Intergenerational Art: portrait at Dulwich Picture Gallery

Rainy Monday afternoons in Dulwich might not seem inspiring, but spent in the Dulwich Picture Gallery (think of Rembrandt’s portrait of the girl at a window, and Gainsborough’s self-portrait), under the tutelage of a practising artist and the gallery’s education co-ordinator, Claire Fernando, the mixed company of the young from JAGS and the not-so-young plumbed creative depths they didn’t know they had.

The project was enormous fun to take part in, especially in the last two weeks when old and young alike got to work on dressing up in weird and wonderful creations; anything that could be stuck down was used, including the foil from the biscuit wrappings! After that week they shouldn’t have been surprised by the final week’s instruction: ‘Change your look to something you’ve always wanted, but have never had the courage to do. The decorated faces that resulted were quite bizarre, but good fun, and, as Anna Bradshaw comments, ‘gave us all a chance to unleash our inner rebel’.

This project is an example of just one of the many partnership schemes we have, linking JAGS with both local and international communities.

I volunteered my free Monday afternoon to participate in the Dulwich Picture Gallery’s new inter-generational project, titled the ‘Good Times’. Our introductory session unveiled what was in store for us over the next few weeks; we were to help elderly people engage and enjoy art. The idea was met with some apprehension from certain members of the group, insisting that they had forgotten all art that they had done, from what seemed like centuries ago in Year 9 and that their inability to draw would be an embarrassment.

We were therefore, greatly pleased to hear the next week from almost everyone taking part in the course that no one believed in their ability to draw accurately. Our first session involved a tour of the gallery, which had been specially opened just for us. It was surreal to be wandering through the Dulwich Picture Gallery with only ourselves and hundreds of celebrated paintings. We focused on the portraits by Gainsborough and Rembrandt, with the idea that they could be our starting point for the project theme “Big Heads: From me to you”. After discussion and considerable criticism, from some of the more straight-talking women, we headed back to the workshop to enjoy a well-earned cup of tea and a biscuit.

Over the following weeks the workshop became a lot more practical, from rubber drawings to water colours and Andy Warhol inspired pop art. Our ‘ability’ to draw was of constant discussion and at times Libby, the artist in charge of the workshop had to pull out all the stops to persuade us that we were actually capable of producing our very own ‘pièce de la résistance’.

We were paired each week with a new partner, so by the end of project we all knew each other well. Each of us heard a fair share of stories; from adventures to China and New Zealand, to the day to day life as a civil servant. I found myself talking to Effy on more than one occasion. Unfortunately, due to a recent stroke she had difficulty in remembering certain things and had limited movement in her hands. This however, didn’t prevent her from venting her opinions on the ‘inadequate’ taxi service, which was meant to bring her to the picture gallery every Monday, nor did it prevent her cheekily stocking up on biscuits before going home.

It’s hard to express my feelings for this project without conforming to a cliché, yes it was greatly rewarding and enriching. I think a way to sum up this scheme is Effy’s remark about the best part of the project in which she noted “the view from the window”. It was an opportunity to escape from work and to do something completely different, a chance to allow our imagination to run riot, and yes, an excellent opportunity to have a chat.  I think for both age groups it was a two hour time slot to do something out of the day to day routine, each group benefiting from the project in their own separate ways.

Sophie Hatcher, Year 12