As part of October Gallery’s partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital and UCLH School, Engage Here has been delivering art classes that explore current exhibitions at the gallery, integrating them directly into the school's curriculum.
Since the beginning of the 2024–2025 school year, we’ve been holding art classes every Friday, both in the morning and afternoon. These classes are for different age groups of children currently attending the Great Ormond Street Hospital & UCLH School. The school plays a vital role in ensuring these children can keep up with their education, even while receiving necessary hospital treatment.
Given October Gallery’s close geographical proximity to Great Ormond Street Hospital, a collaboration has developed to engage the hospital's students with the diverse exhibitions they host. Our art classes draw directly from these exhibitions, using them as the foundation for our creative explorations. So far, we've delved into a variety of compelling exhibitions, including: Transvangarde: Luminous Matter, William S. Burroughs, Material Sensibilities, Nature Morte: Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga and Forest Figures: Alexis Peskine.
“
The pupils seem to love the classes. It is great to have global connections brought into their time in hospital which, as you know, can be quite isolating for them.”
Elaine, Assistant Head of Great Ormond Street Hospital & UCHL school
Each art class combines the content of the exhibitions with various artistic processes to help students deeply understand the works on display. This understanding then serves as a springboard for them to create their own artworks and engage in self-expression. Our classese have included exploring the connection between sound and visual art inspired by William S. Burroughs’ work, utilising paper marbling techniques drawing inspiration from Govinda Sah 'Azad's abstract pieces, creating our own zoetropes in order to understand the animation of Xu Zhongmin’s sculptures and implementing resist techniques using Susanne Kessler's architectural wonders as a visual reference.
Our classes need to be adaptable not only for different age groups but also for each student's daily situation, which can vary greatly depending on their medical treatment. This means the physical demands of the art processes can be adjusted to different levels, while still ensuring cognitive stimulation. This cognitive engagement is crucial in helping the students feel less isolated.
These classes offer more than just artwork for students and their parents to keep and cherish. They also provide invaluable opportunities for the children to be celebrated beyond the hospital ward, making sure they are not defined by their current circumstances. We’ve already seen examples of one student winning an award and others being selected for exhibitions at galleries. Despite this not being an original goal for our engagement, it’s welcoming to see students given opportunities to pursue their own ambitions through art.
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