Teachers Pack
Art turning left:
how values changed making 1789–2013
Introduction
Art Turning Left is the first exhibition to
examine how the production and reception
of art has been influenced by left-wing
values, from the eighteenth century to the
present day. The direct involvement of visual
artists in the political arena connected to the
social and ethical values of left wing politics
can be traced to the French Revolution, when
artists such as Jacques-Louis David granted
permission for their artwork to be reproduced
to support the Republican cause and versions
of David’s iconic image The Death of Marat
1793–4 feature in the exhibition.
Art Turning Left takes a thematic approach,
based on key concerns that span different
historical periods and geographic locations.
They range from equality in production and
collective authorship to the question of how
to merge art and life. The exhibition moves
away from the political messages behind
the works and claims about the ability of art
to deliver political and social change, and
instead focuses on the effect political values
have had on the processes, aesthetics and
display of artworks.
The exhibition at Tate Liverpool offers an
exciting multi-sensory environment for
students of all ages to investigate a wide
spectrum of works and media. Its range spans
four centuries of artistic production including:
painting, textiles, prints, posters, video
installation, performance, sculpture, wall
hangings and banners. It provides a platform
for thematic discussions and the potential for
cross-curricular activities including art, music,
history, geography, design and literature. The
thematic sections of each room ask questions
such as, ‘Do we need to know who makes
art?’, ‘Can art affect everyone?’, ‘Can art
infiltrate everyday life?’, ‘Does participation
deliver equality?’ and ‘How can art speak with
a collective voice?’
This pack focuses on five key works from
the exhibition and is designed to support
teachers and more advanced students
planning a visit to the exhibition. It includes
points for discussion and suggested activities
for use in the gallery or classroom. It also
includes information on The Office of
Useful Art, a working office located in the
2 Teachers Pack Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making 1789–2013
exhibition offering programmed and drop in
opportunities to discuss, debate and question
art’s purpose and value and an invitation
to join the Useful Art Association. The pack
has been designed for you to download and
either print or project in the classroom.
For further details about visiting Tate Liverpool
with your group see: www.tate.org.uk/learn/
teachers/school-visits-tate-liverpool
Email vsa@tate.org.uk
Call +44 (0)151 702 7400
A special school group price for exhibitions
is available if you book and pay at least two
weeks in advance.
Contents
Jacques-Louis David
The Death of Marat 1793–4
4
maximilien luce
L’aciérie 1894
7
Julian Trevelyan
Rubbish May be Shot Here 1937
9
Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane
Folk Archive 2000–2006
12
Ruth Ewan
A Jukebox of People Trying to Change the World
(ongoing archive since 2003)
14
THE Office of Useful Art
17
Related Events
18
3 Teachers Pack Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making 1789–2013
Jacques-Louis David
The Death of Marat 1793-4
Not by pleasing the eye do works
of art accomplish their purpose. The
demand now is for examples of heroism
and civic virtues which will electrify
the soul of the people and arouse
in them devotion to the fatherland’
– Jacques-Louis David
Created in response to the murder of political
theorist Jean-Paul Marat in 1793, David’s
painting became an iconic image of the French
Revolution. Reproduced and distributed with
the artist’s permission during the aftermath
of the assassination, it contributed to Marat’s
status amongst the republicans as a martyr
of the people.
David was an active supporter of the Revolution
both as an artist and as president of the Jacobin
club. His politically charged paintings such
as The Oath of the Horatii 1785 and The Death
of Socrates 1787 employed the visual language
of classicism in order to evoke the ideals of
the Roman Republic. David also designed
uniforms, triumphal arches and banners for the
Republican group and in his role of president
of the Jacobins he signed the execution orders
for over 300 victims of the guillotine.
4 Teachers Pack Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making 1789–2013
Jacques-Louis David, 1748 – 1825
The Death of Marat (La Mort de Marat)
1793-4 © Musée des Beaux – Arts.
Photo: C.Devleeschauwer
Jacques-Louis David
The Death of Marat 1793-4
On 13th July 1793, Marat, the political
journalist and leader of the Montagnards was
murdered in his bath by a young Royalist,
Charlotte Corday. On gaining admittance to his
apartment with a false letter of introduction
she produced a knife and stabbed him fatally
close to the heart. In death, Marat instantly
became a martyr of the Revolution. David was
invited to make arrangements for the funeral
and to immortalize him in a painting. He
began work immediately, drawing the corpse
while it was still in the tub and details such as
the green rug, sheet, wooden packing case
and pen were all authentically copied from life.
Marat suffered from a debilitating skin disease
and had become accustomed to writing on
a board placed across his bath-tub as he
immersed his body in a medicinal concoction,
with a bandana soaked in vinegar wrapped
around his head to ease his discomfort. The
evidence of Corday’s crime is also displayed
in the scene: the weapon and the note which
gained her access to the writer’s room (which
reads in English, ‘Because I am unhappy, I
have a right to your help’). However, David
transformed the brutal murder of an ugly
fanatic into the poetic demise of a martyr.
Rather than slumping backwards into bloody
water, Marat’s arm and head fall forward in
a pose that echoes many religious artworks,
such as Roger Van der Weyden’s Descent from
the Cross 1435 or Michelangelo’s Pièta 1498–9.
Following classical rules for proportion, the
painting is simply composed with a strong
emphasis on the vertical lines of the lower
part of the image. Almost half of the canvas
is empty space which encourages the eye
to focus on the sculptural form of Marat’s
lifeless arm draped over the side of his tomblike surroundings. Bathed in soft light, he is
glorified in death.
Copies of David’s painting were made by
his studio and prints were distributed as
political propaganda. Following the end of the
Terror, the original oil painting was hidden by
Antoine Gros, one of the artist’s pupils. David
himself was tried for his part in the Revolution
and died in exile in Belgium after the fall of
Napoleon. In 1886, his family offered the
painting to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in
Brussels where it is currently displayed. The
exact number of copies made is unknown, but
surviving versions exist in museums at Dijon,
Versailles and the painting in Tate Liverpool’s
exhibition is on loan from the Musée des
Beaux Arts, Reims
5 Teachers Pack Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making 1789–2013
Jacques-Louis David
The Death of Marat 1793-4
Activities
Find other examples of art used for
propaganda and to disseminate ideas.
How might Marat’s image have been
distributed if he had lived in the modern
era ?
Make your own artwork in response
to a current news story, using
different materials (eg pencils, collage,
photocopiers, digital, video etc) You
could incorporate the image into designs
for banknotes or labels for food and
drink in the style of King Mob’s prints or
Cildo Meireles’s Coke Bottles (also in the
exhibition).
Further Resources
Compare David’s painting to other
versions of this subject (eg Paul Jacques
Aimé Baudry, Charlotte Corday 1860 or
Edvard Munch, Death of Marat 1907, Pablo
Picasso, Death of Marat 1934, Vik Muniz,
Pictures of Garbage 2010). Describe your
personal responses to these different
approaches and talk about materials,
style and interpretation. Are all of these
artworks trying to communicate the same
message?
Discuss how the deaths of famous people
are represented in art. Find images of
Daniel Maclise, The Death of Nelson 1859–
64, Henry Wallis, Death of Chatterton 1856
or Sam Taylor-Wood, Soliloquy I 1998 and
discuss how the artists have represented
these subjects and why.
6 Teachers Pack Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making 1789–2013
Warren Roberts, Jacques-Louis David,
Revolutionary Artist: Art, Politics and
the French Revolution, University of North
Carolina Press, 1992
http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/giulialasen/entry/
visual_analysis/
http://redwood.colorado.edu/jesryan/words/
marat.pdf
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY2EqAKpKzg
(Simon Scharma’s Power of Art: Jacques-Louis
David, full Episode)
Maximilien Luce
L’aciérie 1895
‘I saw a factory: steelworks, black furnace
plant, and construction of machines. This
is astonishing.’ – Luce
Painted during a period of social and political
unrest in France, this work depicts a group of
steelworkers gathered around a blast furnace,
their muscular forms silhouetted dramatically
against its orange glow. The phrase ‘vers
la lumiere’ or ‘going towards the light’ had
connotations of liberty and democracy during
the Third Republic and Luce presents a vision
of collective productivity where his labourers
look towards a brighter future.
Maximilien Luce, 1858 – 1941
L’aciérie 1895, oil on canvas, 1160 × 890 mm
© Association des amis du Petit Palais, Genève, Suisse
Maximillien Luce was part of a group of
revolutionary artists in late 18th Century
in Paris who became known as NeoImpressionists (also called Divisionists or
Pointilists due to their painting technique
of applying dabs of pure colour to their
canvases). These artists adopted the scientific
approach to colour and light initiated by
Georges Seurat in order to achieve vibrant
dynamism in their paintings. The eye blends
colours rather than the artist on his palette.
Luce shared not only the radical painting
techniques of artists such as Paul Signac and
7 Teachers Pack Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making 1789–2013
Camille Pissarro, but also their political ideas.
An active socialist, he contributed illustrations
to anarchist publications and many of his
paintings addressed social and political issues
of the period.
Many anarchist artists were forced to leave
France in order to escape imprisonment and
Luce found a safe haven in the industrial
area of Colliure, Belgium. At Charleroi he
discovered a dull, monochromatic landscape:
‘As far as colour is concerned it is almost
absent.’ However, he found the ideal subject
matter for a Neo-Impressionist in the iron and
steel plant. Paul Signac who visited the factory
with him wrote: ‘There are multi-coloured
pyrotechnics, fireworks, sparks everywhere ...
I see here the reign of fire! Sunsets,Turners as I
see them in a dream with multiple lighting so
rather than the hard labour of poor men.’
Following industrial action in 1889, the
80,000 workers of the Charleroi area began
to achieve reforms to their working conditions
and pay. Luce depicts men who are physically
exhausted, but also strong and resilient. They
are not defeated by their work or the modern
machinery that surrounds them but they work
Maximilien Luce
L’aciérie 1895
with it to build a better future for themselves
and their families. Luce shared the anarchist’s
ambivalence towards mechanisation and
found it both frightening and beautiful. On the
one hand it was oppressive to the workers,
but on the other hand it was necessary for
alleviating hard labour.
By positioning his men with their backs to
us, the artist draws the viewer into the scene
and places us behind the barrier to witness
the dangerous but visually spectacular
process of pouring molten metal into troughs.
Working together, they are the heroes of the
Revolution.
Activities
Further Resources
Look at depictions of work in artworks of
Vincent Van Gogh, Jean-Francois Millet,
Ford Maddox Brown, Gustavo Courbet.
How do they compare to Luce’s depiction?
Vivien Green and Giovanna Ginex, Divisionism/
Neo-Impressionism: Arcadia and Anarchy,
Guggenheim Museum Publications, 2007
Look at examples of Pointillism or NeoImpressionism. Talk about colour, form,
light, brushstrokes etc. Compare and
contrast the paintings of Signac and Seurat
which show ordinary people working and
at leisure. Why do you think these artists
were revolutionary in their time?
Make your own pointillist paintings using
a cotton-wool bud instead of a paintbrush.
Describe your own utopian vision of the
future. Where would you live? How would
you live? Create a picture of your ideal
world perhaps as a collaboration
Research the processes involved at an
iron and steel foundry on YouTube. Talk
about how these metals have affected
our everyday lives.
8 Teachers Pack Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making 1789–2013
Corina Weidinger, Fatigue, Machinisme, and
Visual Spectacle in Maximilien Luce’s L’Aciérie
Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide, Vol 12,
Issue 2, Autumn 2013
http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/index.
php/autumn13/weidinger-on-fatiguemachinisme-and-visual-spectacle-inmaximilien-luce-s-l-acierie
Julian trevelyan
Rubbish May be Shot Here 1937
Julian Trevelyan, 1910 – 1988
Rubbish May Be Shot Here 1937
© Tate / The Bridgeman Art Library
9 Teachers Pack Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making 1789–2013
Julian trevelyan
Rubbish May be Shot Here 1937
Trevelyan was the first artist to be recruited
by Mass-Observation in 1937. This pioneering
social survey organization was founded by
Tom Harrisson, Charles Madge and Humphrey
Jennings with the aim of producing an
anthropology of the British people and giving
a voice to the under-privileged and often
ignored working classes.
One of the locations chosen for study
was Bolton, where Trevelyan recorded his
observations of ordinary people going about
their lives in photographs, water-colours
and collage. In his autobiography, he recalls
carrying with him a suitcase of scraps and
magazines, scissors and glue to his chosen
site. He would work on the spot, battling with
the elements and often attracting attention of
inquisitive passers-by. The locals commented
that he had caught the mood of the current
anti-litter campaigns in Rubbish May be Shot
Here and accurately conveyed ‘the worker
versus royalty feeling’ which the artist felt
may have been prompted by the headlines
incorporated into the texture of his industrial
landscape.
1937 was the year King George V died
and was succeeded by Edward VIII who, in
order to marry a divorcee, was forced to
abdicate in favour of his brother who was
subsequently crowned George VI. Most of the
cut-out heads in this collage are taken from
newspaper photographs of the coronation
or represent successive generations of the
royal family. The smiling child, however, is
taken from a Shredded Wheat advertisement
captioned ‘the food for general fitness.’ The
solemn grandeur of the factory chimneys
and cotton mills in the background provides
a backdrop of silent stability that contrasts
with the chaotic foreground where royalty is
mixed indiscriminately with domestic objects,
vegetables and surreal, primitively drawn fish.
Trevelyan contributed three paintings to the
International Surrealist Exhibition in London
1936, and this collage follows the classic
Surrealist technique of combining different
realities. Its mixture of cabbages and kings
is possibly a reference to Lewis Carroll’s
Alice through the Looking Glass, a favourite
source for many Surrealist artists. Rubbish
10 Teachers Pack Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making 1789–2013
May be Shot Here is revolutionary in both
form and content: hierarchies are subverted,
pomp and pageantry ridiculed. Trevelyan’s
selection of material for this collage is
perhaps more deliberate and humorous,
than his embracing of chance might suggest.
Snippets of seed catalogues that refer to
successful propagation and germination of
plants, the importance of fertiliser and good,
pure stock, provide an irreverent commentary
on the state of the monarchy in Britain. The
rolling heads may also subversively hint at the
fate of their French counterparts during the
Revolution.
Julian trevelyan
Rubbish May be Shot Here 1937
Activities
Discuss the use of collage, photomontage
and appropriated images in radical
political art (eg Futurism, Berlin-Dada,
Situationist International, León Ferrari
etc). Make your own collage or poster to
demonstrate against something you feel
strongly about.
Collaborate with your fellow students
to create a ‘Mass-Observation’ project
on your school or local area. Take
photographs, short films, make sketches,
write descriptions etc, in order to capture
the character of the location and its
inhabitants. Use local newspapers,
sweet papers, labels, bus tickets etc and
incorporate photographs, drawing and
other media.
Further Resources
Nick Hubble, Mass-Observation and Everyday
Life: Culture, History, Theory, Palgrave
Macmillan, 2010
Julian Trevelyan, Indigo Days: The Art and
Memoirs of Julian Trevelyan, Scolar Press,
1996
Dawn Ades, Photomontage (World of Art),
Thames and Hudson, 1986
boltonworktown.co.uk/trevelyans-suitcase/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVtGT6g4-64
(documentary on Tom Harrisson)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=esXMCzgd9e4
(Mass-Observation)
Find other examples in the exhibition of
artists using everyday materials such as
newspaper, labels and packaging in their
artworks. Discuss links between art and
everyday life.
11 Teachers Pack Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making 1789–2013
Jeremy deller and alan kane
Folk Archive 2000 – 2006
‘If Pop Art is about liking things, as Andy
Warhol said, then folk art is about loving
things’ – Jeremy Deller Jeremy Deller’s practice engages on a broad
level with popular and traditional culture,
blurring boundaries between artist and
viewer and incorporating a wide range of
media. He has collaborated with Alan Kane
on a number of projects that are concerned
with challenging distinctions between ‘high
art’ and ‘low art.’ Folk Archive is an authentic
visual record of contemporary popular
British culture described by the artists as a
‘celebration of subjectivity’. Compiled over a
period of six years, it brings together a range
of objects created by a cross-section of the
community and documenting diverse events
such as morris dancing, gurning competitions
and political demonstrations.
Jeremy Deller & Alan Kane, The Folk Archive (2005)
Snowdrop the Mechanical Elephant by the Clare Family, Egremont, Cumbria, 2004.
© The Artists. Courtesy British Council Collection
Kane described the curatorial role of the
artists in this work: ‘For me at the moment
it is as valid to bring things into a gallery as
it is to produce things to put in a gallery. It
is no different to picking up a paintbrush and
picking a colour. The decision-making thing
– what you show, what you like – is connected
back to being an artist.’
12 Teachers Pack Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making 1789–2013
Folk Archive was acquired by the British
Council in 2007 and has been made accessible
to the public in the form of a self-contained
touring exhibition and through an online
virtual exhibition. The latter was created in
collaboration with Deller and Kane and is
intended as both a catalogue of the works
and a visual guide that can be explored
online. See: http://www.britishcouncil.org/
folkarchive/folk.html
Jeremy deller and alan kane
Folk Archive 2000 – 2006
What is Folk Art?
• Folk art expresses cultural identity and
the shared values of a specific community.
It often reflects traditional art forms of a
specific group eg tribal, ethnic, religious,
gender etc.
• Folk art is primarily utilitarian and
decorative – produced for a purpose rather
than for purely aesthetic reasons.
• Traditional techniques and processes are
usually passed on and taught within the
group rather than through formal training
or education.
• Much folk art is produced anonymously and
independently of the fine art world. It is free
from influence of art movements, academic
theory or conventions such as perspective
– hence its characteristic naïve style.
Activities
Discuss the differences between ‘fine art’
and ‘craft.’ Find examples in museums,
books or online for your students to study
and compare. Think about the stories
behind the objects – who might have
made the object and why?
Create your own folk archive by inviting
all of your class to contribute a handmade
object, item of clothing, photograph or
ticket from an event. It could be from
any era, place or culture. Discuss how to
display the archive: a) in the classroom and
b) online.
Research other works by Deller and Kane.
What else have they made? Do they always
work together? Do they involve audience
participation? Can art be created by a
team of people or should it be made by
an individual? Discuss workshops and
collaborations in art (eg William Morris,
Omega, Picasso and Braque, Guerrilla Girls,
David Medalla etc).
13 Teachers Pack Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making 1789–2013
Further Resources
Jeremy Deller, Alan Kane, Bruce A. Haines,
Folk Archive: Contemporary Popular Art from
the UK, Book Works, 2005
Owen Hatherley, Militant Modernism, Zero
Books, 2009
www.britishcouncil.org/folkarchive/folk.html
www.jeremydeller.org/
www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A4055717
ruth ewan
A Jukebox of People Trying to Change the World (ongoing archive since 2003)
‘I am interested in viewing history not as
a remote past but as alive and connected
to the present and latent with ideas for a
possible future’ – Ruth Ewan
are forgotten. All of the songs address social
issues, some directly political and related to
specific subjects or events, whilst others are
vaguely utopian or carry a universal message.
Ruth Ewan (b 1980) is a Scottish artist who
often works in collaboration with groups
or individuals. Many of her works have
explored the power of sound and music in
disseminating radical ideas and addressing
social injustice.
Ewan describes her practice as being
‘conceptually led but socially realised’ and
audience participation and engagement
plays an important part in the creation of her
work. Visitors to the exhibition are invited to
browse through the pages of the index of the
jukebox, select and play the music of their
choice. Ewan also welcomes suggestions for
songs to be added to the collection (these
may be sent to her at jukebox@ruthewan.
com).
A Jukebox of People Trying to Change the
World is an ongoing archive of protest and
political songs, collated by Ewan and made
accessible to the public via a CD jukebox. Ewan
began this project in 2003, choosing a wide
range of material from different eras, cultures
and genres of music. Arranged in categories
such as, ‘Poverty’, ‘Feminism’, ’Peace,’ ‘Civil
Rights,’ ‘Ecology’and ‘Slavery’ are songs by
such diverse performers as Black Sabbath,
Billie Holliday, John Lennon, The Glasgow Song
Guild and The Tibetan Singing Nuns.
This work is concerned with the ways that
radical ideas are circulated through song and
how some become mythologised whilst others
As an ongoing project, the jukebox has
inspired a number of related activities and
events. Squeezebox Jukebox 2009, a giant
accordion, was created for the Altermodern
exhibition at Tate Britain 2009. Throughout
the duration of the exhibition, two musicians
played songs from A Jukebox of People
Trying to Change the World on a daily basis.
Also in 2009, the entire content of the jukebox
was broadcast live, day and night at the
Frieze Art Fair.
14 Teachers Pack Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making 1789–2013
Ruth Ewan A Jukebox of People Trying to Change the World
Ongoing archive since 2003 © Ruth Ewan. Installation view Badischer Kunstverein,
Karlsruhe 2012 Photo: Stephan Baumann, bild_raum
ruth ewan
A Jukebox of People Trying to Change the World (ongoing archive since 2003)
Tate Liverpool's young people's group, Tate
Collective have been working in collaboration
with Ruth Ewan on an artwork for Art Turning
Left, You feel like a threat, don’t you? The
title of the work relates to a conversation
between Tate Collective Liverpool and Ruth
Ewan, wherein they discussed how young
people use and relate to the spaces which
they inhabit. The artwork exists as a booklet
edited, designed and constructed by Tate
Collective, Ruth Ewan and design collective
Åbäke, available to pick up in the exhibition.
What are protest songs?
• Throughout history, songs have been used
in demonstration, to express commitment
to a cause, promote group solidarity and to
effect social change.
• Britain has a long tradition of protest songs
stretching back to the mediaeval period and
The Cutty Wren, an anthem against feudal
oppression dates to the English Peasants
Revolt of 1381.
• Protest songs cover a spectrum of musical
genres, including folk, gospel, heavy metal,
punk rock and hip hop.
• Examples of protest songs include Bob
Dylan’s ‘Masters of War’, John Lennon, ‘Give
Peace a Chance’, The Sex Pistols, ‘God Save
the Queen’, Paul Robeson, ‘Go Down Moses’,
Black Sabbath, ‘War Pigs’.
15 Teachers Pack Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making 1789–2013
ruth ewan
A Jukebox of People Trying to Change the World (ongoing archive since 2003)
Activities
Find examples where art and pop music
overlap (eg videos and cover designs
of Damien Hirst, Sam Taylor-Wood,
Peter Blake, Julian Opie etc). Discuss the
relationship of image and music in their
work – is art used to illustrate, advertise or
to enhance your experience of the songs?
Create an artwork in response to one of
the songs from the jukebox. This could
take the form of a drawing, painting,
collage or sculpture
Discuss: Can songs change the world?
Can art change the world? Have any songs
or artworks changed the way you feel
or had an impact on your life? Compile
your own jukebox of songs you feel have
tried to change the world. You could send
suggestions to Ruth Ewan for inclusion in
her ongoing jukebox project.
Further Resources
Ruth Ewan, Ruth Ewan, Kunsthal
Charlottenborg, Dundee Contemporary Arts,
2012
Dorian Lynskey, 33 Revolutions Per Minute:
a History of Protest Songs, Faber and Faber,
2012
Hardeep Phull, Story Behind the Protest Song:
a Reference Guide to 50 Songs that Changed
the 20th Century,Greenwood Press, 2008
http://www.ruthewan.com/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protest_song
http://rateyourmusic.com/list/SadEyedLady/
top_30_protest_songs/2/
16 Teachers Pack Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making 1789–2013
The office of useful art
10am – 5pm daily
Free entrance with your exhibition ticket.
Your ticket will be stamped so that you can
come back to take part in public events.
The Office of Useful Art is a working office,
within the exhibition Art Turning Left, which
promotes the new movement of Arte Util or
Useful Art. The Office is not an art installation
but a working room that acts as part of a
long term campaign to develop a renewed
understanding of art, as a process that plays
a fundamental role in shaping the world; to
have real effect in peoples lives, as part of
ordinary life and not as a rarefied experience
– in short it is art that comes up with answers,
not just questions.
The project has come about through a
collaboration with Grizedale Arts, based in
the Lake District, and Liverpool John Moores
University as part of an ambitious five year
project with the Internationale confederation
of European museums: The Uses of Art and
the Legacies of 1848 and 1989. Throughout
Art Turning Left, the Office will function as
a recruitment centre for the Association de
Arte Util (Association of Useful Art), thereby
growing an active community of people with
the ambition to support art that works to
effect change and is valued for what it does.
The office runs in parallel to the Museum
of Arte Util at the Van Abbemuseum in
Eindhoven, where the museum is to be taken
over my examples of projects that fulfil the
Criteria of Arte Util selected by the Advisory
Board of the Museum of Arte Util.
Through the work of the Office we hope to
re-animate the concept of art as a process
that humanises and enhances ordinary life
and, in turn, develop our institutions in the
same way. In this regard looking back to the
origins of the socially integrated art gallery
and museum and 19th century Mechanics
Institutes.
In Liverpool visitors to the office will be able
to learn about projects in the Museum of Arte
Util and suggest or showcase other examples
of activity that might been seen in this way
such as community action, design projects,
inventions, gardening projects, that could be
seen as art-like and making a contribution
to society. Our Office of Useful Art is a place
17 Teachers Pack Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making 1789–2013
where you can take part in workshops and
discussions, a place to read, listen, join in
debates or make things as part of your
exhibition visit or to come back to at another
time. You can join in and take part in growing
the Useful Art Movement with your school
or college group, as part of your community
group or as an interested individual.
We can even focus on a specific art work by
moving it into the Office for a time posing
questions such as ‘What is an art work useful
for?’, ‘Can you use art in everyday life?’, ‘What
difference can an art work make to your life?’.
If you are interested in these questions or
have questions of your own, then we would
like to hear from you.
There will be a series of programmed events
that you can come along to or you can
propose to hold an event in the Office. Please
contact Jessica.Fairclough@tate.org.uk for
more information.
events
Art Turning Left study day
and Teachers’ Workshop
Tate Liverpool, Art Dock Studio
Wednesday 27 November 2013
10.00 – 15.30
This is followed by a free session for teachers
16.30–18.30 with refreshments.
Free
AS/A2/BTEC students: maximum 4 students
per school
iJADE Conference 2013:
Art for Life: Race, Gender, Disability and
Class-Critical Discourses around participation
and arts education
University of Chester Research and
Innovation Centre and Tate Liverpool
Friday 15 November and Saturday
16 November 2013
Working with artist Alan Birch students will
have the opportunity to see our forthcoming
exhibition Art Turning Left and explore
a range of printmaking techniques in the
studio. Alan Birch is a printmaker with over
15 years experience working in schools,
galleries and creative organisations. He is the
print specialist at the Whitworth Art Gallery
in Manchester and is based at Prospect
Studios in Waterfoot where he runs regular
printmaking workshops. His workshops, using
specialist water-based printing inks and a
portable printing press, provide participants
with the opportunity to generate drawings,
explore the printmaking process, create
their own plates and print their final piece.
Booking is essential for both events via
website or Box office on 0151 702 7452
4th annual iJADE (international journal of art
and design education) and NSEAD (National
society for Education in Art and Design)
£150 (£130 NSEAD members)
Fee includes all day Friday and Saturday
Sessions, refreshments and lunch, but does
not include accommodation of evening dinner.
For registration and further information
please contact e.godding@chester.ac.uk
18 Teachers Pack Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making 1789–2013