Manchester Art Gallery

Volunteering

I have started volunteering at Manchester Art Gallery. As I want to be a primary school teacher, it is useful to help build up my experience and I want to see how children interact with the artwork in the gallery. The 'Family Activity Day', that I am volunteering with, likes to encourage parents/carers and their children to play together, promoting that being creative is not just for children, adults should join in too and engage with the artwork. When the children see the adults creating pieces of artwork, the children will model this behaviour.

In the first session I volunteered in, using different fabrics and materials, they were encouraged to dress up or make an object/person that was in the paintings in the gallery. Many of them liked to dress up together and pose in the style of the painting for a photograph, one woman and her child made a textile wall hanging, a group of children made animals from the paintings using the different materials and another group created a large imstallation on the floor, looking at the different textures in the paintings.

The adults and children all interacted together, working in groups and taking photographs of the session. I liked seeing that the parents/carers were having as much fun as the children and they were able to engage in their creative abilities. I enjoyed the volunteering and will be taking part in more sessions throughout the year.