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gallery explorations

Gallery Explorations

Gallery Explorations is a project that was first run in partnership with leading financial firm UBS, who asked if Eastside could develop a project that would provide three of their world-wide operations divisions with some unique and exciting team building exercises, that would also add value to their community programme. There was one catch - the operations divisions were located in London, Hong Kong and Stamford (USA) and it was important that all the team members were able to participate equally in the same project. Eastside recognised how much business volunteers enjoyed being reading and number partners (visiting schools to listen to children reading and to help them to develop their literacy and numeracy skills) and just how much the individuals involved, got from the process of mentoring. Therefore we decided to try to replicate this in an arts context. After some thought, we invited business volunteers and young people from all three cities to visit their local art galleries together and to share their experiences. This provided a perfect opportunity for both the children and their mentors to share new experiences and to learn from one another. We developed training for the employee volunteers which was delivered internationally through telephone conferencing and by engaging the Community Affairs departments in each country. In London, Eastside paired up with a local primary school where the children had already been studying artists whose work was on display at Tate Britain and we decided to focus on these works during the UK part of the project. The year 5 children were very excited to meet the business volunteers from UBS' London office, and many of the children began to explain the things they had learnt to their mentors. The mentors in turn were happy to listen and point out interesting connections they were able to make and some even returned to the gallery the following weekend with their own children. At the end of the visit, each child created a personalised post card with the help of their mentors and wrote a short message to their counterparts in Hong Kong and Stamford giving the highlights of their visit. The children from overseas also sent postcards about their similar experiences. The project provided an unique and rewarding experience for both children and adults alike, as well as a new way to engage with art. Eastside is hoping to repeat the project involving other global companies that have offices around the world. If you work for a company that might like to take part in Gallery Explorations, we would like to hear from you.