ARTPOST #14

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Followers of the Gallery’s Instagram and Facebook pages will be aware of some major transformations that the Gallery’s Education – or LEOTC – programme has undergone over the past few months.

First and foremost, we are delighted to welcome our new Educator, Jen Boland, to the team! Jen is a long-time educator and audience engagement specialist and has brought with her a passion for learning, creativity, process art, and discovery. Jen’s first week with us saw the country go into pandemic lockdown, but what could have been a frustrating start in a new role was transformed by Jen (and long-time Gallery Educator, John Neumegen) into a series of inventive video projects that were released under the title of art@home to inspire practical creativity for families in lockdown.

With little time for planning, John and Jen learned as they went and delivered activities using common materials that could be found on hand - usually in the recycling!

The engagement and response to these clips was terrific. We were delighted to receive images that families sent us of their children's creations and to hear how Kiwis overseas enjoyed streaming the DPAG into their lockdown spaces. There was also positive feedback from teachers who included the workshops in their online learning.

As we return to our core LEOTC business and welcome classes back to the Gallery, we are mindful that we have made new friends who look forward to making art with us. A new education website area reflects this growth as we widen our offerings to include Art@theGallery, Art@School and Art@Home and continue to share activities for families to enjoy and experiment with alongside us.


Noho ora mai, Tim Pollock
Public Programmes and Collection Manager
Dunedin Public Art Gallery

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