You are Here | At home holiday activities

It’s been quite a term ... how are you holding up?

Here's a selection of new summer activity prompts and opportunities to join us LIVE to help keep your family creative over the holidays. They are inspired by the idea 'You Are Here' - let's make art that celebrates our time at home, with the people we care about most.

My window

 

See

The artist created this painting based on art what she could see out of her window!

The Estate of Anne Redpath © Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture, Courtesy of the Artist's Family / Bridgeman Images

Make

Create your own ‘view-finder’ to capture what you see.

  • Fold a spare piece of cardboard in half and cut a wee square out of the middle.

  • Use it to focus on a detail in your home, or out of your window.

  • Take your time to draw what you see on a blank postcard, old receipt, envelope or piece of card.

  •  Add colour with paints, pencils or chalk - anything you have!

Share

On the other side of your drawing write a little story, inspired by what you’ve painted.

Start with the sentence:
One day I was looking out of the window (or whatever your painting zooms in on!) when all of a sudden...

Send your view to a pal, pop it through someone’s letterbox or leave it somewhere outside for a stranger to find.

My family

 

See

This is a sculpture of a Scottish poet called Jackie Kay.

© M A Snowden

Make

Create a sculpture of someone from your family AND a poem collage about them...

Poem: Think of one word that sums up what you think of this person. Cut or tear out the letters that make up your word using newspaper or magazines. If you don’t have any, write it out in fancy letters, or find things around the house that look like letters of the alphabet.

Share

If you don’t live with the person that you’ve made, send them a picture or leave the sculpture outside for them to find!

Make

Can you tell us a short story, from your year? It can be written in any way you like.  How about a poem?

Share

If you can, read it out loud and record it on your phone- we’d love to hear it.

We are looking for people to send us a story of 100 words or less about their year to be included in an exhibition alongside this bust of Jackie Kay. Can you send us yours?

Take pART

Artist Morgan Atkinson hosted a live Take pART Make-along on our Facebook page on 16 July.
During the broadcast, Morgan showed viewers how to make their families out of dough!
We're delighted to be able to share the broadcast with you here. In order to take part, you'll need:

  • 1 cup plain flour (gluten free is fine, too!)
  • 1/2 cup salt
  • 1/2 cut water
  • 2 bowls
  • 1 wooden spoon
  • (a tablespoon of vegetable oil and food colouring, if you want it to be coloured!)

... and something to wipe up any spills close by incase it gets a bit messy!

My front door

 

See

This is our front door.

It looks very grand but you are always welcome to come inside and have a nosey around.

There’s a sign outside that says ‘Everything is going to be alright’, by an artist called Martin Creed.

© Martin Creed, All Rights Reserved. DACS, London 2018

Imagine

The Gallery has lost its key.
Somewhere in your house is a key. It’s a magic key. It’s disguised as something ordinary, like a spoon or a shoe. Use your imagination.

You need to find the key to open the door. Look carefully, a battery could be a key, or a toothbrush, or your little toe... Once you have found it, you are ready to open the door.

Make

Use anything that you can find around your home to make your own door and imagine what could be behind it.
It’s a bit magic... when you open your door, you can see into the future...

What do you think the future looks like, feels like, smells like and tastes like?!

Share

How can you share your door and your portal to the future?

Can you take a picture of it and send it to a friend? Pin it to your front door, for others to see? Or post it through a pals’ letterbox?

Why not make a few doors and create your own street of the future!

Take pART

Hello! Are you sitting comfortably?... In this recording, storyteller Anna Lehr shares a tale inspired by what’s behind the door...

Iain Stewart

Tender VIII

Think

Does a portrait of someone need to show their face?
What does someone’s hands tell you about them? Are they rough or smooth, do they wear jewellery, have tattoos or paint their nails?

Make

Take a portrait of someone without showing their face. How can you tell it’s them? What could you include? Favourite clothes, or things? Where will you take it? Their house, where they work or go to school?  

Share

We are looking for people to send us a portrait from this year to be included in an exhibition alongside Iain Stewart’s photograph, Tender VIII. We’d love to see yours.

Samira Addo

Emeli Sandé, b. 1987. Singer and Songwriter

Think

What do you think the future will be like? What would you like to be?

Emeli Sande ‘always knew she wanted to be a musician’ but went to university to study medicine just in case being a musician didn’t work out.

Make

Can you write us a story or record us a message telling us who you want to be or what you’d like the world to look like in the future?  

Share

We are looking for people to send their vision of the future to be included in an exhibition alongside Samira Addo’s portrait of Emeli Sande. Can you send us yours?

My upside-down view
 
See

This is a painting called Red Roofs, by Margaret Morris Ferguson.

Turn it upside down. Which way is up?

© Margaret Morris Movement International Limited

Story

You are walking through your house. You’re feeling bored. The house hears you, and it starts talking.

‘Come and walk on the walls,’ says your house. ‘Come and walk on the ceiling.’

You sit on the ceiling and talk together:
‘What was it like here 100 years ago?’ you ask the house.
‘What will it be like in 100 years?’ the house asks you.

Make

Hold a small mirror, or camera phone upside down to snap your home from a different point of view, imagining that you’re walking on the walls and ceiling! Draw the shapes and angles that you find. Cut them out of any coloured or tissue paper and tape them to your window to create a new, temporary, street of colourful rooftop shapes, on your window.

Share

Can people see your new scene if they’re standing outside your house?

If not, send a pic to a pal and ask them for their upside-down view!

7 July 2020