Schools & Education
At The Base, we are keen to encourage children and young people, from Early Years up to KS4 and beyond, to engage with visual arts in any way that we can. We host high-quality touring exhibitions in our Gallery and community exhibitions in our Runway Gallery throughout the year that we welcome schools and colleges to come and experience. We also host artist-led workshops linked to the current exhibition.
On Mondays our Gallery is closed to the public to ensure education groups can have exclusive access to the Gallery space.
Visit our Gallery
We welcome classes of children from all year groups to The Base. Visiting an art gallery is an enriching experience that many children don’t get the opportunity to have. Seeing art in a gallery space can stimulate their imagination and create a sense of awe and wonder that can’t be recreated in the classroom.
During your visit, a member of The Base team will be with you to show you around the gallery and engage the children with the exhibition. This includes an activity to complete whilst in the gallery. We will also guide the children upstairs to visit our resident artist studios. If any of the artists are in, they will be happy to talk to the children and answer any questions.
Bookings are now being taken to visit our next exhibition Yinka Shonibare CBE: Ritual Ecstasy of the Modern. Email lornac@cornexchangenew.co.uk to find out more or book a visit.
Artist-led Workshops
On Mondays and Tuesdays, we offer a choice of artist-led workshops at The Base that are linked to the current exhibition. All materials will be provided, and children will be able to take their art away with them to show their families and remind them of their visit.
Bespoke workshops can also be created to link with a particular curriculum area or skill that you would like the children to experience.
Artists in your School
If you can’t get to The Base, we can come to you! Many of our artists are happy to carry out in-school workshops with groups of children or whole classes. Whole school collaborative projects are also possible. Click here for more information, or please contact us to discuss your school’s needs.
Learning Resource Pack
For our main exhibitions, we have a learning resource pack available for teachers to use within their own settings. This can be used following a visit to The Base or as a resource for those who can’t get to visit us.
SEN Groups
We believe that visits to our gallery and workshops should be available to everyone, and we are happy to discuss the needs of the children in your care and how we can provide them with an enriching experience.
Home Education
You can visit The Base Gallery with your family at any time when an exhibition is open to the public (see individual exhibitions for details). If you belong to a home education group and would like to visit us together, we can create a bespoke gallery experience with artist-led workshops linked to the exhibition and tailored to the ages and needs of your children.
Worried that your funds won’t stretch to a visit to The Base? Our aim is to engage as many children as possible with visual arts. We are happy to discuss how we can work within your budget. Some of our exhibitions are free for children or are offered at a reduced rate for school groups. We are also working on getting funding grants to support schools with their visits, including coach costs.
If you would like to book a visit, ask for more details or discuss a bespoke workshop, please contact Lorna Crowther, our Community Engagement Coordinator lornac@cornexchangenew.co.uk (01635 582666).
Exhibitions coming up for schools:
- Kurt Jackson: Oak27 September – 17 November 2024
- GENerate: Student Exhibition10 – 26 January 2025
- Yinka Shonibare CBE: Ritual Ecstasy of the Modern 31 January – 23 February 2025
- Wildlife Photographer of the Year6 June – 20 July 2025
“We all loved it. Everything from making their own art piece and seeing the beautiful paintings to meeting and talking to the artists. They had such a great time as a first experience of an art gallery.”
“Many of the pupils in the class I took to The Base had never been to an art exhibition. This trip allowed them to experience an art exhibition and view art in different forms. The children also LOVED to see the artists upstairs in The Base, lots of them spoke about this after the trip. It will definitely support our art teaching.”
“Absolutely fantastic experience. The whole event was really well organised. It was a fantastic opportunity, in terms of the GCSE Art curriculum, that allowed students to explore sources outside of the conventional artistic spectrum and broadened their perspectives in terms of gathering ideas from variety of stimuli to inspire their work.”