Spielwelt German Parents Association is a not for profit organisation running children’s programs in German in Canberra
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Portrait Gallery Excursion 2021
The Monday/Tuesday GAP class thoroughly enjoyed their excursion to the National Portrait Gallery last week. We were pleased to be able to visit the Aboriginal Tent Embassy as well.
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We gathered outside the gallery at 9:15am and enjoyed our morning tea in the sunshine next to the sculpture garden.
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At 10am, our guides met us inside the gallery and after a briefing and toilet stop, we were divided into two groups and set off into the gallery for a special tour.
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We admired a beating electrical heart exhibit. There were 120 hearts and we tried to find the fastest flashing one and the slowest one.
The group I was with stopped to admire a self-portrait by Australian artist Ken Dunn. We talked about the colours and the iconic images.
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Then everyone got to try drawing their own self-portrait… BUT we had the added challenge of trying to do it with our eyes closed and not lifting our pencils from the page. Our results were quite gallery-worthy!
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Our next stop involved looking at different poses that people had chosen for their portraits, trying these poses ourselves and then creating a colourful pipe-cleaner figure that we could bend into different poses.
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After examining some other artworks, we created a collaborative work: everyone drew their favourite thing on some card and then we made a tower with the cards. Favourite things included lions, parents, snakes, rain, tall grass, family, and squiggly lines.
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We thanked our guides after the tour, and headed out to the sculpture garden to run off some energy.
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There were two long paths framed by short hedges which made great run ways, and an expanse of gravel which fascinated us too.
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Our next stops were a pool and the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, before we caught a bus home, all of which you can read about in the next blog….