Motivation and Meaning in Contemporary Art: From Tate Modern to the Primary School Classroom

‘Art Now in the Classroom’, was a joint venture between Goldsmiths College Education Department, Tate Modern and six Primary Schools in and around the London area (Sandhurst, Pilgrim’s Way, Hawesdown, Hawkesmoore, Lauriston and Myatt Garden.) It ran from September to November 2000, beginning initially with the placement of two Goldsmiths students at each school then continuing with school visits to Tate Modern, and four Fridays spent working in the classroom, culminating in an exhibition at Tate Modern where the children from all six primary schools got to see their own work publicly displayed. This paper is an account of the work produced by the children from Sandhurst Primary School and an assessment of both the educational opportunities it provided for the primary classes involved and for the Goldsmiths students involved. The aims of the project were to demonstrate effective ways to work collaboratively with contemporary art, to support the development of teaching strategies at KS2 and KS3 and to offer possible approaches for working with contemporary material in the classroom.