Museum Session and Whiteboard Resource

The Ashmolean Museum re-opened in 2009 and this session uses the new ‘Human Image’ gallery as well as portraits from within the art collection to explore the representations of the human form.

 

Session plan:

  1. Welcome – What is a portrait? Icebreaker activity using props to explore how clothing plays a role in constructing our image and how we feel about ourselves.
  2. Gallery based activity to investigate the geometric shapes that are the basis of many portraits and sculptures. Thinking about 2D and 3D.
  3. Looking for clues in a selection of portraits and sculpture and discovering how to read them.
  4. Clothes and pose, exploring the role that body language and facial expression plays in the composition of a portrait.
  5. Review activity. What would you want a portrait of yourself to look like? Think about shape, composition, pose, expression, clothes and accessories.

 

The above session plan, preparation and follow-on activities are downloadable here (pdf) >>

 

In addition there is also a downloadable Ashmolean Museum Portraits Interactive which consists of designed for an Interactive White Board – very useful for teachers. Here >>