Programmes
Ngā wheako mā ngā Akonga Kura Tuatahi / Primary and Intermediate School Lessons
All primary and intermediate school lessons are led by Gallery educators and take place in the gallery spaces, with hands-on activities in the Learning Centre when time allows.
The descriptions below indicate what you can expect from each session. Please note that some lessons can be adapted for your class age group and area of focus – simply chat with our team.
gbeducation@govettbrewster.com
06 759 0858

In the Todd Energy Learning Centre

Class with Gallery educator Chris Barry

In Mikala Dwyer's exhibition Earthcraft

Shadow play with Len Lye's work

Gallery educator Rebecca Fawkner

With Mikala Dwyer's work Earthcraft

With Mikala Dwyer's work Earthcraft

In the Todd Energy Learning Centre

With Mikala Dwyer's work Earthcraft

Educator Rebecca Fawkner with students in the Learning Centre

Kaiako Jess Marshall talks with students about tukutuku patterns

Fitzroy School and Len Lye's Fountain
Ngā wheako o te Wāhanga 2 | Term 2 lessons
Learning at the Gallery
What does home mean to me?
Until 19th June
Visual Art / Social Science
Y2 – 8, 90 mins
Discover how artists Areez Katki and Khadim Ali use painting embroidery, weaving and sculpture to share their stories of being forced to leave their homes and move to new lands. We visit There is no other home but this and consider what home means to us and our whānau. We explore symbolic ways of sharing our pepeha and stories of belonging. In the studio we create small bags from recycled fabric colouring and adding simple stitched symbols and marks to “take our homes with us”.
At school:
Find out about artists Areez Katki and Khadim Ali
Read stories about refugee life
Ask your family about your history/ whakapapa
Share a family recipe or cultural greeting
Create a class world map showing people’s connections
Practice your pepeha
Upcycle Art
Until 31 July
Visual Art / Sustainability
Y2 - 8, 90 mins
Len Lye was expert at inventing surprising ideas from ordinary stuff. Experience Rainbow Dance and Convolutions and learn about Lye’s approach to experimenting with materials. In the studio we get imaginative with recycling to create art with eco messages.
At school:
- How did Len Lye get inspired by nature?
- Class brainstorm how humans are damaging the earth
- List ways you and your whānau could improve your school or community’s environment and get started!
- Find out how others show kaitiakitanga.
Research Len Lye here.
What Dreams Are These?
Until 31 July
Visual Art
Y2 - 8, 90 mins
Tour Rainbow Dance and Convolutions and discover where Len Lye got his ideas. Experiment with Surrealist art making and poetry techniques then in the studio dream up surprising dye and resist costume designs for your own imaginary movie.
At school:
Find out about where Surrealist artists got their ideas – dreams, games and other automatic or random processes, give it a go at school.
- Discuss - Are dreams real?
- Make a Sunprint (cyanotype) photo experimenting with the shadows of objects.
- Draw or write combinations that show juxtaposition.
- Write a strange poem using Te Papa’s Surrealist exhibition website.
Introducing Len Lye
Ongoing
Science / Visual Art / Dance / Music / Technology
Y 0 - 8, 60 mins
What can we learn from Len Lye?
Experience the multi-sensory exhibitions Rainbow Dance and Convolutions through interactive activities adaptable to your students’ learning needs and level. Find out how Len Lye came up with his ideas and what made his art special. Then create your own Len Lye inspired artwork.
At school:
- Find out about Len Lye here
Hello Art
Ongoing
Science / Visual Art / Dance / Music / Technology
Y0 – 8, 60 mins +
We introduce students to the Gallery. Discover the many personalities of contemporary art and the creative processes behind them. Create your own quick artwork inspired by Len Lye and friends.
At school:
Find out about the Gallery’s exhibitions
Class brainstorm your ‘before’ and ‘after’ feelings about visiting the Art Gallery.
Pictures that Move
Visual Art / Science: Physical World / Technology
Ongoing
Y 5 - 8, 90 mins+
How did old school animation work? What makes Len Lye’s films still cool today?
We go to the flicks to discover how image, movement and sound are combined to create an illusion. Students analyse animation techniques and use gallery zoetropes (animation viewing devices) to create their own moving image.
See Rainbow Dance and Convolutions.
BYO your class video camera, phone or ipad to record students’ animations.
At school:
Google Slide: Len Lye Style Flip Book
Click below to view Len Lye films online:
Tusalava
A Colour Box
The Birth of a Robot
Free Radicals
Films supplied by Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision. Please respect the integrity of Len Lye’s artwork by not copying his films.
Download the Len Lye: Animation Resource
A compilation DVD entitled Colour Box: 19 Films by Len Lye is available from the Govett-Brewster Shop
Te Whare Taiao Environmental Learning
E ono ngā kaupapa Matua mo te tau:
Orokohanga / Creation stories, Origins:
- Len Lye Arts
- Ranginui me Papatūānuku
- Origins
Ranginui / Spiritual Realm:
- Spiritual World
- Karakia, Waiata
- Huarere / Weather
Papatūānuku:
- Physical World
- Climate Change
- Take Wenua / Significant Land
Te Waonui a Tāne:
- Ngā’ere / Forest
- Rākau, Rongoa
Tangaroa ki uta, Tangaroa ki tai:
- Ngā Awa, Puna, Roto, Repo /Rivers, Streams, Lakes, Wetlands
- Te Moana / Oceans
Te ira tangata:
- Kaitiakitanga / Guardianship
- Ko wai koe / Who are you
Tangaroa Ki Uta, Tangaroa Ki Tai:
Term 2 we focus on wai/water. Join Gallery educators exploring our local waterways through art, science and Te Ao Māori. We discover Taranaki artists who are kaitiaki of water and learn ways to be the same. Together we plan a project that can include exhibition tours or zooms, field trips and video doing tutorials. Ākonga share their mahi in school and beyond – please contact us to discuss options.
Wāhanga Tuatahi:
Our full immersion and bilingual programme focus on creating art relating to ‘Ko wai koe / Who are you’’. We explore our new exhibition There is no other home but this.
Kaupapa include:
Pēpēha: A way of identifying and introducing who we are and where we come from.
• We find hononga (connections) and create art that symbolises our Mounga, Awa, Moana, Marae, Iwi, Hapu and Waka. Discuss places and landmarks that we identify with or that are significant to us.
• We connect with our homeland and the vessel that brought our people to this land both tangata wēnua and tangata tauiwi.
Whakapapa: Whakapapa is genealogy, a line of descent from tūpuna down to the present day and links people to all other living things. Everything comes from somewhere. The story of where something or someone comes from is whakapapa.
• We explore family relationships and dynamics to create art works that complement our kōrero and findings.
• Gain an understanding of tikanga Māori relating to whakapapa.
Explore whakapapa stories such as Ranginui and Papatūānuku or Te Wānau Matariki.
Online Learning
Info
Create - Family Art activities online:
These quick, fun activities are based on Family Art sessions in the Gallery (10.30 – 12.30am Sundays), a selection are now available online to share in school or as links for home learning. Found in the ‘What’s on’ section of the Gallery website Create: Online Art Activities, Instagram posts, or as Google slides for classroom use.
Tai Moana Tai Tangata virtual tour:
Visit the Gallery’s website and take your class on a virtual tour of the monumental exhibition by Brett Graham (Ngāti Koroki Kahukura, Tainui) Tai Moana Tai Tangata. This virtual tour was developed for schools and aims to bring local history to life through art. Accompanying lesson plans available by request.
Learning in the community:
Info
Eco mural:
Tour New Plymouth's CBD murals with us then head up to the Gallery to design a school mural with an environmental message, or create chalk masterpieces in Huatoki Plaza.
Marae-based learning:
Gallery educators join in with classes at their local marae to learn about ngā toi.
Art at school:
Gallery educators visit schools to lead selected art lessons including Environmental sustainability – create group sculptures focusing on te Mounga and caring for water, and Art that moves – various learning activities inspired by Len Lye’s short films.
Ngā wheako mā ngā Akonga Kura Tuarua / Secondary School Programme
Secondary school visits to the Govett-Brewster are most successful when teachers and Gallery educators collaborate.
To inspire your programme, we can shape a lesson tailored specifically for your students from Year 9+. Selected exhibition themes are described by curriculum area and can be developed into a tour which includes worksheets, creative group activities or extended in the Learning Centre into workshops.

Shadow play with Len Lye's work

Elizabeth Thomson's work Ants Head 1993, detail




Brittany Glassey with her 2016 Top Art folio




Students and educator Chris Barry with WharehokaSmith's Kureitanga II IV




Educator Chris Barry and students with Amanda Gruenwald's paintings. Photo Sam Hartnett










Ethan, Shawn and Liam Matuku with Tom Kreisler's Old and New


Students with Jeena Shin's painting. Photo Sam Hartnett
Kura Kaupapa Māori / Māori Studies
Te Whare Taiao Environmental Learning
InfoE ono ngā kaupapa Matua mo te tau:
Orokohanga / Creation stories, Origins:
- Len Lye Arts
- Ranginui me Papatūānuku
- Origins
Ranginui / Spiritual Realm:
- Spiritual World
- Karakia, Waiata
- Huarere / Weather
Papatūānuku:
- Physical World
- Climate Change
- Take Wenua / Significant Land
Te Waonui a Tāne:
- Ngā’ere / Forest
- Rākau, Rongoa
Tangaroa ki uta, Tangaroa ki tai:
- Ngā Awa, Puna, Roto, Repo /Rivers, Streams, Lakes, Wetlands
- Te Moana / Oceans
Te ira tangata:
- Kaitiakitanga / Guardianship
- Ko wai koe / Who are you
Wāhanga Tuatahi:
Our full immersion and bilingual programme focus on creating art relating to ‘Ko wai koe / Who are you’’. We explore our new exhibition There is no other home but this.
Kaupapa include:
Pēpēha: A way of identifying and introducing who we are and where we come from.
• We find hononga (connections) and create art that symbolises our Mounga, Awa, Moana, Marae, Iwi, Hapu and Waka. Discuss places and landmarks that we identify with or that are significant to us.
• We connect with our homeland and the vessel that brought our people to this land both tangata wēnua and tangata tauiwi.
Whakapapa: Whakapapa is genealogy, a line of descent from tūpuna down to the present day and links people to all other living things. Everything comes from somewhere. The story of where something or someone comes from is whakapapa.
· We explore family relationships and dynamics to create art works that complement our kōrero and findings.
· Gain an understanding of tikanga Māori relating to whakapapa.
Explore whakapapa stories such as Ranginui and Papatūānuku or Te Wānau Matariki.
Learning Support Groups - Sensing Len Lye
Info
Interactive experiences designed for students in Learning Support classes. The energy and scale of Len Lye’s sculptures offer students an opportunity to express themselves holistically. Talk to the gallery educators to discuss visit options.
Social narrative for students unfamiliar with the Gallery.
Visit the Gallery website accessibility tab for further information.
Visual Arts
Info
Term 2 Len Lye exhibitions Rainbow Dance and Convolutions survey the diversity of Len Lye’s practice often linked to Surrealism. Includes sculpture, film, painting, batik, costume designs, poetry and photograms. The new exhibition
There is no other home but this artists Areez Katki and Khadim Ali use painting, embroidery, weaving, animation and sculpture to share their stories of being forced to leave their homes and move to new lands. Students explore how people keep their culture alive through art and language. Learning topics include ways to combine traditional and contemporary media and techniques, art that gives a voice to minority status groups, representing family history through art, allegory and storytelling through art.
Meanwhile Wellington photographer and billboard artist Chevron Hassett (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Rongomaiwahine, Ngāti Kahungunu) presents new work in the Gallery’s Open window. Hassett responds to the histories of significant colonial events and the reclamation of identity through themes of hope and resistance.
Talk Art Challenge
Ongoing
InfoCan your students say more about art other than whether they like it or not? This general introduction to the exhibitions gives students confidence and skills to analyse art through discussion and instant activities.
Media Studies
Ongoing
InfoHow did cameraless movies work? What makes Len Lye’s films still so cool?
Inspired by innovative approaches to filmmaking and the stimulating exhibitions, students deepen their knowledge of where film came from through a variety of hands-on options including zoetrope drawings, experiments with OHP colour projections and a ‘direct’ film workshop.
View Len Lye films online:
Tusalava
A Colour Box
The Birth of a Robot
Free Radicals
Films supplied by Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision. Please respect the integrity of Len Lye’s artwork by not copying his films.
Visit the Len Lye Centre Cinema
The Gallery’s state-of-the-art 62-seat cinema shows experimental film, arthouse and cult films and film festival programming. Special screenings can be arranged by appointment. Please contact Gallery educators for further information or find out what’s on here.
Direct Film Workshop
Inspired by Len Lye’s direct films, students use cameraless hand animation techniques to learn how to create their own whole class 16mm ‘direct’ film.
No cost - contact Gallery educators for details.
We can't wait to host you!

Gallery kaiako Jess Marshall and students with Maureen Lander's artworks

Learning about tukutuku patterns



Glow poi

With Para Matchitt's Whakapapa IV

With WharehokaSmith's Kureitanga II IV





Direct filmmaking

With Para Matchitt's Whakapapa IV

Kaiako Jess Marshall demonstrating
