St Robert’s pupils exhibit at the National Gallery

A gondola race in eighteenth-century Venice was the inspiration, when budding artists from St Robert’s Catholic First School took part in a project that saw their work displayed in London’s National Gallery.

This year’s Take One Picture programme tasked children from schools across the UK to create an original piece of art in response to one of the National Gallery’s famous paintings, Canaletto’s A Regatta on the Grand Canal – and the Year 1 pupils at St Robert’s in Morpeth rose to the challenge.

Their project, which reimagined the painting as A Carnival on the River Wansbeck, complete with marbled ‘sludgy’ water and model gondoliers, was among just 35 chosen to be exhibited in The Roden Centre at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.

The school’s Art Lead, Alice Butler, oversaw the project, and visited the gallery to see the children’s artwork on show.

“On the opening night, I went to London to be there,” she said. “It was an amazing night. The gallery treat the artwork that the children produce as they would any work by a famous artist. It is beautifully displayed.

“The exhibition is open until 31 August. Throughout the summer, there will be art and craft activities for families and children at the gallery, and these will be based on the Canaletto painting that the project was based on.”

She continued: “The children were so excited. I have shown them lots of photos, and I am hoping that some of them will get to visit the National Gallery if they are in London this summer, so they can see their work on display.”

Take One Picture has become part of the art curriculum at St Robert’s, and this was the third time that children from the school had seen their work chosen for the National Gallery exhibition.

Mrs Butler added: “I am most proud of the fact that 362 schools took part, and only 35 were selected for the exhibition.

“This is actually the third time we have been selected, which is an amazing achievement.”