Awakening Curiosity for Schools 14 May - 22 Jun 2012
Awakening Curiosity: Schools exhibition & workshop programme
In celebration of Dublin City of Science 2012
Tickets are available to all schools at a reduced rate of €4.50 per child, thanks to support that has become available for this programme through our key funders.
Awakening Curiosity has been specially commissioned by The Ark to ignite children’s interest in art and science. A facilitated tour will take teachers and their class on an explorative journey through the exhibition, learning how science and biodiversity inspired the work on display. Discover floating nests built with materials scavenged from the city, see a suspended shoal of recycled metal fish, and investigate textile sculptures of coral, plankton and Irish marine life. School groups will also create their own species of butterfly in our digital painting installation and will meet some mischievous animatronic creatures who will react to the slightest movements. Each guided tour for schools is followed by a visual art workshop that takes an aspect of biodiversity as its creative starting point and seeks to develop the skills shared by artists and scientists alike: observing and asking questions.
Please note that we can offer an earlier finishing time for the 11.30am workshops and can be flexible on the class range offered.
The maximum capacity for the exhibition and workshop is 30 children
“Awakening Curiosity” is generously supported by:
The Arts Council
Dublin City of Science 2012
Department of Arts, Heritage & the Gaeltacht
Department of Education and Skills
Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government
The Environmental Protection Agency
The Heritage Council
Notice Nature
Shoal with artist Terry O’Farrell
Week 1: Monday 14–Friday 18 May
10am–12.00pm Junior Infants–3rd Class/11.30am–2pm 4th class–6th class
Your class will create original fish sculptures using mixed media and the moulding process. The children will discover what movement as a shoal of fish in an underwater world could feel like. The fish made over the course of the week will be added to create one giant shoal, which will hang in The Ark’s reception area, becoming part of the exhibition for the remainder of its cycle.
Tickets €4.50 no booking fee
To book call the box office on 01 670 7788
Connect with artist Terry O’Farrell
Week 2: Monday 21–Friday 25 May
10am–12.00pm Junior Infants–3rd Class/11.30am–2pm 4th class–6th class
In this creative drawing, mixed media and fun craft-making workshop, let Terry explore with your class the connections between living things and the world around us: how is a bee connected to a flower, a flower to grass, grass to a garden?
Tickets €4.50 no booking fee
To book call the box office on 01 670 7788
Magnify with artist Terry O’Farrell
Week 3: Monday 28 May–Friday 1 June
10am–12.00pm Junior Infants–3rd Class/11.30am–2pm 4th class–6th class
In this marine-focused workshop, you and your class will be inspired to create your own aquatic forms like algae and plankton using materials such as reclaimed plastics. This wonderful craft workshop will investigate the often unseen and microscopic plant life of the ocean, bringing this invisible world to the surface and to life.
Tickets €4.50 no booking fee
To book call the box office on 01 670 7788
Flock with artist Jole Bortoli
Week 4: Tuesday 5–Friday 8 June
10am–12.00pm Junior Infants–3rd Class/11.30am–2pm 4th class–6th class
Focusing on design and creation with a light smattering of improvised performance, your class will be designing wings, making a nest and choosing the sounds they would make if they could fly. Flock will inspire them to look at things that fly, hum, and roar, then question ‘What if you could fly? Would you rather be an insect, a bird or a man-made machine?’
Tickets €4.50 no booking fee
To book call the box office on 01 670 7788
Creep and Grow with artist Jole Bortoli
Week 5: Monday 11–Friday 15 June
10am–12.00pm Junior Infants–3rd Class/11.30am–2pm 4th class–6th class
In this drawing and 3D mixed-media workshop, design and create imaginative new habitats and life forms. Discover who and what lives and grows in our gardens, then imagine what a garden will look like 100 years from now.
Tickets €4.50 no booking fee
To book call the box office on 01 670 7788
Who Lives There? with artist Jole Bortoli
Week 6: Monday 18– Friday 22 June
10am–12.00pm Junior Infants–3rd Class/11.30am–2pm 4th class–6th class
This group workshop will require the whole class to come together to create a big 3D mixed-media landscape with branches, rocks, leaves, shells and discarded man-made objects. Using a huge range of materials from textiles to natural finds, let’s make a creature who’d love to come and live there. Will it camouflage or stand out?
Tickets €4.50 no booking fee
To book call the box office on 01 670 7788
Facilitated Tour For Afterschool Groups
Week 1-6: Monday Friday
3.30pm–4.30pm (tour only, no workshop)
For the first time, The Ark is delighted to offer an experience for afterschool groups (ages 4+) a facilitated tour of this exhibition for free.
Free entry
Advance booking is essential, contact our box office staff on 01 670 7788 or boxoffice@ark.ie for information.
Awakening Curiosity "Creative Self" opportunity
A free event for teachers
Mon 21 May 2012, 6.30-8pm
Teachers can enjoy an open evening at The Ark, including a guided tour of the exhibition with its curators, lead artist Terry O’Farrell and scientific advisor Sinéad Begley. This is a wonderful opportunity to gain an understanding of each installation from an art/science perspective while also meeting participating artists, The Ark curatorial team and hearing from our guest speakers: Dr. John Coolahan, Professor Emeritus at NUI Maynooth and Marie McLoughlin, President of Froebel College of Education. Please email boxoffice@ark.ie to reserve your place.
Curriculum Links
The programme will cover various strands of the primary school Visual Art and Science/SESE curricula, including: Living things; Environmental awareness and care; drawing; painting; construction; working with clay, fabric and fibre. Children will also have an opportunity to use a range of skills, including observing, questioning, investigating, predicting, looking and responding.
Resource packs for teachers
The Environmental Protection Agency has provided a selection of resources for schools on science and the environment.
The Natural Resources Pack
Teachers' Notes | Where do you stand? | Grow your own! | Wait your turn! | Food miles | How's the weather? | Euro Power! | Far from the Earth | Straw, sticks or bricks? | Fishy business!
The Nature Pack
Teachers Notes | Who Crawls There? | Feed Me! | Who Eats Who? | Sort It! | Watch The Birdie! | Animal Action! | Well Rooted!
The Environmental Care Pack
Teachers Notes | Treasured Map | X Marks The Spot | Plan A Fix | Make A Trail | The Smog Story | Zebra Mussels | Reintroducing The Golden Eagle | Voting With Your Feet | Educational Trails | Eco Club