VerbalEyes: finding a voice through art
VerbalEyes is Tate Britain’s schools outreach project. It gives young people the opportunity to explore visual and verbal expression using the Tate collection with contemporary artists. Over nine months, 360 children from five primary schools and one secondary school in the London boroughs of Newham and Westminster work with practising artists. Two classes from each school visit Tate Britain, investigate different elements of art and language and over the course of two weeks, create a final piece of collaborative artwork. The final pieces from all the projects are displayed in a special VerbalEyes Exhibition at Tate Britain, which is launched with a celebratory Family Day in May.
The focus for each project is developed collaboratively by the artists and teachers and each school takes part in a whole school teacher training day. Continuing professional development for teachers is a key part of VerbalEyes.
Participating schools '09-10
Newham:
- Earlham Primary School
- Southern Road Primary School
- St Angela’s Ursuline Secondary School & St Anthony’s Primary School
Westminster:
Participating artists '09-10
[This project] made me aware that you can really push the boundaries and there’s no limitation...
it really opened my eyes to what art is all about. 
- Teacher, Southern Road Primary
Family Day Film 2010 by Gordon Beswick Video Duration: 5m 51s
Tate Britain would like to thank the young people, the teachers, school staff, LEA advisors, volunteers and the artists for all their creativity and inspiration, enthusiasm and ideas, hard work and commitment.
Thanks also to Tate & Lyle for their generous support.
For queries about Tate Britain’s schools projects, please contact: Harriet Curnow, Curator: Schools Projects harriet.curnow@tate.org.uk 020 7887 3964
Other Years' Projects
