How Graves Gallery is getting Sheffield's school children to pick up their paintbrushes
Schools got the unique opportunity to select the artwork
Sheffield’s Graves Gallery has pledged to maintain the city’s access to its extensive collection during a temporary closure and relocation, with the opening of the ‘Pick a Picture’ project.
From October 31, Graves Gallery will close its doors to allow refurbishments to the building's heating system, after a council-led investigation determined it was irreparable following a significant fault in spring.
Founded in 1934, the gallery was created at the request of Sheffield businessmen John George Graves, who believed that Sheffield and its people deserved a nationally significant art collection in its city center.
Kirstie Hamilton, the director of program's at Sheffield Museums, said: “This is a real tool to kind of enliven Sheffield about that civic vibrancy, and the city center. But also to shout about Sheffield beyond Sheffield.
“We need to have a city center art gallery as much as Leeds does and Manchester does, that really shows the power of art and the power of culture in those communities ”
This project was launched by Sheffield Museums to unite one city primary and secondary school with artwork from its collection, which spans over 8,000 pieces.
Schools got the unique opportunity to select the artwork which Ms Hamilton said was intended to ‘be displayed in school for all of the teachers and subject areas to work with, to inspire them to get engaged’.
This year, Lound Junior School and Yewlands Academy were invited to take part in Pick a Picture, with their chosen artwork on display from this September.
The Lound Junior School picked ‘River Don After the Flood’ by Edmund Niemann (1865), as Year 2 learn about the inspiration of the artwork, the Sheffield Flood of 1864, this year.
Yewlands Academy chose ‘Rebuilding a Blast Furnace’ (1964) by Sheffield artist Jack Kettell, which GCSE art students will use as a primary source to create their own landscapes.
For three years Graves Gallery has also collaborated with Forge Valley School, to give sixth-form students the opportunity to work directly with teachers and museum curators to choose an artwork displayed in their school.
Ms Hamilton said: “A group of six have been curating an exhibition from the collection and they've been taking the works out to school.
So, rather than everybody having to come to the Graves Gallery, actually that exhibition's been displayed in Forge Valley School.”
The gallery is expected to move to a temporary interim exhibition in the Heart of the City in 2027.