Teachers’ INSET and CPD Workshops: Ancient Civilizations and Contemporary Culture

This term we are excited to relaunch our professional development programme for primary school teachers with two sessions linked to KS2 History topics on Ancient Egypt and The Kingdom of Benin.

Join us to explore how your school projects could be enriched by incorporating objects from the Sainsbury Centre collection. Participate in creative activities which could form part of a class visit to the galleries, and discuss potential approaches to working with online and handling resources.

Both events are FREE of charge, but due to limited capacity, must be booked in advance. Please contact us on scvagroupvisits@uea.ac.uk or 01603 591597 to reserve your place.

Visions of Egypt
Thursday 29 February, 1:30 – 5:30pm
Learning Studio, Sainsbury Centre, UEA.

In this session, artist and educator Rose Feather will share ideas and activities from our new Egypt-focussed Teachers’ Pack. Together we will explore how history is made up of multiple stories, rather than a single narrative or truth. We will consider the vast timeline of Egyptian history represented in the Sainsbury Centre collection, and also discuss the work of contemporary Egyptian artist Sara Sallam.

Hannelore Smith will present our ACE funded outreach project, delivered in partnership with Swaffham Museum, and to coincide with our Visions of Ancient Egypt exhibition. She will suggest how building on local links to Egypt, for example via the story of Suffolk-born explorer Howard Carter, can help pupils to connect with their study of this distant culture.

Associate Artist Rach Anstey Sanders will offer a taster of the Animal Amulets workshop which is available to school groups visiting the centre. Referencing the small hybrid figures in the gallery, we will explore what different creatures and key colours represent in Egyptian culture, to create objects of personal meaning.

Made in Benin
Tuesday 16 April, 1:30 – 5:30pm
Learning Studio, Sainsbury Centre, UEA.

In this session we will explore how a study of the ancient Kingdom of Benin can be brought alive by extending this to include the bronzes in the Sainsbury Centre collection. As well as being beautiful and inspiring examples of the accomplishments of master craftspeople, and reflecting ways of life within the Kingdom, the problematic provenance of these objects puts them at the heart of current restitution debate.

Writer and educator Hannah Jane Walker will lead a workshop encouraging you to explore with your pupils the entanglement of the histories of Britain and the Kingdom of Benin; to involve them in the sensitive, important, and fascinating issue of who the objects belong to.

Artist Ian Brownlie will lead a practical workshop which has been developed to give pupils an insight into the casting process with which the plaques were made. We will explore the patterns, texture, and imagery on the bronzes, we’ll discuss what these symbolise, and imagine how they looked in the Oba’s palace by creating a large printed fabric panel.

Both events are FREE of charge, but due to limited capacity, must be booked in advance. Please contact us on scvagroupvisits@uea.ac.uk or 01603 591597 to reserve your place.

Teachers at UEA Outreach partnership schools may apply for funding to pay for cover staff if required.

Refreshments will be provided.