Join in online from home with our children’s workshops, devised by our talented artist educators. Suitable for all ages, though preschool children will require assistance from an older child or adult. There will be a new workshop every Wednesday #WednesdayWorkshop
We hope you have been enjoying our workshops. We’d appreciate your feedback, so please do let us know what you think by completing this short Arts Council Culture Counts survey
Watch the videos below or download worksheets for our most popular workshops so far:
Share photos of your creations with us by tagging us in on social media, or by sending photos directly to us through messenger or via email at info@thenewartgallerywalsall.org.uk We can’t wait to see what you create!
Winter Wonderland
Are you dreaming of a white Christmas? Why not make it a reality with our fun, creative workshop.
Raid your recycling to create a host of snowy paper decorations to bring seasonal cheer to you and your neighbours!
There are some wonderfully snowy paintings in The Garman Ryan Collection including Sally Ryan ‘Winter Afternoon, Walking Home’ and John Crabtree ‘Xmas Eve 1644’ which feature in the workshop video.
Film duration: 4 minutes 30 seconds
Petal Panels
Here’s a nice way to add a splash of floral colour as winter sets in.
Inspired by this colourful little oil painting ‘Flower Painting (Nasturtiums)’ by artist Sally Ryan, part of the
Garman Ryan Collection and displayed in the ‘Flower and Still Life’ themed room.
Film duration 4 minutes 30 seconds
Diwali Decorative Lantern
Make your own decorative lantern inspired by Diwali. Diwali is the Hindu festival of lights.
Diwali symbolises the spiritual ‘victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance’.
Film duration: 4 minutes, 20 seconds
Dancing Shadows
Create a dancing shadow puppet show. Inspired by an etching called ‘Baile Grotesco’ (Grotesque Dance) by Francisco de Goya. Part of the Garman Ryan Collection displayed in the ‘Illustration and Symbolism’ themed room. Grotesque Dance is a light-hearted and comical style of dance from the 18th century.
Film duration: 4 minutes 40 seconds
Mini Vegetables
Create a crate of mini vegetables. Inspired by painting ‘Turnips’ by Peter de Wint, part of the Garman Ryan Collection and displayed in the ‘Flowers and Still Life’ themed room.
Film duration 5 minutes and 40 seconds.
Cameroonian Cardboard Creation.
This fantastic, royal, wooden stool, from the Garman Ryan Collection, was made in Cameroon, which is known as ‘Africa in miniature’ for its amazing variety of landscapes and cultural diversity. The Bamileke people who made this are from the grass fields of Cameroon. And this stool would have been used by the nobility.
A king or ‘Fon’ will often be represented by animals such as the leopard you can see on it.
The workshop will also show you a great way of turning your 2-D drawings into 3-D sculptures, so come on, what are we waiting for?
Film duration 4 minutes 30 seconds.
Expressive Faces
Faces are great fun to look at and draw! Create your own striking portrait to explore different expressions. Inspired by Theodore Garman’s portrait of family friend ‘Roland Joffe’ (c.1950), part of The Garman Ryan Collection and displayed in the ‘Children’ themed room.
Film duration 4 minutes 20 seconds
Community Collage
Create a colourful collage to celebrate your community. Inspired by ‘A Sense of Black Community, Walsall 60s – 70s’ by Claudette Chambers. The artwork celebrates the experience of the Windrush generation that settled in Walsall in the 1960s and 1970s. To make this work the artist invited Walsall’s African Caribbean community to share family photographs with her – working together to make art is called ‘co-creation’.
The artwork was originally commissioned in 2005 for the Window Box space, to accompany exhibition ‘Back to Black: Art, Cinema and the Racial Imaginary’ and subsequently purchased for the Gallery’s collection.
Film duration 4 minutes and 45 seconds
Splatters, Blobs and Washes
Combine a pencilled portrait with a wacky watercolour to create a striking work of art. Inspired by artwork ‘Woman with a Blindfold’, 2016, a pencil, watercolour, ink and collaged drawing on paper by artist Rachel Goodyear. Part of the Gallery’s permanent collection. Works by the artist Rachel Goodyear were acquired following her solo exhibition ‘Catching Sight’ at the Gallery in 2017.
Film duration 4 minutes 5 seconds
Flower Fun Glasses!
Transform a pair of sun glasses into flowery ‘fun-glasses’. Inspired by oil painting ‘Window Picture in June’ by Theodore Garman (1924-54). Part of the Garman Ryan Collection and displayed in the ‘Flowers and Still Life’ themed room.
Film duration 3 minutes and 55 seconds
Whimsical Woodland Creatures
Make some Autumn animals from the things that you can find outdoors at this time of year, like; leaves, petals, seed heads, acorns and twigs. Inspired by the oil painting ‘Autumn Still Life’ by Theodore Garman (1924-54), part of the Garman Ryan Collection.
Film duration 3 minutes and 45 seconds
Sunflower Garden
Paint a garden full of beautiful sunflowers. Inspired by the watercolour and gouache painting ‘Sunflowers’, 1943, by Jacob Epstein. Part of the Garman Ryan Collection and displayed in the ‘Flowers and Still Life’ themed room.
Film duration 3 minutes and 45 seconds
Autumn Leaves
Create a colourful autumnal scene using wax rubbings from leaves. Inspired by the watercolour painting ‘Autumn Leaves, Epping Forest’, 1933, by Jacob Epstein, part of the Garman Ryan Collection and displayed in the ‘Trees’ themed room.
Film duration 3 minutes and 20 seconds
Portraits in Profile
Create a picture perfect portrait in profile. Inspired by artist Lucian Freud’s artwork ‘Portrait of Kitty’, 1948-9, part of the Gallery’s Garman Ryan Collection.
Film duration 3 minutes and 55 seconds
Sky Castles
Create a shimmering and twinkling mobile using tin foil and other recycled objects. Inspired by artist Lee Bul’s suspended sculpture, ‘After Bruno Taut (Devotion to Drift)’, 2013, part of the Gallery’s collections, purchased through Art Fund International. The artwork is part of our 20th Anniversary exhibition 20:20 – Twenty Years of Collection Contemporary Art, see the exhibition page to view a film about the piece (our Floor 3 remains closed at present – August 2020).
Film duration 4 minutes and 20 seconds
‘Tree-mendous’ playhouse
Build a cardboard tree-house from recycling and arty bits and bobs you have to hand at home. Inspired by the Trees themed room in the Garman Ryan galleries. What characters will you create to play in the tree-house and which toys will be invited to join in a swinging tree-house party!?
Film duration 4 minutes and 55 seconds
Rockin’ Robot
Create a robot automaton inspired by Jacob Epstein’s ‘Study for Rock Drill’, 1915, part of the Garman Ryan Collection.
Film duration 6 minutes and 50 seconds
Textured Silhouette
Make a textured silhouette portrait, inspired by the large mixed media work ‘Jungle Queen II’, by artist Hew Locke, part of the Gallery’s permanent collection. Currently on display as part of Floor 3 exhibition 20:20 – Twenty Years of Collecting Contemporary Art.
Film duration 3 minutes and 30 seconds
Cabbage Magic!
Experiment making natural ink colours using a red cabbage. Inspired by techniques used by artist Hannah Maybank, as well as by the pink and purple tones in her work ‘Hosts II’, part of the Gallery’s permanent collection, and currently on display in exhibition ’20 for 2020′.
Paper Bag Plinth People
Turn your home into your very own art gallery with these easy to make, cute ‘Paper Bag Plinth People’!
Make a portrait of someone you know, a character from your favourite show or search the Gallery’s collection on our website for inspiration – then make a plinth for it to stand on with its own descriptive label. You could even have a party to show off your creations, just like a Gallery preview!
Film duration 3 minutes 55 seconds.
Impressive Vessels
Make and decorate your own vessel using recycling and decoupage. Inspired by Chinese Glazed Pottery Amphora, from the Tang Dynasty (early 8th century) part of the Garman Ryan Collection.
Film duration 3 minutes and 30 seconds
Stencil That! Create an artwork by making and using your own stencils. Inspired by linocut ‘Blue Flower Pot’ by Trevor Allen, part of the Gallery’s permanent collection.
Film duration 5 minutes and 25 seconds
Cloud Nine
Observe the sky and create a cloud diary. Inspired by artist Jon Constable and his oil painting ‘Landscape with Clouds’, 1820-22, which is part of the Garman Ryan Collection.
Film duration 4 minutes and 45 seconds
Treasure Tortoise
Make a place for your treasures using an egg box disguised as a friendly tortoise. Inspired by a bronze tortoise artefact in the Garman Ryan Collection.
Film duration 3 minutes and 45 seconds
Mini Gallery
Create and curate your own mini gallery space, inspired by The New Art Gallery Walsall, designed by Caruso St John architects. See the accompanying PDF documents for the plinth template and artist-educator Kate Tilley’s selection of artworks from the Garman Ryan Collection or you could create your own unique pieces to display!
Film duration 4 minutes.
Collagraph Birds
Make a collagraph print using different textures from materials found to hand at home. Inspired by Georges Braque’s coloured lithograph ‘Birds in Flight’ 1953-55, part of the Garman Ryan Collection.
Film duration 3 minutes and 40 seconds
Salt Dough Sculptures
Make your own version of one of Jacob Epstein’s iconic busts, inspired by the sculpture ‘First Portrait of Esther with Long Hair’, 1944. Why not make a self portrait, or a portrait of one of your friends or family members too!
Film duration 3 minutes, 50 seconds.
Twigs and Twine
Learn to plait and make a twiggy hanging artwork inspired by ‘Umbilical’, 2016, a popular artwork by Michele Harris that is in our collection and exhibited as part of ‘20:20’ celebrating our twentieth year.
Film duration 4 minutes.
Outside Inside
Make a 3D theatre scene inside a tissue box! Inspired by Pierre Bonnard’s painting ‘La Seine à Vernon‘, 1919, part of the Garman Ryan Collection.
Film duration 4 minutes and 10 seconds
Arty Alien
Create your own Martian mate, using crafty bits and bobs to hand at home. Inspired by the sculpture ‘Alien‘, 1998, by artist Yinka Shonibare CBE. The work is part of the permanent collection, purchased through the Contemporary Art Society Special Collections Scheme, with lottery funding from Arts Council England, 1999. The work is included in exhibition ’20:20, Twenty Years of Collection Contemporary Art’, as part of the Gallery’s 20th Birthday celebrations.
Film duration 3 minutes and 55 seconds
Scrap Sculpture
Create a sculpture from recyclable materials. Inspired by the artwork ‘Theodore Garman: The sculpture of his son that Jacob Epstein never made’, 2009, Bob and Roberta Smith, for which the artist sourced spare materials from the Gallery and surrounding area.
Film duration 2 minutes and 10 seconds
Paper Butterflies
Create your own origami paper butterflies from different types of paper that you have to hand at home. Inspired by the artwork ‘Moths on a Blue Path’, 1963 by artist Michael Wishart, an artwork in our Garman Ryan Collection.
Film duration 3 minutes and 45 seconds
Frisky Fun!
Make a cardboard tube animal inspired by Jacob Epstein’s pet dog Frisky. We’ve provided a template of Frisky for you to print and colour, or, you can draw your own. See the ‘Gallery’ section on this page. Why not create different versions of Frisky, or some four legged friends!
Film duration 3 minutes and 45 seconds
Phuldhani
Create paper flowers to place in a vase. Inspired by the work of Birmingham based artist Nilupa Yasmin, whose new series of work ‘Phuldhani’ is on display as part of exhibition Too Rich a Soil and by works from our collection, Dod Proctor’s Spring Flowers and Theodore Garman’s Arum Lillies (Easter Flowers)
Film duration 4 minutes
Crowning Glory
Create a paper crown, cleverly constructed from interlocking triangles, to celebrate our 20th anniversary year. The New Art Gallery Walsall was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on the 5th May 2000.
Film duration 5 minutes
Slinky Inky
Have a go at making your own marbled paper using a similar technique to that of ‘Ebru’ or ‘Turkish Marbling’.
Film duration 3 minutes
Clay Creations
Try your hand at making your own sculpture of Frisky the dog using clay or another modelling material. Frisky was artist Jacob Epstein’s beloved pet dog, and the sculpture of Frisky is one of the most popular works with our visitors, in the Garman Ryan Collection.
Film duration 3 minutes and 20 seconds
Criss Cross Creations
Have a go at weaving with strips of paper to create a unique colourful woven pattern to integrate into an image or photo. Inspired by the patterns and ideas in artist Soheila Sokhanvari’s painting ‘The Guests’, part of our permanent collection and included in the exhibition ‘20 for 2020‘, The Community Gallery.
Film duration 3 minutes and 30 seconds
Curious Creations – Matchbox Art Gallery
Create your own mini art gallery from a match box and an art work to place inside it. Create one or many! You an search our Collections HERE to find art works to print out or copy, or you might want to make one of your own artworks.
Film duration 2 minutes and 45 seconds
Pattern Organic
Create a 3D sculpture to suspend, using a cardboard spiral. This workshop is inspired by the 3D relief petals found in artist Nilupa Yasmin’s photographic works, as well as by nature. Nilupa’s work is included in exhibitions ‘Too Rich a Soil‘ and ‘20 for 2020‘. Two works from the artist’s ‘Phuldhani’ series have been purchased for the permanent collection.
Film duration 3 minutes and 40 seconds
Rip Roaring Portraits
Create a portrait using collaged paper, inspired by the photographic portraits in exhibition Too Rich a Soil.
Film duration 2 minutes 45 seconds
Badge of Honour, a Saturday Playdate online workshop.
Create a colourful rosette in celebrations of an occasion. Make one or make many! Suitable for all ages, though preschool children will require support from an older child or an adult.
Film duration 3 minutes
