Galleries, it is not necessary to know everything about the works on display. We suggest that you treat the visit as an investigation, using the clues that the artists have left, as well as the curators’ labels, to help you understand the works of art.
Investigating art offers an invaluable opportunity to develop transferable skills such as looking, describing, discussing and analysing.
Remember that there are few right or wrong answers about art. Rather than preparing worksheets, we suggest that you arrange generic questions, tasks or activities that could be used with any work of art.
Here are some discussion questions to help start your investigation:
- What do you see?
- What else can you find?
- What do you see that makes you say that?
- Does anyone see anything different?
- Do you like it? Why?
- How does it make you feel?
Other Ideas
- Bring pencils and paper. You could ask your students to choose a detail from a work of art and spend several minutes sketching it. They might also like to write about why they have chosen it.
- Choose a single work of art for the group to focus on for a few minutes. Ask each student to notice one thing, or ask one question, about it. Use these contributions as the basis for your discussion.
- Divide your class into smaller groups and set them a task, such as identifying three different landscapes or selecting their favourite work on display. Each group can report their findings to the class.
- Go on a sketching tour or a virtual scavenger hunt of the National Galleries.
On Arrival
When you arrive, the group leader must sign in at the information desk.
