Educational programmes for after-school art programmes

What do we imagine when we hear the word ‘garden’? How many colours and shapes can we find in it? Do any mysteries await us in a garden? Artist Aleš Lamr painted The Flying Garden as a memory of the childhood garden where he had many adventures. The programme includes an art activity and introduces children to the world of endless imagination, colours and shapes.

What is music? Does it express something? How does it affect us?
In his painting Jazz, artist Zdeněk Kirchner managed to depict subtle and energetic jazz music. This programme featuring music, movement and art activities introduces children to the close relationship between music and art and how they can influence one another.

How many different kinds of materials can be used to make art? What is friendship, and who is an angel for us?
Sculptor Věra Janoušková’s quietly standing sculpture An Angel for Vitík is an homage to a good friend of her’s. Janoušková gave trash from the junk yard new form and a chance at a second life. In this programme, students let themselves be inspired by her art to create their own angel using unusual materials.

Do we notice the people around us? Are we capable of recognising when they are happy or sad? What is charity? And what is the soul?
The artist Pavel Brázda explored the human soul and created colourful portraits of people. As we explore his painting Mrs. Charity, we will look for ordinary situations, identify big and small experiences, try to estimate interpersonal relationship and talk about colours.

Can we communicate without words? Without writing? Without telephones? What might we use to replace usual means of communication?
In her work, Adriena Šimotová depicts people and the human body using distinctive techniques. In this programme, students explore everyday gestures and moments while experimenting with how to communicate without words.

How do we imagine an ideal place in nature? Is it a meadow, a forest or a park?
Antonín Slavíček painted all kinds of natural sceneries at various times of year and with different moods. We will explore his autumn painting Veltrusy Park by talking, drawing and pasting while discovering the magic of our own imagination.

Who are the people that Josef Čapek captured in his paintings? Why did he paint them? Why do the figures look like they have been composed from geometric shapes?
In this programme, we will work with Čapek’s Organ Grinder to introduce students to the world of geometric shapes and people who have been less fortunate in life than others.

What can we learn from the monuments that we encounter on our city streets?
Ladislav Šaloun is best known for his monument to Jan Hus on Prague’s Old Town Square. By looking at the wide range of Šaloun’s works in the GASK collections, students will learn about art in the public space, try to interpret some of his sculptures, put themselves in the shoes of historical figures and express all this through their own sculptures.

Who is the mysterious Prague pedestrian? What ideas pass through his mind? What questions is he seeking to answer?
František Hudeček’s The Prague Pedestrian introduces students to the avant-garde and to art’s ties to literature, architecture, music, theatre, science and technology. Just like artists at the time, they can express their thoughts, ideas and imagination.

What is hidden inside a forgotten suitcase? Whose suitcase was it and into what era has it taken us? What does the lion symbolise? And the horse?
Participants will learn about the life of Emil Filla and experience his ups and downs. They will try to interpret his work and, through their own art, reshape it to give the depicted historical events a positive expression. What direction might history have taken and where would we be today?

How can a complex history be projected in a simple, basic form? Can the chosen material be a bearer of feelings? Can a non-specific sculptural form depict a specific event?
Participants will work together to identify the stories that may be embodied in the work of Olbram Zoubek as they explore his sculpture Shot to Death and attempt to find their own stories together.

How does Jan Palach’s act affect today’s generation of young people? Can it even be understood by contemporary society? How did Jan Palach feel as he prepared to take his radical step? How did society view him at the time?
With a view to the work of Jiří Sozanský, participants will try to answer these and other questions as they learn about the year 1969 and the events surrounding the death of Jan Palach. The goal of this programme is to encourage a reflection on the significance of historical events for society today.

What states of mind do we experience? Can they be expressed through more than words or facial expressions, but also through movement?
The artist Rudolf Němec tried to answer these questions in his work, creating actionist pieces that responded to the current state of his own mind. Participants will explore the meaning of Němec’s art and engage in their own artistic activities.

How did the events of 1989 change the lives of Czech artists? How did they affect their work? What exactly is resignation? How can it be expressed in a person? And in society at large?
Students explore the labyrinth of events stretching from 1968 to 1989 and learn how they affected the life of painter Květa Válová. Through her works and their own creative activities, they come to realise how every person can influence their path through life and how an active approach by individuals and their collaborative effort can lead to victory for all of society.

Is money evil? Are people good only when there is no money involved? What was the financial crisis of the 1990s in the Czech Republic? In his cycle The Great Financial Scandal, Vladimír Merta used the encaustic technique, American cents and Czechoslovak hellers to produce a unique critical reflection of capitalism and the new post-1989 social order. But time goes on, and so we will reflect on the bitterness that the collapse of banks left in our society and look at how things are changing among the youngest generation.

Who were and who are the Jesuits? What was the purpose of the Jesuit College?
The Jesuits are known for their relationship to education and their positive approach to interdisciplinary learning. Their missionary activities also had an important influence on the places where they were active. What would it have been like for them to find themselves in a new and unexplored country? Participants will learn about the Jesuit order, the Jesuits’ missionary journeys and their mission, which was focused primarily on education.

Life is short, art endures. This sentence has been eternalised in the stuccowork of the Jesuit College. The word ‘art’ is often understood only to refer to fine art and music, but we should not forget about theatre and literature. In fact, the Jesuits were inclined to use elements of drama in their education. Art should be perceived with all the senses, since everything relates to everything else. Participants will familiarise themselves with the most important elements of Baroque art such as chiaroscuro, optical illusions, movement, order, symmetry, dynamics and emotions.

But what if… The Jesuits believed in having a multidisciplinary foundation and were highly educated. Their strong faith in God and in science made them well-rounded individuals. One field in which they excelled was pharmacy. They applied their knowledge not only within their order but provided the residents of Kutná Hora with medicines created by experienced Jesuit apothecaries. On their missions, they encountered many new species of plants that they studied and recorded in their herbaria. What is medicine and where does it come from? Participants will become Jesuit pharmacists and come up with medical treatments.