Children use VTS for IAWATST Exhibition

The Office of Public Works (OPW) and the Department of Finance of the Stormont Executive (DoF) have been collaborating on organising art exhibitions since the late 1990s.  These exhibitions involve touring artworks from both public owned collections to venues throughout the island.  In recent years, the exhibitions have opened up into broader partnerships with other cultural organisations.

In 2016, the OPW and the DoF are delighted to collaborate with Dublin City Council, the LAB Gallery in the organisation of the annual touring exhibition.  This year’s project has involved working with the curatorial team from the LAB Gallery and with the children and teachers from the Central Model Senior School in Dublin who have been using the innovative Visual thinking Strategies (VTS) method of looking at art for three years.

The children from 4^th class in the Central Model Senior School visited the offices of the OPW in Dublin and the DoF in Belfast to select artworks for inclusion in the exhibition.  Using VTS, the LAB team led lively discussions with the children on their visits to the two art stores in Dublin and Belfast and also continued their work in the class room to select 20 artworks for the IAWATST exhibition. 

IAWATST ‘interesting and weird at the same time’ –  is the descriptive abbreviation written down by one of the children when making their selection for inclusion in the exhibition.  It is an intriguing title that reflects the children’s fresh and open responses through the VTS system to the historic and contemporary works in both collections.

The exhibition opens in The Printworks in Dublin Castle in November, then travels to the Alley Theatre and Gallery in Strabane in December.  It will then be on view in the LAB Gallery in February 2017.